The Role of Business in Global Sustainability Transformations

Since 2007, of the global risks reported by the World Economic Forum, economic issues have progressively conceded space to geopolitical, societal, technological and - largely – environmental issues. Systemic risks can also overwhelm parts of the global economy that earlier appeared robust, as we have witnessed recently the devastating effects and repercussions of covid-19 pandemic. Living in this era renews the need to accelerate change towards more sustainable and just transformations worldwide, by envisioning economic models that would cater to societal needs within the planet’s biophysical boundaries. At the same time, businesses in the private sector continue to make vital socio-econonomic contributions to the world in the forms of goods, employment and innovation. The global expectation, raised since 2015 in the contexts of the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit and the Climate Change Conference, is that the private sector will have an increasingly relevant role in addressing socio-ecological sustainability challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity and ecosystem loss, land use competition, disruption of biogeochemical cycles and consequent impacts on human social and economic well-being. Consequently, there is a strong call for researchers and professionals to adopt an interdisciplinary and holistic mind-set when addressing business sustainability –related issues. The chapters in this edited book delineate the perimeter of potential contribution for the private sector to concretize the pathways into sustainability transformations. This book, to be published by Routledge, is a unique attempt to present and connect multiple concepts and phenomena which are currently exercising traction or influence in the way business sustainability is formulated. The overarching vision for the book refers to the Sustainable Development Goals, the planetary boundaries framework and the notion of just and sustainable societal transformations. Existing books generally address individual notions in the context of business sustainability, often focusing on the adaptive role of technology solutions, while overlooking transformative changes involving other types of societal innovation processes. Given the highly interdisciplinary array of ideas collected and connected in the book, this is meant to be an edited, yet coherently intertwined, ensemble of chapters authored by leading scholars in the context of sustainability and organization sciences. We hope for this book to be a primary reference for researchers and practitioners from various sustainability-related business disciplines, converging towards the shared effort of investigating how business should or could contribute to sustainability transformation. The target audience for this book or parts include professionals, consultants, or representatives of initiatives supporting the development of business sustainability.