UN Global Compact · Ten Principles and the Sustainable Development Goals
UN Global Compact participation and requirements, with a Communication on Progress you can stand behind.
Join the UN Global Compact with commitments your business can keep. Sterling's expert and experienced consultants test your practice against the Ten Principles, build what is missing into operations and prepare the evidence behind your annual Communication on Progress, in 60+ countries. Participation is a commitment, not a certificate. We help our clients put it into practice and prove it.
- Fixed scope, one proposal: consulting, Effivity software, Sterling Academy access and internal auditor training, as applicable to your standard, in one proposal
- A team of expert and experienced sustainability and ESG consultants, advising on management systems across sectors and countries since 2003
- The Sterling Promise: 100% on-time completion, 100% success, 8,100+ client engagements. Sterling does not certify; no UN Global Compact certificate exists, and participation is between you and the UN Global Compact
8,100+ client engagements in 60+ countries.
Why organisations choose Sterling
What it is
What is the UN Global Compact and what is it used for?
The UN Global Compact is the United Nations' initiative for responsible business. A company joins by committing, at chief executive level with board support, to ten principles drawn from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, and by supporting the societal priorities framed by the Sustainable Development Goals.
It works as a public statement of conduct that customers, investors and employees can check, because every participant reports each year. That visibility is the point and the risk: a commitment never built into purchasing, HR or site operations shows quickly in the reporting.
Current framework. The Ten Principles stand as published on unglobalcompact.org. The Communication on Progress is filed on the UN Global Compact's digital platform using the reporting year's CoP Questionnaire; the 2026 window ran from 1 April to 31 July 2026. The Communication on Progress, section by section
Who it is for
Who needs to join the UN Global Compact?
No law obliges a company to participate. The decision usually arrives from one of four directions:
- A customer's supplier questionnaire asks. Multinational buyers screen suppliers on human rights, labour, environment and bribery; participation with a current Communication on Progress answers much of that.
- A tender or financing request scores it. Public bodies, lenders and impact investors ask how you apply recognised principles, and want evidence.
- Reporting rules are tightening around you. Disclosure and due diligence expectations keep growing; the Ten Principles give that disclosure a structure.
- Your group has already joined. A parent company that participates needs data and practice from every entity it reports on, and your site is part of that story.
Requirements
What are the UN Global Compact requirements?
The UN Global Compact sets commitments and a reporting duty rather than an auditable standard. Its expectations of a participating company fall into the four areas of the Ten Principles and four participation conditions:
- Human rights (Principles 1 and 2): support and respect internationally proclaimed human rights, and make sure the business is not complicit in abuses.
- Labour (Principles 3 to 6): freedom of association and collective bargaining, and the elimination of forced labour, child labour and discrimination in employment.
- Environment (Principles 7 to 9): a precautionary approach, initiatives for greater environmental responsibility and the spread of environmentally friendly technology.
- Anti-corruption (Principle 10): work against corruption in every form, extortion and bribery included.
- Leadership commitment: a commitment from the chief executive, or equivalent, supported by the board.
- Integration: the principles made part of strategy, daily operations and culture.
- Annual Communication on Progress: a signed CEO Statement of Continued Support and the CoP Questionnaire on action and performance against the principles and the SDGs.
- Annual financial contribution: to the UN Global Compact Office, scaled to annual revenue and country.
What does useful UN Global Compact evidence look like?
A human rights and labour policy with due diligence on your own sites and key suppliers, grievance records, working-time and wage data, an environmental register with energy, waste and emissions figures, anti-bribery controls with training and gift registers, and the leadership decisions that tie them together. The CoP answers are only as strong as these records, so we build them into Effivity first and write the answers from them.
Joining and reporting
How does a company join the UN Global Compact and report?
The route has no auditor at the end: you commit, act and report in public. Sterling prepares you for each stage; the application and the submission are yours.
- 01Secure leadership commitment and set the scope.Agree with the chief executive and board what joining means, which entities and sites the commitment covers and who owns the programme.
- 02Gap analysis: test current practice against the Ten Principles.Policies, supplier arrangements, HR records, environmental data and anti-bribery controls reviewed area by area, with actions, owners and dates.
- 03Apply and make the commitment.Complete the online application on the business route, with the chief executive's commitment and the annual financial contribution confirmed.
- 04Embed the principles and choose your SDG priorities.Due diligence, grievance channels, targets and training built into the processes that run the business, with the goals where you can contribute most selected on evidence.
- 05Submit the Communication on Progress every year.The CEO Statement of Continued Support and the CoP Questionnaire filed within the window the UN Global Compact announces; new participants start in the year after joining.
