Entreps Articke for SDGZero

The World’s Only Sustainable Business Directory Set to Empower SMEs

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London, UK – 14 February 2026

This week marks the official launch of SDG:Zero, an initiative designed to recognise and promote the sustainability efforts of small and medium-sized enterprises worldwide. 

At its heart is the Sustainable Business Directory, a platform optimised for local SEO and designed to give start-ups, micro-businesses and SMEs the visibility they deserve for the work they are doing in relation to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 

It offers businesses a simple way to showcase their many and diverse commitments, with the aim of attracting customers and partners who value responsible business practices, while also connecting them with a growing community of like-minded organisations. 

“SMEs are the backbone of every community, and they have an important role to play in supporting the SDGs,” said founder Neville Gaunt. “But sustainability can often feel overwhelming or out of reach. SDG:Zero is designed to make that journey more accessible.

“We are building an accessible platform that helps businesses communicate what they are already doing, and this directory is the first step. For many forward-thinking businesses, it offers a practical and valuable opportunity to increase visibility and demonstrate commitment.” 

The SDG:Zero Directory offers four tiers of access:

  • Starter Free Tier: A simple listing for any SME or any person committed to the SDGs.
  • Featured £50 Tier: Enhanced visibility for the price of a coffee a month.
  • Premium £100 Tier: Premium storytelling tools and priority placement.
  • Elite £300 Tier: Leadership recognition and co-creation opportunities.

SDG:Zero also recognises how difficult it can be to start and run a business in a challenging and changing commercial climate. For that reason, it includes the SDG:Zero Resources Vault, focused on helping start-ups, business owners and employees adapt and grow in a new world shaped by AI and changing customer buying behaviours. 

If you have not yet started a business, the Starter Free listing will also provide access to the Resources Vault, which includes practical guides aimed at helping people improve their prospects, including useful resources for students seeking employment. 

Early adopters can also secure Founding Member status, which includes priority placement, locked-in pricing, and an exclusive badge to use as part of their company branding. 

SDG:Zero aims to partner with local authorities, community influencers, SME networks, universities, charities, sustainability consultants and membership organisations to help ensure the directory is accessible to every business. 

All partners will enjoy co-branding opportunities, recognition across all channels, and priority access to future tools. 

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More Than a Directory

The mission of SDG:Zero is to help SMEs take practical steps towards sustainability by making their efforts more visible, easier to communicate and better connected to a wider business community. 

“Most SMEs are already doing more for sustainability than they realise — they just need a place to tell their story,” added Neville Gaunt. “Wherever they are in the world, SDG:Zero gives them that platform.” 

The SDG:Zero Sustainable Business Directory is now open for SME listings worldwide. 

Businesses can join at: https://sdgzero.com/join/

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Media Contact

SDG:Zero Communications Team

Email: hello@sdgzero.net

Website: www.SDGZero.com

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Note on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a UN-adopted framework aimed at ending poverty, protecting the planet, and supporting prosperity. They are intended to be achieved by 2030 through global, national and local action on a range of social, economic and environmental issues, many of which are relevant to the small business community. The full list is as follows: 

Goal 1: No Poverty – End poverty in all its forms everywhere.

Goal 2: Zero Hunger – End hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.

Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being – Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all.

Goal 4: Quality Education – Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education.

Goal 5: Gender Equality – Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation – Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation.

Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy – Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy.

Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth – Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth and productive employment.

Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure – Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive industrialisation, and foster innovation.

Goal 10: Reduced Inequality – Reduce inequality within and among countries.

Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities – Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production – Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

Goal 13: Climate Action – Take action to combat climate change and its impacts.

Goal 14: Life Below Water – Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources.

Goal 15: Life on Land – Protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt biodiversity loss.

Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions – Promote peaceful and inclusive societies, provide access to justice, and build effective, accountable institutions.

Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals – Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development.

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50 Refugee Women Made Soap, Now They’re Building Businesses!

