Gender equality, good health and quality education are the top three sustainable development goals currently embraced by US and European companies following the launch in September 2015 of the UN Development Programme’s Global Goals initiative.

Designed to help end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all, each of the 17 goals with 169 targets could change the way society interacts, engages and behaves. And companies which actively adopt and strategically incorporate any of these goals in their sustainability agenda stand to gain the most.

Surprisingly though, very few companies globally have managed to take action. According to a study by the Switzerland-based Leidar consultancy, only 9 per cent of the 162 companies audited have a dedicated SDG section on their corporate website. Forty per cent of the same companies have issued at least one SDG-related statement with the degree of commitment varying from a simple acknowledgement of its importance to a concrete declaration committing support to achieve the goals.

Interestingly, as the author of the study Lukasz M. Bochenek notes, European headquartered companies are more likely to have a dedicated SDG website section or statement. The most active companies in regards to SDG-related statements come from the pharmaceutical sector, which lead the way with 62 per cent followed by telecommunications and logistics companies with 60 per cent.

Delving even deeper, the audit found that just 4 per cent of the researchers’ sample issued an SDG report and a mere 2 per cent had some sort of SDG measurement showing their sustainability activities and progress. The slow uptake of SDG and its absence from the corporate social responsibility strategy of multinationals presents a massive opportunity for corporations, private or public, to actively seek to use the framework provided by SDG to meaningfully and purposefully engage with partners and stakeholders.

Companies, brand, government departments or NGOs that will lead the discourse on SDG adoption have a great opportunity to revamp their entire thought leadership and CSR programmes. The goals and targets are measurable and can provide brands with emotionally engaging and compelling narratives and communications platforms that can travel virally due to their global significance.

Crucially, SDG engagement involves real business action which needs to be strategically driven. And that’s exactly what would help brands establish themselves as employers of choice for the millennial talent, who are getting a lot of recognition for being the purpose-driven generation.

There’s no shortage of headlines about millennials — those aged 18-35 — searching for jobs that offer a strong sense of meaning, not just a paycheck. And how much stronger could this meaning be than contributing to causes that help sustain and improve life on the planet they will grow in to lead?

There are a few steps that companies can take to embed SDGs in their corporate agenda: The process starts by mapping organisational activities against the SDGs and it is followed by an audit of the status quo to help identify gaps that need to be addressed in the strategy.

Define the issues that the company could potentially own based on their relevance to the business. Identify, select and engage the external partner more closely linked to the chosen issues and develop a thought leadership strategy to address them.

Finally, develop a measurement and evaluation framework (KPIs) that is relevant to your business and build a communications strategy to support the roll-out internally and externally.

Owning the SDG agenda can help brands find a true purpose, define or redefine their approach to CSR and elevate it into a powerful communications asset that can be used as a means of promoting its missions and values, attracting talent and engaging with its stakeholders in a more compelling and authentic fashion.

And as we are nearing the halfway mark of the Year of Giving in the UAE, local companies have a world-class opportunity to take advantage of the SDG framework and its slow global uptick in order to take the lead.

The writer is Head of PR and Social Media at Al-Futtaim and author of “Back to the Future of Marketing — PRovolve or Perish”. Follow him on Twitter @georgekotsolios