System Change Investing and the Sustainable Development Goals
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are one of the most important milestones of the sustainability movement. Broad embrace of the goals by companies and governments shows growing awareness of the need to effectively address major environmental, social and economic problems. In his 2019 lette...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Risk Institute, Trieste- Geneva
2019-05-01
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| Series: | Cadmus |
| Online Access: | http://cadmusjournal.org/article/volume-3/issue-6/system-change-investing-and-sustainable-development-goals |
| Summary: | The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are one of the most important milestones of the sustainability movement. Broad embrace of the goals by companies and governments shows growing awareness of the need to effectively address major environmental, social and economic problems. In his 2019 letter to CEOs, Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager ($6 trillion in assets), said that companies should expand their purpose from narrowly benefiting shareholders to broadly benefiting society. Over 8,000 companies are striving to do this by voluntarily adopting a B-Corp (Benefit Corporation) structure that seeks to benefit all stakeholders. Voluntary efforts such as these provide many benefits, but cannot come close to achieving the SDGs. Economic and political systems often place shareholders before all other stakeholders and do not hold companies fully responsible for negative environmental and social impacts. These systems compel all companies to degrade the environment and society. They are the root causes of the environmental, social and economic problems addressed by the SDGs. System change is the most important action needed to achieve the goals. This article provides a big picture view of system change and discusses practical options for achieving it. System Change Investing (SCI), a high-leverage, short-term system change strategy, is emphasized. |
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| ISSN: | 2038-5242 2038-5250 |