The Trillion Dollar Shift
Marga Hoek explains how the UN Sustainable Development Goals, business and capital interrelate to unlock new markets and open up opportunities worth trillions of dollars.
Hoek is a non-executive director and a thought-leader on sustainable business and capital. Her former book New Economy Business was awarded management book of the year.
Over the past 30 years, the world has seen great social improvements. Technology has been developing at an enormous pace and is helping to solve our most pressing social and environmental challenges. Yet, despite this success, our current model of development is still deeply problematic. Natural disasters triggered by climate change have doubled since the 1980s, violence and armed conflict now cost more than 13 percent of GDP, social inequality and youth unemployment is worsening around the world, and climate change threatens the global population with tremendous environmental as well as social problems. Using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a framework, this book sets out how business and capital now have a real opportunity to help resolve these problems.
With clear and plentiful examples and cases of how businesses are making a difference, relevant facts and figures to support the cases, and inspiring and instructional information on how businesses can create sustainable value, this highly readable book is a must-read for businesses (large and small) that wish to genuinely support the delivery of the SDGs.
“I firmly believe both business and capital can and should play a significant role in solving our global challenges,” says Ms. Hoek.
Reviews
Unilever CEO Paul Polman says of the book: “We can be sure this inspiring book will reach interested readers across the globe.”
Feike Sijbesma, CEO and Chairman DSM, commented: “This book offers business leaders many insights, ideas and practical cases on how business can contribute to a sustainable world.”
Gérard Mestrallet, ENGIE Chairman says Ms. Hoek “provides us with such a thorough yet inspirational book about the synergy between business, capital and the SDGs.”
The book was launched at Davos on 25 January 2018.
Awards
Winner of the Gold Axiom Business Book Award 2019 in the Philanthropy / Non Profit / Sustainability category.
Open-access
To encourage business to support the shift to ‘business for good’ at the scale needed to achieve the SDGs, The Trillion Dollar Shift is published by Routledge as an open access e-book in addition to the printed version.
