SDGs Paving the Way Towards Market Leadership

The resulting research report by PwC titled PwC SDGs Survey Highlights for South East Asia October 2015 allows for a fresh perspective on sustainability from the point of view of citizens and corporate executives. Businesses can use the survey results to realign their goals more effectively by understanding the issues that are most important to citizens.

The SDGs cover the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, and comprise of 17 goals and 169 indicators. Businesses should recognise the potential impacts the SDGs can bring to the economic landscape, business marketplace and regulatory environment, because governments that adopt the Goals will formulate new regulation, incentives and strategies to support attainment of the Goals.

Key highlights from the report include:

• Businesses and citizens in South East Asia believe that identifying the SDGs relevant to each business is the top action point in response to the SDGs
• 80% of citizens say they are more likely to use an organisations' goods and services if it signed up to the SDGs
• 87% of citizens believe it is important for businesses to sign up to the SDGs, however, only 45% of businesses plan to assess their impacts on the Goals
• 97% of businesses have plans to address the SDGs in the next five years
• Taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts is not only high on the list of Goals that businesses can impact, but also what citizens think is most important