Columbia Threadneedle Investments: Is the world on track for a more sustainable future?

At Columbia Threadneedle, we believe that understanding sustainability trends and the interactions between people and planet is fundamental to identifying future investment opportunities. Using a deep and grounded research-based approach, and through our ongoing engagement, we consider how environmental, social and wider factors are shaping the companies and industries we invest in.

Alongside our work on specific sustainability themes, we also make use of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDG framework provides us with a consistent way of assessing our investments and engagements alongside the global sustainable development agenda, enabling us to have a deeper and more holistic view.

With under five years left until the ‘2030 Agenda’ was meant to have been achieved, we set out here our perspective on how the world is progressing toward the goals, and how this relates to Columbia Threadneedle’s investment activities and engagement.

What are the SDGs and why are they relevant?

The SDGs, were developed in 2015 by the UN and endorsed by all 193 member states. With input from industry, finance, and NGOs into the creation of the Framework, they have been widely adopted as a common language for companies, investors and other stakeholders alike, since coming into force in 2016.

The SDGs set out a roadmap towards a more sustainable global economy and society by 2030 – i.e. the ‘2030 Agenda’. There are 17 high level goals, and each goal has a set of targets setting out specific objectives to achieve the goal, with 169 targets in total. The targets then have 230 underlying indicators, on which global progress is tracked annually by the UN.

"We face a global development emergency…The Sustainable Development Goals remain within reach, but only if we act decisively and act now. Together, we can still build the sustainable future everyone, everywhere, deserves."

António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, 2025