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

3.3 Transforming the way business operates for better business and a better world

All of the businesses growing in sustainable markets today are progressing on some of the Global Goals. But some are going backwards on others. For instance, zerohour labor contracts are used in some "sharing economy" models in ways that add to workers' income insecurity: they couldn't be counted as decent work.

As the Commission's research showed in Section 2, progress on all the Global Goals is needed to deliver all their business benefits, making a powerful business as well as moral case for business leaders to back progress towards all the Global Goals.

"Progress on all the Global Goals is needed to deliver their business benefits".

Doing this comprehensively implies a transformation in how businesses operate, individually and collectively. Business leaders can take action at four levels to drive this transformation:

as individuals, to gain commitment to the Global Goals as a growth strategy from colleagues and the business community
through their companies, by making the Global Goals permeate strategy and operations
working with sector or economic system peers to shift the sector to sustainable competition, and
working with government and regulators to shape policies that advance the Global Goals.