Aligning Business Goals with the UN 2030 Agenda: BlueNalu

As global priorities evolve in response to mounting social and environmental pressures, companies increasingly align their strategies with forward-looking benchmarks promoting progress, resilience, and sustainability. According to the Business and Sustainable Development Commission, achieving the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda creates at least $12 trillion in business opportunities. From climate action to food systems and public health, the 2030 Agenda continues to serve as a guiding framework for meaningful corporate impact.  

Through its participation in our SDG Ambition Accelerator, BlueNalu has further sharpened its approach to aligning with the ambitions of the 2030 Agenda. The company’s work intersects with global priorities such as food security, public health, ocean stewardship, and climate action, where meaningful innovation can drive measurable impact. As BlueNalu continues to scale its efforts, its contributions reflect a broader shift in how companies turn purpose into progress. Here’s how their approach contributes to this shared vision for the decade ahead:  

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1. Can you provide an overview of your company’s efforts to align with the SDGs?  

At BlueNalu, our mission is to create a healthy, humane, and sustainable food future that aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We consider our work aligned with at least ten of the SDGs, with particular emphasis on SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 14 (Life Below Water), and SDG 17 (Partnership for the Goals). As a pioneer in cell-cultivated seafood, our approach is designed to provide a more resilient alternative to conventional seafood by reducing pressure on wild fisheries, creating another healthy option for consumers, and minimizing reliance on vulnerable global supply chains.

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2. How has participating in the SDG Ambition Accelerator reshaped your company’s long-term sustainability vision and priorities?  

As a nascent company, BlueNalu has a unique opportunity to build our sustainability strategy right from the ground up, rather than having to course-correct like many more-established companies might. Participating in the SDG Ambition Accelerator was unique. It challenged us to move beyond simply aligning with the SDGs and toward embedding measurable sustainability benchmarks into our strategic planning. The modules were our first structured exercise in ESG planning. They equipped us with practical tools and frameworks that directly informed our next steps.  

In 2024, building on that momentum, we launched our first cross-functional ESG initiative. This effort united team members across departments and engaged external stakeholders to identify our most material impacts and opportunities. Through this process, we established our ESG roadmap. We conducted our first Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)—a critical milestone in quantifying the environmental footprint of our production process at this stage.  

The LCA provided data-driven insights that guided early decisions to reduce our impact and informed our broader sustainability strategy. This initiative helped us prioritize our efforts, align on meaningful metrics, and lay a strong foundation for continuous improvement and transparent reporting as we grow, ensuring we scale in a way that is trackable, responsible, and aligned with the SDGs.

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3. How has the SDG Ambition Accelerator impacted your company’s approach to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?  

The SDG Ambition Accelerator significantly impacted our approach to the Sustainable Development Goals by providing structure and practical tools that helped us move the needle forward. One of the most valuable aspects of the program was its modules that utilized example metrics and company case studies tied to SDGs. These helped ground the SDGs in actionable data, clarifying which metrics were feasible to track now, and which would require additional infrastructure as we grow. The Accelerator also helped us visualize how our efforts could scale over time by showcasing how other companies approach SDG integration across different maturity levels. This was especially important for us as a growing organization, as ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) and SDG frameworks can often feel broad or overwhelming. However, the program broke them into manageable, scenario-based steps relevant to our size and stage.

As a result, we’ve been able to align cross-functional teams around shared sustainability benchmarks and KPIs. The Accelerator gave us our first formal practice in mapping targets to KPIs, and it has laid the groundwork for long-term, measurable ESG integration across the business.

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4. Can you share an example of a specific SDG target your company has worked toward and the measurable progress you’ve achieved?  

At BlueNalu, we view SDG 17, Partnerships for the Goals, as essential to our mission of scaling cell-cultivated seafood and creating a future where healthy, humane, and sustainable seafood nourishes well-being for all. We’ve established over a dozen strategic partnerships across the value chain, including with leading foodservice, distribution, and technology companies, to help scale our impact and accelerate the global commercialization of cell-cultivated seafood. These multi-stakeholder collaborations enable knowledge-sharing, innovation, and market readiness, directly supporting SDG targets 17.16 and 17.17.  

