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GLOBAL VOICES 057“WHAT WE INVEST IN, WILL GROW. WHAT WE DIVEST FROM, WILL PHASE OUT – AND IT SHOULD”companies that aim for business for good, these two aims are basically the same. This comprehensive goal is possible because new markets and business cases, and delivering a positive impact on SDGs essentially coincide. The list of good examples is growing. For example, last year Hydra Ventures, the corporate venturing division of Adidas, invested nearly two million dollars in CRAiLAR Technologies Inc., which makes sustainable, environmentally friendly fibres and fabrics for textile, paper and composite use. And the listed publishing company Pearson poured US$15 million into the Pearson Affordable Learning Fund (PALF) for the development of low-cost private education systems in the developing world. The Body Shop International not only directly invested in Divine Chocolate Limited (a Fairtrade chocolate company owned by a cooperative of Ghanaian cocoa farmers), but also supported this cooperative through the purchase of raw cocoa products. Morgan Stanley made a 5 million-dollar equity investment into Eleni LLC, a Nairobi-based company that designs, builds and supports the commodity exchange eco-systems in frontier markets. And the list goes on. AMBITION AND COLLABORATION ARE CRUCIAL TO UNLOCK TREMENDOUS OPPORTUNITIES FOR BUSINESS FOR GOOD The market potential for business in the new economy is literally a trillion-dollar business case. And we have only just begun. The report, The Breakthrough Forecast by John Elkington et.al., defined the most promising developments called the 21 ‘‘breakthrough sweet spots’’ – from 3D printing to sustainable air conditioning and drinking water management to genomics. The new economy shows the potential to produce 1.8 trillion dollars’ worth of revenue and create two million jobs in the EU alone. According to the McKinsey report, “The Power of Parity”, the annual global GDP would increase by an estimated US$28 trillion in 2025 if we were to create a more equitable workforce in which woman participate in the economy identically to men. In the context of a broader business case that includes social value but at the same time generates good financial results, the food multinational Nestlé is a source of inspiration. Its Healthy Kids programme has reached 7.6 million children in 73 countries. Leading companies have set their ambitions higher than ever before for 2020 and beyond. The SDGs are already providing direction in this regard. Scaling up innovative ideas and companies in this sense is a must. For instance, Nespresso has launched its 2020 sustainability ambition, The Positive Cup, and the Nespresso Sustainable Development Fund, based on an investment of CHF 500 million over the next six years. Unilever is striving to not merely become CO2 neutral by 2030, but be CO2 positive. In addition to its venture fund of 200 million, Unilever has recently announced the company’s commitment to increase its use of crowdsourcing, with the launch of Unilever Foundry IDEAS which enables innovative startups that are ready to scale up to partner with Unilever and its 400 brands in over 190 countries. DSM Coating aims to see bio-based binders as the worldwide norm by 2030. The global player Interface is currently formulating their post-2020 ambitions in a similarly spectacular way as they did a decade ago. And so on.