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Neville Gaunt, Chairman of Your PassPort2Grow (YP2G) and CEO MindFit has been actively working on a solution to the growing refugee problem. In fact it’s no longer just a problem, it’s a crisis. 

Many refugee camps across Africa are busting at the seems with nearly 4 times the planned number of refugees housed in tents. A refugee camp is supposed to be a safe, temporary haven from war and conflict. But when you’ve spent THIRTEEN years living in one, it becomes your home.

But unlike the homes we know, these are more akin to prisons. There’s virtually nothing you can do to improve the conditions – and you can’t break free.

This is the reality of life today for millions of refugees and it’s getting worse as escalating military and political disasters drive more and more from the only real homes they have known and putting their lives on hold.

It’s a refugee crisis not just a problem and the Aid Agency (NGO) model is broken

We rely on Aid Agencies to follow the old saying 

“give a man a fish, he feeds for a day, teach him how to fish he feeds his family for life”

But these agencies are struggling to do the feeding and not touching the teaching. 

There are only two ways refugees can improve conditions for themselves and their families:

1 start a business

2 get a job

Sadly, the infrastructure in most camps doesn’t support either. The few projects aimed at creating entrepreneurs are soon dashed by a lack of leadership and resources. Only a lucky few, those with qualifications, will find a job and move out. But they’re all too rare.

We know we can’t change this overnight, but you can help by joining our group of international business mentors and local in-camp leaders and trainers who all work to a simple model, based on nothing more than commitment and common sense.

Be in no doubt, this an ambitious international collaboration and one that will soon see us bring together a few pockets of early success and make each of them sustainable under the same model.

The results

We trained 50 refugee women to make and sell soap, restoring their confidence, giving them hope  and building a brighter future. (This is the third time we’ve run the programme, so it’s a process that works and not just luck!)

And we do all this for $50 per startup!

  • Trainers – refugees in the camp – $20
  • Training Equipment – $15
  • Startup supplies – $10 
  • Support post startup -$5

All the coaching/training/mentoring by the international team is given free.

Once trading profitably the startup micro business – pays a monthly club fee as payback – $2 

We now need your help to reach more refugees!

Donate and empower refugees to become entrepreneurs https://www.gofundme.com/f/how-you-can-help-the-refugee-crisis

Our United Nations… by Thakur S. Powdyel

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Thakur S. Powdyel

Our United Nations: 75 Years on…

One war too many; one misery, all miseries; one dream, all dreams… This was the context, extent, and intent that led to the founding of the United Nations Organisation from the ashes of the Second World War that engulfed humanity on a scale unprecedented and desolation unimaginable. The United Nations came into existence on October 24, 1945, when the UN Charter was officially ratified by the five permanent members and a majority of other signatories, with the cherished aim ‘to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war’.

Signed 75 years ago today, on June 26, 1945 at San Francisco, the United Nations Charter enshrines the most fundamental and comprehensive aspirations of humanity and the obligations of member-states to enable the flourishing of life and conduct of nations befitting the human of the species. The many organs that constitute the United Nations Organisation are mandated to fulfil the foundational aims of the world body in letter and in spirit.

In its chequered journey, the United Nations has come a long way. With all its imperfections, the United Nations remains the most important, truly international institution comprising some 193 sovereign, independent states from across the globe as its members. It symbolises the most fervent hope of humanity for peace, security, and a life of dignity and respect in an environment of inter-state, inter-regional, and inter-national relationship based on mutual tolerance, integrity, and goodwill.

Despite the threats to its basic goals that were unleashed almost from day one with the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the blatant violations of membership obligations, challenges posed by human and environmental crises, cyber-security threats, and a host of other compelling issues that claim the attention of the United Nations at different points, it remains the most reassuring symbol of hope and sanity in the world today.

