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A 2017 Global Scan Sustainability Survey, titled Evaluating Progress Towards the Sustainable Development Goals, found that while corporate respondents say their business is responding to the SDGs by developing products or services that will provide solutions, and nearly all report that they are currently contributing or planning to contribute to the SDGs, all respondents agree that society’s progress on sustainable development and the SDGs has been poor thus far. THE TRILLION DOLLAR SHIFTWe need both business and investors to incorporate the SDGs into the heart of their business strategy and come up with solutions that are impactful and scalable. And there is actually no reason for doubt. The Sustainable Development Goals represent a massive opportunity for business and investors, since they direct us to opening up new markets, new business potential and thus to a better future. The Business Commission’s report Better Business, Better World mentions an economic benefit of 12 trillion dollars by 2030 if companies align their strategies with the SDGs, and employment opportunities of 380 million jobs by 2030 – mainly occurring in developing countries. At the same time, the price of not aligning is high, both at the planet’s level – such as the cost of inaction on climate change of 24 trillion dollars, and at the sector level – such as the cost of food waste of almost one third of all food produced. The costs for companies are high as well. If they do not shift their business strategy, they will have no future as they are left with stranded assets and no innovation skills to deal with disruptive changes at high speed. The shared value model, with a holistic view on integrated and true value creation, will soon be the only business model and thus the challenge for business is on the ‘how’ rather than the ‘why’. Realizing that business for good is in fact good business, and changes will occur anyway, such as fossil fuels phasing out more quickly than expected because of economic reasons, there is simply no reason not to engage.IMPACTING THE SDGS UNLOCKS BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIESBusiness solutions for the SDGs and thus climate change, which is in fact affected by all the SDGs, are as much needed as they are profitable. Solutions for reducing food waste dramatically for instance, prevent huge economic loss, get more people fed – which is imperative since there are still nearly 800 million people going to bed hungry, and has an enormous impact on climate change since food and land use systems account for over 25 per cent of greenhouse emissions. The goals are interdependent, meaning that contributing to one goal produces a positive effect on many others, and damaging one means damaging many. Every company should have by now done a self-assessment to determine which goals they can have the most significant positive impact on. If this assessment has not yet been done, they should do that sooner rather than later. The goals they can impact will unlock opportunities for future successful business. Embedding the goals in the company’s strategy is, therefore, a successful innovation instrument as much as it is a sustainable approach. In my experience, it is a real eyeopener for many companies when they come to the realization that their impact can be much higher and broader as well; for example, when food companies realize their economic impact can be huge, retailers realize they can be renewable energy producers, and energy companies realize they can have huge social impact. The SDGs bring business the huge gift of learning to be much more holistic and think at a much broader level, which is key to being successful in the multi-stakeholder era we are in now.ICT AND TECHNOLOGY: THE KEY TO FAST-FORWARDING THE SOLUTIONSWhile we should acknowledge that before 2015 we achieved positive societal results like lifting 933 million people out of poverty between 1999 and Pictured: Marga HoekGLOBAL VOICES 079