Can Business Grow and Truly Have a Positive Impact? Or Are We Dreaming?
Photo by Jonatan Pie on Unsplash
Key take-away from our shared session with the UN - how solving the world's biggest problems will unlock the world's biggest business opportunities.
During United Nations General Assembly week in New York in September 2024, Conspiracy of Love hosted a breakfast session with the United Nations Development Programme and corporate leaders from American Express, Citibank, Pepsico, Mastercard, Sephora and others, to explore how creating positive social and environmental impact doesn’t just help people and the planet, but also drives Purposeful Growth for the private sector.
Key participants included Boaz Paldi from UNDP, who emphasized the urgent need for global collaboration to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly in the areas of sustainable energy transition and inclusive economic development. The conversation centered on how businesses, leveraging their unique strengths, can help solve societal problems profitably, with a focus on climate action, renewable energy investments, and circular economy solutions.
Here are our key takeaways:
The need for global transformation to achieve the SDGs is massive:
Everybody and every day counts when it comes to creating a planet where we can all thrive.
Number one focus for the world to mitigate climate change is the transition to a green economy. A rapid shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy will make the biggest difference at scale.
Climate related issues need to be solved in the context of inclusive and equitable economic growth: By promoting economic opportunities that reduce inequality, creating decent jobs, and fostering resilient and inclusive economies that leave no one behind.
UN Sustainable Development Goals
We need to accelerate progress:
The 2024 SDG report reveals that only 17% of targets are on track, with nearly half showing minimal or moderate progress. Many goals, including poverty reduction and clean energy access, are stagnating or regressing, raising concerns about meeting the 2030 targets.
Climate change in particular needs to be addressed with the utmost urgency, to avoid
Irreversible damage to ecosystems
A further increased frequency of extreme weather events
Sea level rise and coastal impact
Health risks such as spread of diseases and air quality decline
Economic and social instability.
The solutions requires a massive call to action and mobilization across the public and private sectors, nations and international institutions.
Major question - is it really possible to be optimistic, especially in the face of weak leadership around these issues at a country level? Lots of discussion around this - general consensus that there is reason to be hopeful, but we must lean into fear and hope in different ways (fear is a good tool to get people moving. Hope is needed to sustain action).
Incentives for the private sector also need to be aligned with the social and environmental outcomes we want businesses to help create.
There are a lot of ideas out there, but the key is to scale the ones that have the opportunity to have the most impact while being economically viable.
The opportunities for the private sector to help solve these problems profitably, are massive:
Against this backdrop, companies have a huge opportunity to grow by solving societal problems, instead of further adding to them. The UN estimates that achieving the Sustainable Development Goals opens up more than $12 trillion of new market opportunities. Examples:
Investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and carbon capture technologies have created new industries and millions of jobs globally.
Adapting infrastructure and communities to climate change can create new markets for flood protection, drought-resistant agriculture, and sustainable building materials.
Transitioning to a circular economy, where resources are reused and recycled, can create new markets for waste management, recycling technologies, and sustainable materials.
In addition to these huge new markets for global solutions, corporate leaders can leverage purpose and positive societal impact to stimulate business growth in how they lead, work and create inside their organizations:
We know that by almost every measure, consumers are more likely to purchase from companies that can demonstrate adding value to society
The data also shows that companies with a strong sense of mission are more innovative
Especially Gen Z and Millennial employees are now much more drawn to companies that can demonstrate a positive impact on society through their core business
As a result of all the above, purpose-driven companies have and will continue to outperform their peers when it comes to market valuation and year-over-year growth.
Solving SDGs will unlock 12 trillion USD of new market opportunities and generate up to 380 million jobs
Maximizing the value creation opportunity will require businesses to apply a clear set of principles:
Organizations need to be aware of their ‘superpowers’ and apply those against the issues where they can have the most impact.
The impact area also needs to be aligned and reconciled with the company’s strategic focus and narrative to ensure stakeholders see it as material to the business.
Once defined, the activation of the chosen impact area needs to be leveraged commercially wherever possible, to ensure ongoing dedication of resources, by establishing the societal impact opportunity as an investment in growth, not as ‘cost of doing business’.
In this context, the role of CMO’s is critical, to be the ethical compass as well as to ensure commercial activation (i.e through leveraging impact for brand differentiation and consumer engagement).
Other functions to activate and amplify impact are HR leaders (to boost employee engagement and build stronger employer brands through impact) and Chief Innovation Officers (to create new commercially viable offerings that solve societal problems through the business).
Examples cited:
United Nations x The Weather Channel, “The Weather Kids” campaign
Citibank Impact Fund which invests in companies that are developing innovative solutions to address some of society’s most pressing challenges.
Further resources
United Nations Development Programme - UNGA 2024, Summit of the Future overview
