Once you know what aspects of sustainability are most essential to work on, it is time to set goals. In order to set effective goals, you can use tools such as the SMART model:
Smart goals and setting goals for your operation – Ledarna

In order to make your goals specific, it may be a good idea not to set a single goal for the entire business but rather multiple goals relating to products, employees, energy savings or other areas that are relevant to sustainability for your business.

Clear goals and follow-up yield good results

Many companies have set goals to reduce their climate-impacting emissions, to be more resource-efficient and to minimise waste. Objectives within social aspects could include having a safe and positive work environment, working to prevent discrimination, and ensuring that the business takes social responsibility into account in its purchasing activities.

By setting clear goals for sustainability work, measuring the outcome and reporting this regularly, you strengthen your basis for achieving a good result. At the same time you create a scope for learning and change, increase insight and credibility, and strengthen the brand in the eyes of customers and employees.

It can be difficult to know how to measure and monitor goals for sustainability work. Aim for simplicity and use data you can access yourself in the first instance. It can make things easier if the metrics are closely aligned with the business and can be broken down further so that employees and management feel that the work is meaningful and yields results. 

Read sustainability reports for inspiration

You can also read sustainability reports from larger companies to gain inspiration from how they work on and report this. Large companies are obligated to report their sustainability work as per the Swedish Annual Accounts Act chapter 6, § 10-14. The legal text also provides a useful guide for what is important for smaller companies to document and be able to present. 

Sustainability reporting as per the Annual Accounts Act (riksdagen.se)