The UN Global Compact - Accenture Strategy CEO Study

The 2016 United Nations Global Compact-Accenture Strategy CEO Study - the most recent in more than a decade of research - reveals a window of opportunity in the minds of the world’s business leaders. Since the last study in 2013, frustrated ambition has given way to optimism as CEOs see a mandate to solve societal challenges as a core element in the search for competitive advantage.

Eighty-seven percent of chief executive officers (CEOs) say the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent an essential opportunity to rethink approaches to sustainability, and nearly half (49 percent) say businesses will be the most important actor in their delivery, according to a new study by the UN Global Compact and Accenture (NYSE: ACN).

Launched today at the 2016 UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in New York, the study, undertaken by Accenture Strategy and titled The United Nations Global Compact-Accenture Strategy CEO Study 2016, Agenda 2030: A Window of Opportunity, finds business leaders accepting a mandate to take the lead in solving societal challenges. The survey of more than 1,000 CEOs, who are already committed to sustainability through their participation in the UN Global Compact, shows that they now see a unique opportunity to reshape their industries and accelerate progress towards the SDGs.

In fact, three-quarters of CEOs (75 percent) report that digital technologies enable more sustainable business models such as the circular economy.[nbsp] To accelerate progress, CEOs identify three critical requirements. First, an urgent need to expand coalitions and partnerships across business, government and civil society to drive greater ambition and achievement on key sustainability issues, including human rights, labor standards, the environment, and anti-corruption. Second, more action at the local level, working with national governments to develop and implement action plans to achieve the SDGs. And third, innovation in new digital technologies and new business models that can enable business to have a greater impact on global challenges.