Involvement of major Russian corporations with the fulfilment of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals: assessment of current achievements and development opportunities

Abstract

Subject. Every 8-10 years, the global economy faces financial crises that slow down and drive back its development. The UN's Sustainable Development Goals were announced as one of the ways to smooth the cycles. Most countries are actively involved in the fulfilment of this global project. An important precondition for the transition to a sustainable development path is the participation of the corporate sector. However, under capitalism, solving such a problem is not an easy task since many items within the UN's Sustainable Development Goals are not profitable for corporations and do not contribute directly to capitalisation. In this regard, the study and search for opportunities to introduce the UN's Sustainable Development Goals into corporate practices is a very important issue which corresponds to the modern global agenda of economic development. The purpose of the study is to analyse the involvement of major Russian corporations with the achievement of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals using open data based on corporate reports. The methods of the study included the analysis and synthesis of publicly reported data, grouping and expert assessment of published information related to the topic of the UN's SDGs in the annual reports of Russian corporations. Conclusions. The study revealed positive dynamics related to the involvement of companies with the achievement of the UN's SDGs. It is more pronounced in the areas where the UN's SDGs intersect the economic interests of corporations. It was shown that there is no uniform form for information disclosure, significant differences in the volume and quality of information presented in the companies’ reporting, and no common understanding of a number of goals by corporations. According to the results, most of the work aimed at fulfilling the UN's SDGs is carried out by Russian export companies with a predominance of private investors within the structure of business ownership. State-owned companies and companies focused on the domestic market are lagging behind in their development in this direction by all indications. As a recommendation, it was proposed to develop public reporting formats and better disclose the processes related to the fulfilment of the UN's SDGs.