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:

  1. Communicate that understanding to the business and investment community
  2. Integrate the Global Goals into corporate strategy
  3. Work with sector peers to make sector competition sustainable
  4. 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.