The trade union interest for integrating sustainable development principles within their areas of work is growing. Defining and coordinating national, sector and workplace-level actions to implement many aspects of sustainable development remains a priority.

Profiling refers to the development of analysis, based on specific groups of data that are entered in the database and maintained by the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC) as background information for all countries and selected regions, industrial sectors and specific companies.

These data are then broken down and made available in many report forms to facilitate analysis on given topics. However, the production of Profiles has been standardised and some are available on an ongoing basis for specific topics: Sustainable Development, Energy and Climate Change, Occupational Health and Safety, Asbestos, HIV/AIDS, Trade Union Rights, as well as Corporate Accountability.