Learn about the United Nations Sustainable Goals (SDGs) and why we look at each portfolio’s contribution to the SDGs.
The Sustainable Development Goals (or SDGs) are a set of 17 global goals established by the United Nations in 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The goals aim to address a range of global issues, including poverty, inequality, climate action, environmental degradation, affordable and clean energy, and clean water and sanitation.
The 17 global goals are:
Source: un.org
We look at each portfolio’s contribution to the UN’s SDGs based on the annual sales of the underlying companies in the portfolio. To ensure a consistent and independent approach, we partner with Impact Cubed to assess SDG alignment. This involves mapping company revenues across more than 2,300 products and services, and classifying each activity based on how it contributes to the SDGs. At a portfolio level, this provides a clear view of overall alignment. This metric is currently applied only to the equity component of the portfolio.
We can compare the portfolio’s contribution to the SDGs with that of a global equity benchmark. We can also look at how each portfolio performs across the 17 SDGs to better understand where it is contributing most, and where there may be opportunities to improve.
We can also see how individual companies are performing. This can be useful when reviewing and monitoring the fund managers responsible for investing in individual companies (stock selection) on our behalf.
Generally, a high SDG contribution means that the portfolio overall is making good progress towards achieving the impact being targeting by the UN. That said, when we drill down below the headline SDG contribution, we can see it’s possible for a portfolio to perform well in implementing initiatives and strategies for specific SDGs, but not necessarily for all the SDGs. At Aurora, we believe that all the SDGs are important for a better and sustainable future, however, we are most interested in how well the portfolio is aligned to the four SDGs that can positively impact the climate and environment. In our view, these are SDG 7, 9, 11, and 13.
These represent our four focus SDGs.
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Last updated 21 April 2026.