Skolkovo Joins United Nations Global Compact

The Skolkovo Foundation (VEB.RF) has joined the UN Global Compact, a non-binding agreement spearheading a global initiative to develop and implement sustainable development solutions, and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). The Foundation is the first development institution in Russia to join two of the UN's most important programs.

As a participant in Global Compact, the Skolkovo Foundation will refine its activities in principle areas of human rights, labor relations, environmental protection, and the fight against corruption, while also taking measures to achieve the UN social and sustainable development goals.

The chairman of the Skolkovo Foundation, Arkady Dvorkovich, stated that "the Skolkovo Foundation is recognized by two of the largest UN associations that are responsible for sustainable development, confirming the high-level expertise among the Foundation's employees and setting a high bar for implementing programs that comply with SDGs. With this unique status, the Foundation will continue to accumulate solutions from tech startups that aren't only from Russia but the entire world. This comes with the help of SustainTech Map, which will transmit them to thirteen thousand large corporate participants across 161 countries, thus taking part in Global Compact and contributing to achieving the UN sustainable development goals."

Three Skolkovo programs are currently assisting in pushing to achieve UN SDGs.

The UN Global Compact is an all-encompassing program that aims to tackle the issues mentioned above and supply chain sustainability, inequality, governance, education, etc. Over 13,000 companies worldwide are involved in the program, and the Skolkovo Foundation formally joined relatively recently on 11 May 2021.

Skolkovo's Sk[ai]HUB is already actively engaged in helping achieve some UN SDGs through AI technologies and participation in the UN's AI for Good Summit. It is also the platform for the abovementioned SustainTech Map, which serves as an up-to-date map of companies offering sustainable tech solutions.

In 2020, the Skolkovo Foundation also launched its GreenTech Startup Booster, an environmental accelerator – the first of its kind in Russia – that partners with Russian and international corporations working in the metal, oil and gas, chemical, and energy industries. The goal is to find and implement new innovative, "green tech" solutions in vital industrial sectors and support companies working in the environmental sector. The technological focus of this program is clean water, clean air, clean land, clean energy, environmental monitoring, and humans and the environment. It gives startups with developments at the finished prototype stage the opportunity to find pilot partners in large companies and receive meaningful feedback from expert panels.

While over ten thousand Global Compact participants are companies, the remaining four thousand are non-commercial entities. Among the commercial entities are Skolkovo partners such as Sber, Sibur, and RZD.

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