BUS604: Innovation and Sustainability

Environmental degradation and social tensions has put societies under severe pressures the past couple of decades, with the growing populations and increasing per capita consumption as the key drivers. In September 2015, pressures led to a historic global political agreement, when 193 countries signed the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, the so-called SDGs or "Global Goals".

Already back in year 2000, an agreement for global development was landed when the UN member states agreed to the so-called Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aimed at driving the global development agenda in the time period 2000-2015. The MDGs targeted eight key areas: 

poverty, education, gender equality, child mortality, maternal health, disease, the environment, and global partnership. Each goal was supported by 21 specific targets and more than 60 indicators to monitor.

Fig 1. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The MDG´s came out of a typical political UN process with limited interactions outside UN and government circles. The outcome of the process, the MDG´s, primarily had appeal in the political and regulatory system, as well as to aid- and civil society organizations. The private sector in general did not see its role in relation to the MDGs. 

In many aspects MDGs were successful and became recognized as the most successful global anti-poverty push in history. Governments, international organizations, and civil society groups around the world helped reduce the world's extreme poverty rate by more than 50%. Today, much more girls are in school and much fewer children are dying from disease and malnutrition thanks to the focus and actions driven by the MDGs. 

However, despite the success of the MDG´s, already midway to 2015, it became increasingly clear that the MDG´s were not going to solve all major global challenges. Many new and severe societal challenges surfaced in those years and called for global action with a much wider scope. Among the new challenges, that were generally recognized as material, were the many different environmental and social issues related to the fast growing industrial production, consumption, and urbanization. 

With its focus on poverty, education, and diseases the MDG´s were primarily driving a political agenda for the developing world. However, with the many new sustainability issues materializing it became very clear that the sustainable development agenda was as much an agenda for the developed world, and especially also for the private sector. 

When the revenues of large companies exceed the GDP of many countries, and supply chains stretch around the world, the private sector plays a key role in achieving a global sustainable development – environmentally and socially. 

The private sector defines to a large degree the social and environmental performance levels through the entire value chains in which they operate, from production to consumption and disposal of consumer goods. It became widely recognized, also in the UN system, that the sustainable development agenda would only be successful with significant engagement and contributions coming from the private sector. 

The SDG development process was formally kicked off at the RIO+20 UN Earth Summit, in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil 2012. The intent was to create a new set of global goals to address the growing challenges to sustainable development, and to continue the journey started with the MDGs. 

From the beginning of the process the private sector was invited to contribute via a so called Open Working Group (OWG) established early 2013 to coordinate the interactions between the UN system, civil society and business. This opening of a major UN process to the private sector represented a significant paradigm shift in the way the UN operates.