Check the route before you sign. Nobody can certify you to the UN Global Compact, so an offer of a "UN Global Compact certificate" is a reason to walk away. Confirm the participation terms, the current reporting window and your status directly on unglobalcompact.org, and ask any adviser exactly which deliverables you receive. What you can and cannot say about participation
Cost
How much does UN Global Compact participation cost?
Two costs apply: the UN Global Compact's annual contribution, and the work of making the commitment real. Our all-inclusive proposal covers the second; the first is shown separately.
| Cost component | What affects it |
|---|---|
| Consulting and implementation | Current maturity, entities and sites in scope, supplier reach, the data available and how much your team takes on (Design™ or Drive™) |
| UN Global Compact contribution | Set by the UN Global Compact according to annual revenue and country, and paid to it directly |
| Internal resources | Leadership time, HR, HSE, procurement and finance owners, data collection and any changes to practice |
| Software and learning | Included in a Sterling engagement: Effivity for registers, due diligence and CoP evidence, and Sterling Academy access for your people |
| Continued support | Each year's CoP, supplier follow-up and refresher learning under Sustain™ |
What moves the price
- Number of entities, sites and countries in the commitment
- How far supplier due diligence has to reach
- Whether policies and data exist today
- The reporting deadline you are working to
What a Sterling proposal always shows
- Deliverables, responsibilities and exclusions, in writing
- The UN Global Compact contribution kept outside our fee
- Effivity and Academy access itemised at no additional cost
- One all-inclusive proposal. No surprises, ever
Timeline
How long does it take to prepare for the UN Global Compact?
Applying is quick; being ready to report is not. From decision to a first Communication on Progress backed by data, estimate roughly three to six months, depending on your starting point, sites, suppliers and the next submission window.
| Phase | What determines the pace |
|---|---|
| Commitment and gap analysis | Leadership availability and access to policies, HR, HSE and procurement records |
| Policies and due diligence | The number of sites and suppliers, and the approvals each policy needs |
| Data and evidence | Enough months of records for the questionnaire to rest on facts |
| CoP preparation | The UN Global Compact's reporting window and internal sign-off |
Your engagement
What your UN Global Compact engagement includes
Sterling does not certify, attest or validate anything under the UN Global Compact, and no one else can either; we help you meet the commitment and report on it truthfully. The work runs on Sterling OS™. You choose one support level for the build: Design™, where we guide and your team does the work, or Drive™, where we manage and deliver it with you. After the first Communication on Progress, Sustain™ carries each reporting cycle, and Automate™ is Effivity, which holds the evidence throughout.
Scope, gap analysis and plan
Against all four areas, with owners and dates agreed before work starts.
Policies and due diligence
Human rights, labour, environment and anti-bribery policies, with supplier due diligence sized to your risks.
Effivity ISO & GRC software
Registers, actions and CoP evidence in one workspace, included with the engagement at no additional cost.
Training for everyone
Internal auditor training, as applicable to your standard, and preferential Sterling Academy access, including complimentary awareness training for your people as part of the engagement.
Internal review
An internal audit of the programme before anything is published, with gaps closed on evidence.
CoP preparation
Questionnaire answers drafted from your records and the CEO statement ready for signature.
Participation and reporting status remain matters between your organisation and the UN Global Compact.
Often combined with
Standards organisations pair with UN Global Compact and the SDGs
- AA1000AA1000 implementation and requirements: apply the AccountAbility Principles and SES, then prepare for AA1000AS v3 assurance by a licensed provider.
- B Corp CertificationB Corp certification made clear: the new B Lab Standards, Foundation Requirements, seven Impact Topics, the audit route and how Sterling prepares you.
- CBAMCBAM compliance and requirements explained: authorised declarant status, the 50-tonne threshold, verified embedded emissions and how Sterling helps you prepare.
- CDPCDP disclosure consulting: a complete, evidenced response on climate, forests and water, prepared with your team.
- CSDDDCSDDD compliance and requirements after Omnibus I: scoping, risk-based due diligence, complaints, monitoring and the 2029 start, delivered in one all-inclusive proposal.
- CSRD / ESRSCSRD and ESRS Sustainability reporting consulting: double materiality, ESRS disclosures and data prepared for limited assurance of your statement.
Effivity · ISO and GRC software, included in every engagement
How Effivity helps you fulfil, automate and simplify the UN Global Compact commitments.
Every Sterling UN Global Compact engagement includes Effivity, the ISO and GRC automation platform built by the Sterling group and used in 50+ countries. Your consultant configures the workspace within the agreed scope, so policies, supplier due diligence, grievances, environmental data, anti-bribery controls, training records and leadership reviews sit in one place, and each year's Communication on Progress draws on live records instead of a last-minute hunt through inboxes. Sterling consulting clients get their Effivity subscription included with the engagement, at no additional cost.
Scope, owners and leadership decisions
The entities covered, the programme owner and each board or executive decision recorded with its date, so the commitment has a traceable history.
