Supporting the SDGs: Minerva Backs UN Global Flag Campaign

25 September 2025

By Jack Grogan-Fenn

Minerva Analytics has reaffirmed its support for the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by backing the SDG Flag Day global campaign for a third consecutive year.

Minerva is committed to catalysing meaningful change to address the most urgent challenges of our time, including climate change, gender inequality, poverty and ensuring decent work for all. Together with the global community, we embrace our shared responsibility to create lasting, positive change and build a world where no one is left behind.

The SDG Flag Day campaign started in the Netherlands in 2020. It marks the adoption of the SDGs and demonstrates support for its aims. The campaign has since expanded to many more countries, spanning hundreds of businesses, civil society organisations, government departments and schools.

This month marks the tenth anniversary of the UN adopting the SDGs. The SDGs comprise 17 high-level goals which aim to address a wide range of worldwide challenges, including climate change, environmental degradation, inequality, poverty and water security. They were established as part of Agenda 2030, a globally agreed plan of action to reduce the impacts of climate change on people and the planet.

As a stewardship and proxy voting service provider, we offer solutions that empower investors to address the issues most important to them in relation to the SDGs. We accomplish this by developing a customisable framework that enables investors to focus on a particular industry and align their portfolios with specific SDGs.

Our methodology assesses companies’ disclosure and performance in relation to their sustainability efforts. By correlating our methodology with SDG targets, we can evaluate the extent to which a company is contributing positively toward achieving each specific SDG goal. 

Minerva appreciates that the SDGs provide a useful framework for guiding sustainable investments, as well as highlighting that social and environmental risks pose a material cost to companies, something increasingly being appreciated by investors and industry. The SDGs also are, and will continue to be, a key driver of global economic growth in Minerva’s view.

Within the last year, we have increased our coverage of listed securities, now hosting a database of over 9,000 companies.

To build the foundations of Minerva’s SDG alignment services, our expert stewardship team assesses sectoral impacts against each individual SDG. This includes whether the activity of the sector contributes towards targets assigned to a particular SDG, is neutral in terms of its impact on the targets assigned to a particular SDG, or if it actively detracts from targets assigned to a particular SDG.

Building on these sectoral impact assessments, Minerva’s expert assessment of sectoral impact on SDG alignment offers a heatmap of each economic sectors’ impact on the SDGs​. Using our SDG alignment map, clients can see at a glance what the ‘status quo’ position of each sector means in terms of each SDG.

As part of client exercises, Minerva can also assess external asset managers. These managers are asked to complete an online ESG/RI questionnaire, with part of this questionnaire being specifically focused on the SDGs.

Minerva is supporting innovation in SDG benchmarking, with each piece of client work being truly bespoke to their specific requirements, rather than a one size fits all ‘vended’ solution. We use our experience to locate and assess solutions underpinned by authoritative, independent academic research and Minerva’s interests are aligned with clients in helping deliver the best outcomes, meaning we can provide a truly independent and objective view of SDG alignment.

You can read more of our articles by clicking here.