SDG Sustainability Roadmap

Level 2

Gaining traction

From Level 1, you’ve signed up to the SDG Publishers Compact and launched great initiatives.  You are now looking to integrate the SDGs deeper into your organisation.  Below, the Level 2 roadmap outlines: 

  • Formal steps you can take to embed the SDG Commitments into your organisation 
  • Toolkit and resources to galvanise your communities to take action 
  • Suggested systematic process and policy changes to deliver transformational change 
  • Don’t forget to revisit Level 1 to feel good about how far you’ve come! 

 

BACK TO ROADMAP HOME

SDG Roadmap – Level 2

Engage : Leadership & Knowledge

Activate Colleagues

Create an Employee Resource Group (ERG) or Dedicated SDG Team to engage all colleagues with Senior Management Support  

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Engage : Leadership & Knowledge

Clarify your Organisational Needs

Outline Financial and Staff Resources required to Implement the 10 Commitments.  

 

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  • Build sustainability skills within your organization: Read this HBR article or consider signing up to your local UN Global Compact Accelerator program(s)    
  • Ringfence SDG focused work time to advance your program e.g., Friday afternoons.  
  • Tip: The SDG Publishers Compact covers both operational and publishing commitments. Try and find SDG champions in both parts of your organization to drive your SDG forward.   
Accelerate : Research & Knowledge

Establish Baseline

Map your Publishing Portfolio to the SDG Framework  

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  • Determine your methodology to map your portfolio to the SDGs. See SDG Research Mapping Initiative: including free query and categorization. Keep a look out for STM’s solution to help get your started coming soon.   
  • Utilize the SDG Rubric from the SDG Publishers Compact Fellows to help map books/journals SDG coverage: Improving textbooks & related materials — SDG Compact Fellows 
  • Specifically for DEI, explore the Case Study on-benchmarking DEI in Publications from Delta Think 
  • Once mapped, you can create showcases and filters on your publishing platform to highlight specific SDGs, examples: T&F categorization and SAGE 
Accelerate : Research & Knowledge

Assess Diversity

More diverse boards can enrich your publishing portfolios    

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Accelerate : Research & Knowledge

Deepen your Partnership for the Goals through Research4Life

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  • Given the transition to Open Access, be generous and actively review your Research4Life portfolio with senior leaders to maximise your country offer in Research4Life’s Discovery Portal 
  • Build out a comprehensive Open Access fee waiver program following the R4L Best Practice Guidelines 
  • Sign up for the Research4Life Employee Giving Program  
  • Sponsor a Country through our Country Connector Program transforming researcher training at local level.  Read our Report. 
Advocate : Comms & Training

Tell the Story

make it easy for everyone to become an advocate  

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Prioritize : Drive Progress in Key SDGs

Activate your partners to embrace DEI

Many STM members are associations, linked to learned societies or publish on behalf of society partners. Some key actions to embed SDGs could be:  

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  • Making committees inclusive and diverse. See A Quick RSC Guide and think about embedding DEI principles into your membership: See DEI Best Practice Resources Guide 
  • Developing inclusive event policies: ASCE Best Practice Events Guide and Quick Guide from RSC to make inclusive events.   
Report : Progress & Targets

Publish an Annual Report

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One you start tracking it will be easy to report on your achievements each year. Think about producing an annual report either as a standalone sustainability report or as part of your annual report. Examples include, IOP Publishing, Infographic from Emerald , blog post from Wiley and a Sustainable Business Report from Springer Nature 

Engage : Leadership & Knowledge

Championing the SDGs from the Top

Make a Public CEO and Society Leadership Commitment to SDGs & Sustainability.  

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  • Make a punchy CEO Video for the IPA SDG Dashboard and post to your social media channels about why you have signed up  
  • Publish your commitment on your website with a Statement of Intent from your CEO/C-Suite 
Engage : Leadership & Knowledge

Engage Suppliers

Work together to develop or evolve your Supplier Code of Conduct to embed sustainability principles.  

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  • Get your operational and procurement team on board to help evaluate your supplier code of conduct and understand what data is needed from your suppliers 
  • Guidelines on developing a sustainability focused supplier code of conduct from ecovadis 
  • For climate data explore an example survey to use with your suppliers from the Green Book Alliance 
  • Publish your supplier code of conduct. See examples from Springer Nature and Wiley 

 

Accelerate : Research & Knowledge

Integrate SDGs

In consultation with editors, review Aims & Scope and Submission Guidelines   

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  • Introduce a “Publish with Purpose” statement to acknowledge the role of publishing in advancing the SDGs. See example from Oxford University Press, Elsevier and Emerald  
  • Review keywords used in the author submission process and check applicability for SDGs. 
  • Evaluate aims and scope of journals and establish a link between the journal and the SDGs, or specific goals, including adding new content areas that cover relevant sustainability topics. See a Cell Press example  
Accelerate : Research & Knowledge

Engage and collaborate with your Editors    

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Advocate : Comms & Training

Drive Team Enthusiasm

Create SDG awareness within your organization.  

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Prioritize : Drive Progress in Key SDGs

Get Focused

Develop detailed action plans for each of your priority SDGs 

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Report : Progress & Targets

Track progress

In level one you defined your KPIs relevant to your focus SDGs. Now it is time to set some milestones and start tracking progress.  

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  • Define your high-level strategy. It is helpful to think about how your SDG activities fit together and to articulate this in a simple way. Some examples include IOP progress on DEI in Peer Review     
  • Save time and resources and align your data collection and indicators with already established reporting. E.g., reporting on progress towards net zero progress (i.e. TCFD or science-based target reporting) or on the Gender pay gap. See IOP Publishing example  
  • Think about aligned also with industry reporting. E.g., The Publishers Association (UK) annual Inclusion and Diversity survey.   
  • Get organized: You need set up ways to track and record progress. A simple excel sheet get you started, but further integration into your organization’s KPIs and strategy will help embed SDGs within your organization in a meaningful ways.  

 

Report : Progress & Targets

Industry Feedback

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The SDG Publishers Compact conducts a voluntary annual survey of signatory’s progress against the 10 commitments. By now you should be ready to share your progress with the industry. Read the 2022 progress report here 

 

SDG Roadmap Resources

Collectively, we will evolve and continue to fortify this roadmap with more resources as we go. Do you have an asset, idea or resource to add? We’d love to hear from you if so.

Provide links to resources, one per line. (GDrive, Wetransfer, Dropbox, etc)