The Time for Business to Act Is Now

A Call to Action

This agenda introduced 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets designed to address global challenges such as poverty, hunger, health, education, climate change, and environmental sustainability.

The ambition behind the SDGs was groundbreaking—unlike the Millennium Development Goals, which primarily focused on developing nations, the SDGs were universal. Their promise? A fairer world where reduced poverty, improved health, and better education would generate wealth that is more equitably distributed. At their core, the SDGs presented an opportunity for capitalism to evolve by doing good.

Three Years Later: A Sobering Reality

Fast forward to September 25, 2018, during Climate Week NYC, and the optimism had waned.

Jeffrey Sachs, economist and special advisor to the UN Secretary-General on the SDGs, did not mince words:

“We’ve achieved almost nothing. Markets don’t do social justice.”

Sachs argued that markets not only fail to deliver social justice but actively work against it. He described a world obsessed with wealth accumulation, where environmental and social concerns are continually pushed aside.

Earlier that evening, Jean-Louis Chaussade, CEO of the French multinational Suez, voiced his own frustrations:

“What do we do? How do we move from A to B? How do we close down our cash cows? Companies cannot and will not move alone. It’s a simple question of supply and demand; if there is a need, companies will meet it. They will not change.”

Hope from Innovation

Not all perspectives were as bleak. Bertrand Piccard, the visionary behind the Solar Impulse project, pointed to technological breakthroughs as drivers of change:

“Businesses can understand that growth can be achieved in a sustainable manner. Some can even see beyond the short-term when necessary, but the argument needs to be logical, not just ecological, to get them to change.”

Customer Activism: A Key Driver

One of the most striking comments of the evening came from Chaussade:

“We need to accelerate the activism of customers to focus minds.”

At the 2nd London Core Dinner Debate business leaders reflected on this statement. Nick Davies, CEO of Neighbourly, emphasized that customer activism is vital, but so is business education:

“Businesses need to do much more to educate their customers.”

The debate, which included representatives from M&S, Sodexo, The Climate Group, HSBC, EDF Energy, and others, highlighted the ongoing struggle between sustainability teams and short-term financial targets.

The Power of Media

A guest at the event pointed to the impact of Blue Planet II as an example of how media can drive real action:

“We’ve been banging on about sustainability for 30 years, and then suddenly this program comes from nowhere and the impact is instant. People leave plastic packaging on supermarket floors, plastic straws and cups are banned overnight, and plastics companies go bust—it’s been remarkable.”

Despite decades of climate education, many still fail to grasp the urgency. The key question remains: how can we make climate change feel real and immediate?

The Business Imperative

Many attendees acknowledged progress within their supply chains but admitted that sustainability is still often treated as an add-on rather than a core business priority. This urgency was reinforced when, on October 8, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a critical report warning:

“Climate change is not the next generation’s issue. It’s ours.”

The Role of Business Leadership

Businesses have the resources, influence, and ability to drive meaningful change. Companies like Unilever have shown that a strong purpose, structured around a methodology such as Single Organizing Idea (SOI), can accelerate sustainability efforts.

For businesses, this means:

  • Turning sustainability commitments into concrete actions.
  • Expanding sustainability efforts beyond supply chains to entire business models.
  • Rethinking operations from the ground up to align with a core purpose that benefits all stakeholders.

The Time to Act Is Now

The IPCC report made it clear: businesses cannot afford to wait for governments to take the lead or pass the responsibility onto others.

Sustainability must be woven into the fabric of business operations—not just as a CSR initiative or a marketing strategy, but as a central pillar of business strategy.

About the Author

Neil Gaught is the author of CORE: How a Single Organizing Idea Can Change Business for Good, published by Routledge.

Find CORE here:

CORE was a finalist at the 2018 Business Book Awards.