The World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) is a global organisation dedicated to advancing sustainable business practices through benchmarking and transparency. Operating through their website, WBA focuses on assessing and ranking the contributions of companies to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The main focus of WBA is to encourage businesses to align their strategies with the SDGs and drive positive social and environmental impact. They achieve this by developing benchmarks that assess the performance of companies across various industries, providing a comprehensive view of their sustainability efforts.

WBA’s key goals include fostering accountability, promoting transparency, and motivating companies to adopt sustainable practices. By benchmarking corporate performance against the SDGs, WBA aims to create a competitive environment that encourages businesses to prioritize sustainability in their operations and decision-making processes.

In terms of structure, WBA operates as a collaborative initiative involving various stakeholders, including businesses, investors, civil society, and governments. This inclusive approach ensures that benchmarks are developed with diverse perspectives and expertise, enhancing the credibility and relevance of their assessments.

In the context of sustainable finance, WBA plays a crucial role by providing investors and financial institutions with data on companies’ sustainability performance. This information allows investors to make more informed decisions, directing capital towards businesses that align with the SDGs and have a positive impact on society and the environment.

WBA’s website serves as a valuable resource hub, offering insights into their benchmarking methodology, research reports, and the latest developments in sustainable business practices. Users can access practical tools and databases that enable them to explore the sustainability performance of individual companies and industries.

The organisation’s research covers a wide range of topics, spanning from climate action and social inclusion to responsible consumption and health. By providing detailed assessments and rankings, WBA empowers stakeholders to advocate for positive change and encourages companies to integrate sustainability into their core business strategies.

Our mission is to build a movement to measure and incentivise business impact towards a sustainable future that works for everyone.

The Foundation’s work is funded by different governments and foundations.

We also operate with what we call the ‘fair-use donation’. We trust any for-profit or not-for-profit entity (regardless of whether or not they are an Ally), that benefits financially from using WBA’s work, to make a fair-use donation. Find out more here.