A recent milestone includes our acceptance into the UK Food Standards Agency’s Cell-Cultivated Products (CCP) regulatory sandbox. BlueNalu is the only U.S.-based company in the program and the only one focused solely on cell-cultivated seafood. This partnership provides a collaborative environment to help navigate the UK’s novel food regulatory process and ultimately support our goal of regulatory approval and commercialization in the UK. We’ve also expanded our commercial partnership with Nomad Foods, Europe’s leading frozen food company, to co-develop the region’s go-to-market strategies and distribution models.  

In parallel, we continue to engage in global coalitions and working groups that advance shared learning and industry-wide progress. As an active member of the UN Global Compact and National Fisheries Institute, and now the UK CCP initiative, BlueNalu is helping shape the future of seafood through science-based dialogue, sustainability frameworks, and a focus on enabling equitable access to cultivated seafood as the industry scales.

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5. What challenges have you faced in aligning your business strategy with the SDGs, and how have you overcome them?  

One of the biggest challenges we’ve faced in aligning our business strategy with the SDGs is the stage of scale we’re in as an emerging technology. Unlike more established companies working to reduce an existing footprint, we’re in a phase of rapid scale-up, which brings a different challenge: how to build the right systems now to track, reduce, and avoid impact as we grow.  

The SDG Ambition Accelerator encouraged us to engage stakeholders early and ask the right questions. This led to our first formal ESG project, where we mapped out what’s most important to address today, what will be most material over the next five years, and what longer-term metrics we should plan for. That strategic lens made sustainability more digestible and actionable. It helped us align our efforts with our business’s current and future scale. While we’re still evolving, these foundational steps enable us to align with the SDGs in a realistic and impactful way for our growth stage.

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6. How have you integrated SDG benchmarks into business operations and decision-making?  

Our initial ESG project heavily utilized the SDGs during the research and discovery phase to help define the scope of each department’s focus and identify the material topics critical to our short- and long-term strategy. Using the SDGs as one of our example frameworks, we aligned on priority areas. We selected relevant metrics that reflect cross-industry best practices. This approach guided decision-making and enabled us to build a cross-functional team dedicated to ESG integration. We are now actively working toward benchmarking and setting goals for these key topics, with the SDGs continuing to play a central role in aligning our strategy and measuring progress.

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7. What guidance would you offer to organizations embarking on their sustainability journey and seeking to align their strategies with the SDGs?  

ESG can feel overwhelming, especially for smaller or emerging companies. The UN SDGs offer valuable clarity as the most widely adopted and understood global framework for sustainability. They help all stakeholders—employees, customers, investors, and policymakers—speak a common language around impact and responsibility. The best advice is to start early and not feel pressured to tackle all 17 SDGs simultaneously. Focus on the areas where you can make the most significant difference at your current scale.  

Starting with practical, achievable steps helps build a strong foundation to measure progress and expand your impact over time. One helpful insight is that many companies are already tracking ESG-related activities. However, these efforts are often siloed across departments and are not tracked centrally. By identifying what you’re already doing, you can create momentum by fostering internal alignment and build confidence as you move toward a more structured ESG strategy.  

As the global food system undergoes a necessary transformation, companies like BlueNalu are helping define leadership, combining innovation with intention to build a healthier, more sustainable future. By aligning its mission with the long-term priorities of the UN’s 2030 Agenda and engaging in programs like the SDG Ambition Accelerator, BlueNalu is sharpening its strategy, strengthening its operational resilience, and deepening its impact across key global challenges.  

Since 2020, our SDG Ambition Accelerator has helped more than 80 U.S. companies move beyond incremental progress and set bold, forward-looking targets aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While the program has concluded, its strong impact and continued demand has inspired Network USA to build on this foundation. As we look ahead to the 2030 milestone, we have developed a new initiative, the Sustainability Integration Program, to further support companies in embedding sustainability into core business operations.

To learn more about this new opportunity, we invite you to view our information session. Applications for the Sustainability Integration Program open on October 15, 2025. The program will run from early March through the end of April 2026. If you are interested in joining the 2026 cohort, please contact us for more details.