Sustainable Development Goals for Business Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Sustainability Managers, CSR and ESG Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-SC-051

Before you join: Participants should have workplace experience in sustainability, CSR, health and safety, environment, risk, procurement, reporting, strategy or a related business function.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Businesses are expected to show how their operations, supply chains, products and investments contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while managing environmental and social harms. The challenge is separating credible action from broad commitments. Teams need to identify material impacts, select relevant SDG targets, set measurable objectives, assign accountability and report progress with evidence that can withstand stakeholder, customer, investor and assurance scrutiny.

This course explains how to translate the 17 SDGs and their targets into a business strategy, risk management process and implementation programme. Participants apply double materiality, stakeholder mapping, value-chain assessment, theory of change and SDG Compass methods to identify priorities. They build indicators, baselines and targets; connect climate, human rights, health and safety, water, waste and inclusion performance to business decisions; and examine reporting requirements under GRI, ESRS and ISSB standards. The course also addresses supplier due diligence, governance, financing, partnerships, greenwashing controls and assurance readiness.

Teaching combines short instructor briefings with sector-based cases, facilitated group analysis, reporting simulations and structured planning work. Cases reflect the decisions faced by banks, manufacturers, extractive businesses, public bodies, NGOs and multinational supply-chain teams. Participants leave with an SDG business integration plan, including a priority assessment, target framework, implementation roadmap, governance structure and reporting evidence checklist. The course is delivered over five days in a classroom in 50+ cities or live online. Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides approximately 6.5 contact hours. Participants receive a certificate of completion.

What you will be able to do

  • Map business impacts, dependencies and externalities against relevant SDG targets
  • Conduct a double materiality assessment using stakeholder and rightsholder evidence
  • Prioritise SDG targets using materiality, control, contribution and feasibility criteria
  • Design measurable sustainability indicators, baselines, data boundaries and target owners
  • Apply GHG Protocol principles to corporate emissions and value-chain reporting decisions
  • Integrate SDG priorities into governance, risk management, procurement and investment processes
  • Prepare credible SDG disclosures using GRI, ESRS, ISSB and substantiation controls
  • Develop an accountable SDG implementation roadmap with milestones, resources and review cycles

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Ability to turn SDG commitments into owned targets and operational workplans
  • Practical confidence assessing material environmental and social business impacts
  • Stronger capability to challenge unsupported sustainability and SDG claims
  • Working knowledge of major sustainability reporting frameworks and disclosure expectations
  • Reusable methods for leading cross-functional sustainability planning discussions

For your organisation

  • Clearer prioritisation of SDG activity around material business impacts and dependencies
  • More credible sustainability targets supported by defined indicators and data owners
  • Improved control of greenwashing, incomplete disclosures and unsupported public claims
  • Stronger supplier due diligence for human rights, climate and environmental risks
  • A practical roadmap connecting sustainability commitments with budgets, governance and delivery milestones

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can explain the SDG architecture and distinguish credible business contribution from generic alignment.

  • Origins, structure and interdependence of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals
  • Targets and indicators used to distinguish ambition from measurable contribution
  • 2030 Agenda principles: universality, integration, leaving no one behind
  • Business impacts, dependencies and externalities mapped against SDG targets
  • Materiality versus SDG alignment: avoiding superficial goal selection
  • Corporate responsibility boundaries across value chains, products and public policy

Participants can conduct an evidence-based materiality process that identifies priority SDG-related issues.

  • Double materiality under ESRS: impact materiality and financial materiality
  • Stakeholder mapping using influence-interest grids and affected-rightsholder analysis
  • Material topic identification from interviews, data sources and grievance records
  • Severity assessment using scale, scope, irremediability and likelihood criteria
  • Prioritisation matrices linking material topics to SDG targets and business units
  • Documenting decisions, evidence gaps and governance ownership for materiality findings

Participants can convert material SDG priorities into a focused business strategy and theory of change.

  • SDG Compass five-step process from understanding goals through communication
  • Value-chain mapping from upstream sourcing to use-phase and end-of-life impacts
  • Baseline assessment using operational data, supplier information and lifecycle evidence
  • Selecting priority SDG targets through materiality, control and contribution tests
  • Theory of change linking activities, outputs, outcomes and intended impacts
  • Strategic objectives translated into accountable initiatives, milestones and resource requirements

Participants can design targets and indicators that support accountable SDG performance management.

  • SMART SDG targets distinguished from activity commitments and aspirational statements
  • Science Based Targets initiative concepts for climate-related corporate target setting
  • Indicator design: baselines, boundaries, units, frequency and data owners
  • GHG Protocol Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions inventory boundaries
  • Social performance measures covering decent work, inclusion, health and safety
  • Water, waste and biodiversity metrics matched to material operating impacts
  • Data-quality controls, estimation methods and audit trails for reported indicators

Participants can integrate SDG priorities into governance, operational controls and investment decisions.

  • Board oversight, executive accountability and committee terms of reference
  • Embedding SDG criteria within enterprise risk management and risk appetite
  • Capital allocation screens incorporating environmental and social externalities
  • Procurement specifications, supplier codes and due diligence requirements
  • Product design choices assessed through lifecycle thinking and circularity principles
  • Performance incentives linked to verified sustainability targets and conduct expectations

Participants can identify and manage human rights and community impacts connected to SDG delivery.