Due diligence and grievances
Risk assessments for sites and suppliers, grievance cases with their outcome, and remediation tracked to closure.
Workplace practice and supplier conduct
Working-time, wage and dialogue records alongside supplier self-assessments and follow-up visits.
Aspects, data and targets
An environmental register with energy, water, waste and emissions data feeding the targets you report on.
Controls, gifts and training
Bribery risk assessment, gift and hospitality registers, third-party checks and completed training, all dated.
Priorities and contributions
The goals you selected, the reasons, and the actions and indicators that show your contribution over time.
Communication on Progress evidence
Each questionnaire answer linked to the records behind it, so reviewers inside the business can check before submission.
Your own processes, forms and reports
Forms, workflows and reports adapted without code, and legal and customer requirements linked to the processes they touch.
What this means at reporting time
When the submission window opens, the questions about policies, due diligence, grievances, emissions and anti-corruption training point to screens that already hold dated evidence and owners. The answers are written from the system and the CEO signs a statement the business can back up. Sustain™ then runs next year's cycle in the same workspace.
In your engagement
- Subscription included with the engagement, at no additional cost
- Configured by your Sterling consultant within the agreed scope
- Your documents, records and registers migrated, not retyped
- Admin and user training for your team
- Modules for EMS, OHSMS, ISMS, FSMS and more when you integrate other standards
Sterling Academy · e-learning for responsible business
Help every employee understand what your commitment means.
Sterling Academy provides e-learning for the whole workforce and for the people who own the programme: video lessons with practice checkpoints, a final exam and a numbered Certificate of Completion for each learner, verifiable online. Sterling consulting clients benefit from preferential Sterling Academy course access and special pricing through their Sterling consultant, including complimentary awareness training for their people as part of the engagement.
- Awareness for every employee, so the commitment reaches the shop floor and the front desk
- Learning for the owners of human rights, labour, environment and anti-bribery controls
- Internal auditor training for the people who review the programme, as applicable to your standard, as part of the engagement
- Completion records that feed straight into your Communication on Progress evidence
Keep exploring
Explore more about UN Global Compact and the SDGs
UN Global Compact resources
Services for UN Global Compact and the SDGs
Why Sterling
Why choose Sterling for the UN Global Compact?
The Ten Principles touch HR, procurement, operations and finance at once. Sterling brings those owners onto one plan, so the report describes what the business actually does.
In 60+ countries since 2003
Management system and sustainability work delivered worldwide, with offices in 21 countries and one engagement team accountable for your programme.
All-inclusive proposal
Consulting, Effivity, training and Academy access in one proposal, with the UN Global Compact contribution kept separate. No surprises, ever.
Evidence before words
Records built first and report answers written from them, so every statement in your Communication on Progress can be traced.
Expert and experienced consultants
Consultants who understand human rights due diligence, labour practice, environmental data and anti-bribery controls, and who connect them into one programme your people run.
The Sterling Promise
What the Sterling Promise means for your UN Global Compact programme
We stay with you until your agreed UN Global Compact outcome is achieved, typically a Communication on Progress prepared on evidence and ready to submit within the window. Clear explanations, practical delivery, included software and employee learning leave you with lasting capability, not a one-off document.
The engagement identifies the framework, scope, outcome and responsibilities. Your organisation supplies accurate information, puts the agreed measures into use and makes its own submission. The UN Global Compact applies its own participation and reporting policies. Our commitment concerns the agreed support, not every future rating, tender or customer decision.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions about the UN Global Compact
Can we say we are UN Global Compact certified?
No. There is no certificate, so "certified" is inaccurate and undermines trust. Describe yourself as a participant of the UN Global Compact and point readers to your latest Communication on Progress.
What happens if we miss the Communication on Progress deadline?
You become a non-communicating participant. For the 2026 cycle, the UN Global Compact states that non-communicating participants that do not submit a late CoP by 31 December 2026 will be delisted on 1 January 2027, so a missed window still leaves time to act if you start now.
Can we submit our sustainability report instead of the CoP Questionnaire?
For the 2026 reporting year, yes: a sustainability report uploaded through the digital platform may be submitted in place of the questionnaire. Check each year's guidance before relying on it, because the option is stated for 2026 only.
When does a new participant submit its first Communication on Progress?
In the year after it joins. New participants do not report in their joining year, which gives a useful first cycle to build policies and data before the first submission.
How do the Sustainable Development Goals relate to the Ten Principles?
The principles are the baseline of conduct every participant commits to; the SDGs are the societal priorities a business can contribute to. The questionnaire covers both, so choose goals where your operations or supply chain make a measurable difference.
Keep exploring
More on UN Global Compact and the SDGs and related standards
More in ESG & sustainability reporting
Talk to a consultant
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