Examining the sustainability performance of businesses in the BIST sustainability index in the context of sustainable development goals

The Paris Climate Agreement, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and net zero-emission targets highlight the necessity of sustainability transformation.Enterprises have significant responsibilities in realizing this transformation, so management decisions and practices must be sustainable.Since the SDGs are a pretty new subject, studies measuring the enterprises' SDGs performance are very insufficient in the literature.The study, which was carried out to fulfill this deficiency to some extent, aims to measure the enterprises' activities and targets in the context of the United Nations SDGs and reveal sustainability performance in economic, social, and environmental terms.For this purpose, 23 companies' 2020 sustainability reports from four different sectors, which fit the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), are part of the BIST Sustainability Index and have undergone independent auditing, were analyzed by the content analysis method.According to the analysis findings, it has been determined that the enterprises' sustainability performances are not at the desired levels.However, the SDGs have begun shaping enterprises' activities and goals.The manufacturing sector lags behind other sectors regarding average Sustainability and SDGs performance.It is clear that businesses need to improve their performance, so it is recommended within the scope of the research that enterprises put SDGs at the center of their decisions concerning all fields of activity, and strategically addressing sustainability.Since the private sector has a key role in reaching the 2050 targets, the enterprises' performance indicators revealed by the research are important for decision-makers, business administration, and the literature.