The latest Global Goals data shows real progress and a long way still to go. Here's what the numbers mean for your business, and a 30-minute conversation you can have with your team this week.
A woman giving birth today is more likely to have a trained health worker beside her than she was ten years ago. Between 2015 and 2025, the share of births attended by skilled health personnel rose from 80 to 87 per cent, and the world is on course to reach its 90 per cent target by 2030.
It's one of the quieter stories in this year's Sustainable Development Goals Report, and it's worth holding onto, because the wider picture is much harder to read.
Where the Goals stand
In September, the Global Goals were back at the centre of the conversation during Climate Week NYC. The numbers on the table came from this year's SDG Report, released in July:
- Of the 139 targets with enough data to measure, 36 per cent are on track or making moderate progress. Only 15 per cent are fully on track or already met.
- Nearly half (49 per cent) are moving too slowly to reach their 2030 targets.
- 15 per cent have slipped backwards, below where they stood in 2015.
The same report is just as clear that the Goals have worked where effort has been sustained. Since 2015, billions of people have gained access to clean water, electricity and health care, and child labour fell by more than 20 million between 2020 and 2024. The conclusion is that the way forward is to scale what is already working, and to keep doing it until 2030.
What this has to do with your business
The Goals are delivered in classrooms, clinics, farms and villages, by thousands of local projects doing the same work day after day. What those projects need most is support they can count on, arriving month after month rather than once a year.
Across the B1G1 community, the businesses whose giving grows the most tend to share three habits:
- They attach giving to something they already do. One member in Australia gives each time a parcel ships and each time a customer call is answered. Another in the UK marks every team member's work anniversary and every client renewal with a give.
- They talk about outcomes people can picture, such as days of clean water, school meals and trees planted, so the whole team knows what their work made possible.
- They share it, with clients, with candidates, and with each other, so giving becomes part of how people describe the business.
None of this asks for a big cheque at the end of the year. It asks for a decision about which everyday moments should carry something good with them, and then it keeps happening as the business grows.
Our ask of members: one more moment before the year ends
In January, together with our members, we set out towards 1 Billion Impacts. We've now passed 400 million (406,903,872) and every one of those already happened: a meal eaten, a tree in the ground, a child's school day.
The SDG Report makes it plain that the gap to 2030 will be closed by consistency. So before the year ends, we're asking you and every B1G1 Member to attach one more everyday moment in your business to creating an impact. Consider choosing new everyday moments such as five-star reviews, completed projects or new clients. If your team hasn't been part of choosing your giving yet, the huddle below is a good way to bring them in.
A 30-minute team huddle to bring the Goals home
You don't need a big stage to be part of this. Take 30 minutes with your team this week and work through four questions.
- Which Goal feels closest to us? (5 minutes) Put the 17 Goals on screen and pick the one that connects best to what you do or what your team cares about. A bookkeeping firm might choose Quality Education (SDG 4); a logistics business might choose Climate Action (SDG 13).
- What have we already done? (10 minutes) Open your account and look at which Goals your giving already supports. Most teams are surprised by how much has added up.
- Which everyday moment could carry an impact? (10 minutes) Choose one moment that happens often in your business, such as a new client, a delivered project or a team milestone, and connect it to a project under the Goal you chose.
- Who should hear about it? (5 minutes) Add your Business For Good Mark to your email signature, mention it to one client, or share it with the team on Monday.
Member spotlight: a tree with every delivery
On hillsides that were cleared bare not long ago, young trees are finding their footing again. Each sapling grows into shade, into soil that holds after heavy rain, and into forest that keeps carbon locked away for decades.
Some of those trees began with a delivery. One B1G1 member, a wellness business, gives every time a product reaches a customer. Part of that moment goes to planting trees and protecting forest. Over time, those deliveries have added up to more than 32,000 trees planted and more than 12,000 square meters of forest protected.
Their customers buy from them to feel well, and each purchase also leaves the world a little healthier. Any business can choose a moment of its own to do the same.
Getting started, or back on track, with B1G1
Whether you've been giving with B1G1 for years or you're only starting to think about it, the huddle is a good place to begin, and you don't have to work out the rest on your own.
If you're already a member, book a call with our team and we'll help you get your giving back on track or take it further, connected to the Goal your team chose and the everyday moments that fit your business.
If you haven't started giving with B1G1 yet, get your free Giving Plan to see what giving could look like in your business, with every giving going to one of 450+ vetted projects and tracked so you can see exactly where it went.
Tell us which Goal your team chose
Once you've had your huddle, send us a quick email with the Goal your team picked and the moment you've attached to it. We'll share a few of your stories, so other members can borrow the ideas that work.
Behind every target in the report is a person: the first girl in her family to finish school, a household leaving poverty for good, a village that gets through the next storm.
Four years sounds like a long time until you count it in business days. It’s just over 1,000. The deadline will arrive whether the world is ready or not; what's in our hands is how many ordinary days between now and then carry something good with them. Yours could start with a 30-minute conversation this week.
Sources
- The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026 (7 July 2026): https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2026/
- Climate Week NYC 2026: https://www.climateweeknyc.org/