  • UN Guiding Principles framework: protect, respect and remedy
  • Human rights due diligence: assessing actual and potential adverse impacts
  • Supplier risk segmentation using country, commodity and workforce vulnerability indicators
  • Worker voice, grievance mechanisms and remedy effectiveness criteria
  • Modern slavery indicators, responsible recruitment controls and remediation pathways
  • Community health, safety and resettlement risks associated with projects
  • Escalation protocols for severe impacts and supplier nonconformance

Participants can prepare evidence-based SDG disclosures and control misleading sustainability communications.

  • GRI Standards material-topic disclosures and reporting boundary decisions
  • ESRS double materiality assessment and European Sustainability Reporting Standards architecture
  • ISSB IFRS S1 and S2 investor-focused sustainability disclosure requirements
  • SDG reporting mapped from indicators to targets without unsupported claims
  • Greenwashing controls: substantiation, balance, traceability and approval governance
  • Assurance readiness through evidence files, control testing and management representations
  • Stakeholder communications tailored for employees, investors, customers and communities

Participants can evaluate SDG initiatives using financial, impact and partnership decision criteria.

  • Business-case modelling using avoided costs, revenues, risk reduction and investment
  • Internal carbon pricing methods: shadow price, fee and trading model
  • SDG-linked finance instruments, covenants and sustainability performance targets
  • Public-private partnerships structured around shared outcomes and accountability
  • Supplier development programmes combining capability building, incentives and verification
  • Impact management using the IMP five dimensions of impact
  • Cost-benefit assumptions challenged through sensitivity analysis and scenario testing

Participants can build an SDG implementation roadmap with accountable ownership and review mechanisms.

  • Portfolio roadmap sequencing quick wins, foundational controls and longer-term investments
  • RACI matrices assigning accountable executives, owners, contributors and informed parties
  • Implementation workplans defining milestones, dependencies, budgets and decision gates
  • Change-management communications addressing workforce adoption and operational trade-offs
  • Dashboard design using leading, lagging, outcome and impact indicators
  • Management review cycles triggering corrective action and target recalibration
  • Application plan for a selected SDG priority and business unit

Participants can adapt SDG methods to sector-specific risks, opportunities and organisational priorities.

  • Bank financed-emissions strategy aligned with climate, inclusion and governance goals
  • Manufacturing resource-efficiency programme addressing energy, water, waste and worker safety
  • Extractives community-impact plan covering biodiversity, livelihoods, health and grievance
  • NGO partnership governance for education, livelihoods and local procurement outcomes
  • Multinational supplier programme addressing human rights, emissions and traceability
  • Public-sector tender criteria linking contractor performance to SDG priorities
  • Peer review of application plans against materiality, evidence and accountability

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. SDG priority assessment template
  2. Double materiality evidence matrix
  3. SDG target and indicator register
  4. Sustainability governance RACI matrix
  5. SDG reporting evidence checklist
  6. SDG implementation roadmap

Who should attend

  • Sustainability Managers — responsible for translating corporate commitments into measurable programmes
  • CSR and ESG Managers — need credible SDG priorities, disclosures and stakeholder communications
  • Health, Safety and Environment Managers — connect operational impacts with SDG targets and performance measures
  • Risk and Compliance Managers — incorporate environmental and social impacts into oversight and controls
  • Procurement and Supply Chain Managers — strengthen supplier due diligence, standards and improvement programmes
  • Strategy, Finance and Investment Managers — assess sustainability initiatives, funding decisions and business cases

Skills and tools covered

SDG strategy designDouble materiality assessmentSustainability metricsHuman rights due diligenceSustainability reportingImplementation roadmapping

Tools and standards

UN Sustainable Development Goals, SDG Compass, GRI Standards, GHG Protocol

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short briefings to establish the SDG framework, reporting standards and decision methods. Participants analyse sector cases, assess material impacts, build target and indicator designs, and test governance choices through facilitated group work. Reporting simulations examine disclosure boundaries, evidence quality and greenwashing risks. Participants use structured templates to develop an SDG priority assessment and implementation roadmap relevant to their own organisation or function. Instructor feedback focuses on materiality, measurable contribution, accountability and the quality of supporting evidence.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have workplace experience in sustainability, CSR, health and safety, environment, risk, procurement, reporting, strategy or a related business function. Familiarity with their organisation’s sustainability commitments, annual report or operational performance data is useful. Participants should understand basic business planning, performance measures and stakeholder roles. Prior study of the SDGs, GRI, ESG reporting or climate accounting is not required. The course does not assume technical environmental science, legal training, assurance qualifications or prior experience preparing a sustainability report.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should have professional experience in a business, sustainability, HSE, risk, procurement, reporting or related role. No prior study of the SDGs, GRI, ESRS, ISSB or greenhouse gas accounting is required.

Bring a laptop for planning work and, where permitted, your organisation’s sustainability report, ESG commitments, risk register or relevant performance data. These materials are useful but not essential because course templates and cases are provided.

It suits managers who must convert sustainability commitments into business actions, measures, governance arrangements or disclosures. It is particularly relevant to sustainability, CSR, HSE, procurement, risk, strategy, finance and communications professionals.

This course starts with the SDGs as a business planning framework and connects them to operations, supply chains, human rights, environmental management and stakeholder outcomes. Reporting and climate metrics are covered as tools for demonstrating credible progress, rather than as the sole subject.

You will be able to assess priority SDG issues, test whether current commitments are measurable, identify evidence gaps and propose accountable actions. The templates can be used for strategy reviews, materiality workshops, supplier programmes and reporting preparation.

Approximately 32.5 contact hours are spread across ten connected modules, short briefings, case analysis, group work and planning activities. The sequence moves from SDG priorities and materiality through metrics, governance, reporting and implementation planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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