News and Events
Accelerating sustainability
Cambridge University Press & Assessment is taking part in a six-month programme, alongside hundreds of businesses around the world, to work out where we can have the biggest, positive impact on global sustainability goals. The United Nations Global Compact Sustainable Development Goal Ambition Accelerator will enable us to identify transformative changes that will make us more resilient and enable long-term growth.
One of the biggest ways we demonstrate our commitment to operating sustainably is by being an active participant in the UN Global Compact, the world’s biggest sustainability programme, along with a range of other credible and well-regarded sustainability initiatives.
The ten universal principles for corporate responsibility in the UN Global Compact are themed around protecting the environment, human rights, labour standards and anti-corruption. These principles aim to accelerate and scale up the global collective impact business can have. We are embedding these into our operations, outputs and strategy so our activites help to advance these goals.
We’ve already taken a lot of small steps towards becoming more sustainable and reducing any negative impact we have on the world, reporting our progress so far to the UN in April this year,” comments Vicky Evans, our head of sustainability. “But we want to make big leaps, moving beyond incremental progress to make substantial gains. Taking part in the UN ‘ambition accelerator’ programme will help us see where we can do that most effectively.
During the programme – the United Nations Global Compact Sustainable Development Goal Ambition Accelerator – we will develop strategies that will lead to actions that help us contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. These 17 global goals were negotiated and agreed by governments around the world in 2015 to be completed by 2030 to help create the future we want.
The UN recognises the important role businesses have in supporting the end of extreme poverty, fighting injustice and protecting our planet.
Our board lead for sustainability and the environment, Catie Sheret, said:
“Supporting the UN sustainable development goals through our operations and strategy is an investment in the foundation of achieving our ambitions – and a tangible way to amplify our mission. The Ambition Accelerator will help us shape our actions.
