Capitalism of, by, and for the peopleHow much does each United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (UNSDG) depend on shareholder democracy?
Each of the 17 goals and 169 targets is scored on one scale from 0 to 3: how far the outcome depends on owners voting their values, either by changing what companies do or by changing what companies lobby for. A goal takes the score of its strongest target, because accomplishing any goal is dependent on accomplishing every target. We scored every goal as dependent on shareholder democracy. For 16 of the 17 goals, and for 74 of the 169 targets in their own right, we scored it necessary or pivotal. These ratings are in beta. We are still refining the method, and we publish corrections based on feedback.
Click a goal to see all of its targets; click any target for its rationale and sources.
Behind the score. Each target was asked two questions. Does the outcome depend on companies changing what they make, sell, employ, emit, or discharge? Is the outcome blocked by company lobbying and political giving? Each answer counts on its own and the higher one sets the score. A target whose conduct answer is "decisively", or whose lobbying answer is "blocking", scores 3; "necessarily, but others must act too" scores 2; "helpfully" or "slows it" scores 1; "not really" to both scores 0. Shareholder democracy acts on both through the same vote.
Goal and target language paraphrased from the UN Sustainable Development Goals (sdgs.un.org/goals); goal icons are the official United Nations SDG icons, used for illustrative purposes; the content of this analysis has not been approved by the United Nations and does not reflect its views. Scores are Shareholder Democracy Network analytical judgments from target text, industry structure, and cited evidence; a full rationale with citations for every target is in the companion document. Every citation was fetched and checked against the claim it supports. August 2026. Version: accordion, August 27. · Methodology