With all its imperfections, it is thanks to the sustained efforts of the United Nations that the world is this much safer, the human lot this much better, and the future still worth-working for. Often close to the brink, yet short of strike, a global conflagration of a Third World War has been avoided, humanitarian crises mitigated, and chances for peace enhanced. The UN is the first and the last point of reference for standards of good behaviour for governments and nations around the world.

Successive secretaries-general, heads of agencies, regional as well as country chiefs and functionaries at all levels, past and present, have each brought to bear their individual convictions and professional commitments on the discharge of their duties and advanced the goals of the United Nations and given it cause for legitimacy and worth often in the face of cynicism and threat.

Come 2021, it will be half a century of exemplary partnership between the Kingdom of Bhutan and the United Nations. Becoming the 128th member of the United Nations Organisation on September 21, 1971, thanks to the far-sighted vision of the Father of Modern Bhutan, Druk Gyalpo Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, has immensely benefitted the country, both in tangible as well as symbolical terms, advancing thereby the foundational ideals of United Nations to which Bhutan is fully committed and enhancing the overall development goals of the country through targeted, strategic support provided by the UN system.

Having started its operations in the country as early as 1973, the office of the United Nations Development Programme was formally established in 1979. Currently, it has some 26 agencies of the UN working in the country under the auspices of the Delivering as One approach with the Resident Coordinator as the overall chief.

Each head of the UN system in Bhutan and their colleagues have made their own unique contributions to the advancement of the country’s development goals particularly in the human resource capacity building and governance areas with significant, visible results in diverse sectors they have been involved in.

As a passionate believer in the noble ideals of the UN Charter, Bhutan has been playing its role, albeit modest, by participating actively in deliberations in the different bodies, advocating the foundational vision of the organisation, and in more recent years contributing volunteers to peace-building and peace-keeping missions in some of the most challenging hot-spots in the world.

Bhutan’s holistic development vision of Gross National Happiness, articulated by His Majesty Druk Gyalpo Jigme Singye Wangchuck, has found deep resonance with the long-term development goals of the UN. Endorsed as the ninth Millennium Development Goal, the UN General Assembly adopted pursuit of happiness as a basic human right and declared March 20th as the International Day of Happiness in 2012. Several themes of the 17-point Agenda 2030 draw their inspiration from the work of the high-level international experts’ team, including Nobel Laureates, appointed by His Majesty the King in 2012 to chart the post-2015 development road-map.

As the world celebrates the 75th anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Charter, it is a moment for some deep soul-searching, to reflect on the vision of the founding-fathers and the distance we have covered. How might the world look like without the United Nations? How might we make it more efficient, effective and fair? How do we hold the defaulters to account?

For Bhutan though, the benefits that have come through our membership to this pre-eminent extended family of nations have given to us a global platform to share the country’s unique vision of holistic development dedicated to human and societal flourishing within mutually supportive planetary boundaries. This membership has allowed us to make our own the all-embracing foundational ideals of the United Nations.

Inspired by Friendship in all Seasons, “working together to ensure no one is left behind is at the heart of our work in Bhutan and we are grateful for these partnerships”, in the words of the current UN Resident Coordinator, Mr Gerald Daly.

This is the inescapable fact. The ideals of the UN are human ideals, conceived and communicated in time for a time beyond time. The UN is us and ours. So are its ideals. They survive and thrive through individual faith and conviction. It is the integrity of individual leaders and individual nations and their citizens to breathe life into the UN and live out its noble ideals in their life and action. The soul of the UN expresses itself in the role of its functionaries and signatories.

For me as an individual, and a man of faith, the United Nations still represents the best of human yearning and the noblest of collective striving. If not for Covid-19, I should have been at Seville in Spain this moment to partake of the historic 75th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter as a special invitee of Entreps-UN75.

May the sublime ideals of our United Nations flower and flourish in all realms, at all times, and in all lives…

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Reflections:  June 26, 2020.

Thakur S Powdyel, Former Minister of Education, Royal Government of Bhutan

Entreps Global Juror.