The table U.N. SDGs contains all 17 sustainable development goals that are defined by the United Nations. These goals are part of this template to offer some guidance and recommendations to organizations when they define Targets, Initiatives and Actions. The first step your organization needs to take is defining Targets. Each target must be linked to a sustainable development goal (SDG) and must be defined using the SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) methodology. If a target is not SMART, it’s not possible to set a Target value and calculate the Percentage completed. Once the targets are defined, you set up Initiatives that will help you to reach the targets. Each initiative must have an Estimated impact. The Actual impact can be calculated once the initiative has finished. To support the execution of the initiatives, you need to define one or multiple Actions for them. An action is a detailed step that is either Completed or not. Each action has a Staff member that has the final responsibility for the execution of the action.

U.N. SDGs

A table with the sustainable development goals (SDG) that are set by the United Nations.

Fields

• Name. The goal’s name.
• Category. The goal’s category which is either environmental, social or governance.
• Description. The goal’s description.
• Icon. The goal’s icon.
• ESG Targets. This linked field to the Targets table indicates which goals have targets assigned to them.
• Amount of ESG targets current year. This formula field calculates the number of targets that are set for the goal in the current year.
• Total amount of ESG targets. This formula field calculates the number of targets that are set for the goal in the past, current year or future.

Views

• All sustainable development goals. Displays all SDGs in the order that they are set by the U.N.
• Social goals. Displays the social SDGs.
• Environmental goals. Displays the environmental SDGs.
• Governance goals. Displays the governance SDGs.
• Sustainable development goals by category. Displays all SDGs in a kanban stacked by their Category.
• Sustainable goals with targets in the current year. Displays the SDGs that have one or more target in the current year.
• Sustainable goals with targets. Displays the SDGs that have one or more targets in the past, current year or future.

Targets

The targets are set by your organization. This is the major difference with the goals that are set by the United Nations. It’s important to set SMART targets so that it is possible to measure the progress and check if they have been reached.

Fields

• Name. The target’s name.
• Description. The target’s description.
• Summary. This formula field summarises the target by combining the Target value and Target type.
• Current. A number without the Unit that describes the current situation in the organisation. The Unit is not mentioned here so that the field can be used in formula’s to measure progress.
• Target value. A number without any that must be reached to state that the target has been reached. The dimension is set in the field Target type. The reason to split these values is to use the field in formula’s to measure progress.
• Target type. This single select field offers meaning to the Target value. This can be reducing or increasing the Current value with a certain percentage. Or it can be reaching a certain percentage of participation, delivering a certain amount of reports, attending a certain amount of hours,…
• Target reached at. This formula field calculates the increase or decrease that is needed to successfully complete the target. This is normally done by subtracting the Target value from Current. However, the formula uses a different calculation when the Target type is set to % reduction or % increase. in that case it calculates the absolute value that must be reduced or increased based on the percentage set by the Target value. This ensures flexibility in the definition of the targets.
• Current state. This formula field calculates the total Actual impact of all ESG Initiatives for the target. If the Target type is set to % reduction or % increase, it will take the sum of all the Actual impacts. In all other cases, it will take the average of all the Actual impacts. This field therefore only shows an indication of the current state and should always be reviewed before jumping to conclusions.
• Unit. The target’s unit. This can be a percentage, a number of tons/year, cubic meters,…
• Percentage completed. This formula field calculates the progress by dividing the Current state by the Target reached at value. A result of 100 or more indicates that the target has been successfully completed.
• ESG Initiatives. This linked field to the Initiatives tables sums up all the initiatives that has been taken to reach the target.
• Initiatives progress. This lookup field indicates the status of each initiative.
• Deadline. The target’s deadline.
• Days until deadline. This formula field calculates the number of days before the deadline has passed.
• SDG. This linked field refers to the U.N. SDG that is associated with the target.

Views

All views have a green left border when the Percentage completed is higher than 99, and orange when it is lower than 50.

• All ESG targets. Displays all targets sorted in chronological order of Days until deadline.
• Targets that have passed the deadline. Displays the targets where the deadline is in the past.
• Targets that look completed. Displays the targets where the Percentage completed is higher than 99. Depending on the type of target, this is a good indication that the target is completed, however you should always double check this because not every target progress can be calculated.
• Target without initiatives. Displays the targets that have no initiatives defined.

Initiatives

Initiatives define the major actions you plan as an organization to reach the ESG targets. Each initiative must have an impact. The sum or averages of these impacts determine if a target is reached or not.

Fields

• Name. The initiative’s name.
• Description. The initiative’s description.
• From. This date field holds the initiative’s start date.
• Until. This date field holds the initiative’s end date.
• Status. This formula field shows the status “not started”, “active” or “finished” depending on the From and Until fields.
• Estimated impact. The initiative’s estimated impact. This is a text field to allow context and details in the estimations.
• Actual impact. A number with the actual impact. This field can hold intermediate results.
• Unit. This lookup field to the Targets table show the unit of the Actual impact number.
• Progress. This single select field allows to manually set the progress of the initiative.
• Remarks. A text field to clarify the chosen Progress or add suggestions to the initiative.
• ESG Target. This linked field refers to the Target that must be reached with the initiative.
• ESG Actions. This linked field holds all Actions the are defined for a successful completion of the initiative.
• All actions completed. This rollup field is checked if all Actions for the initiative are marked as completed.

Views

All views have a colored border to indicate the Status.

• All ESG initiatives. Displays all initiatives sorted in chronological order of Until
• Finished ESG initiatives. Displays all initiatives that are finished.
• Active ESG initiatives. Displays all initiatives that are active.
• Future ESG initiatives. Displays all initiatives that have not been started.
• ESG initiatives with all actions completed. Displays only the initiatives where all the Actions are marked as completed.
• All ESG initiatives stacked by progress. Displays all initiatives in a kanban stacked by their Status.

Actions

Actions describe the detailed steps that are taken by Staff members to make an Initiative to a success. The status of an action can either be completed or not.

Fields

• Name. The action’s name.
• Deadline. The action’s deadline in a date field.
• Days until deadline. This formula field calculates the number of days until the deadline is passed.
• Completed. This boolean field is set manually to indicate if the action is completed.
• ESG Initiative. This linked field refers to the Initiative where the action is part of.
• Responsibility. This linked field refers to the Staff member that has the responsibility over the execution of the action.

Views

All views have a colored border to indicate actions that are not completed and where the deadline has past.

• All actions. Displays all actions sorted in chronological order of Days until deadline.
• Completed actions. Displays the actions that are marked as completed.
• Incomplete actions with passed deadline. Displays actions that are not marked as completed and where the deadline has passed.
• Incomplete actions without passed deadline. Displays actions that are not marked as completed but where the deadline has not past yet.

Staff

A staff member is someone who works in the organization. The table contains both personal information and information about Actions.

Fields

• Name. The staff member’s first and last name.
• Picture. The staff member’s profile picture.
• Phone. The staff member’s internal phone number.
• Email. The staff member’s email address.
• ESG Actions. This linked field to the Actions table indicates the actions that are assigned to the staff member.
• Assigned Actions. This count field shows the number of Actions that are assigned to the staff member.

Views

• All staff members. Displays all staff members sorted in chronological order of Assigned actions.
• Staff members with assigned actions. Displays the staff members that have one or multiple actions assigned to them.
• Staff members without assigned actions. Displays the staff members that do not have any action assigned to them.
• Gallery: all staff members. Displays all staff members in a gallery sorted in chronological order of Assigned actions.