Business and Sustainable Development Commission Report
Read this report, which demonstrates the business case for the SDGs and the US$12 trillion a year market opportunity available to companies that embrace the mission and lead with a strategic vision.
3. Leading For Better Business And A Better World
Key points
- Businesses have long targeted sustainability as a business opportunity and strong sustainability performance is increasingly linked to strong investor returns.
- Radical incumbents and new ventures are shaping the Global Goals market hot spots by deploying five new business models: sharing, circular, lean service, big data, and social enterprise. There are already more than 30 Global Goals "unicorns" with market valuations of more than US$1 billion.
- Business leaders who understand that achieving the Global Goals is key to long-term business growth:
- Communicate that understanding to the business and investment community
- Integrate the Global Goals into corporate strategy
- Work with sector peers to make sector competition sustainable
- Help shape enabling policy
The business case for sustainable development is already strong (Subsection 3.1) and the opportunities opened up by achieving the Global Goals described in Section 2 make it much stronger. A wave of companies and entrepreneurs is already using innovative technology and business models to enter Global Goals-related markets (Subsection 3.2).
However, opening up the full range and scale of Global Goals-related markets and the long-term business growth they offer depends on achieving all the Global Goals. This interdependence calls for a transformation in the way businesses operate. How business leaders can make this transformation through their own business and beyond is detailed in Subsections 3.3 to 3.7.