Wow
what a title you have just seen it
delivering a sustainable world
we need to zoom out now to focus on
everything on the really big picture I
have a question to all of you who has
been in China or any other country in
Southeast Asia recently just lift your
arms quite a lot of you so there are
many world travelers here have you seen
the enormous social and environmental
transformation that happens there it
just blows my mind away as a
sustainability consultant it really
blows my mind away if I see this kind of
massive change they really turn the
country upside down it’s unbelievable so
I struggle whose the development this
earth takes day in and day out every day
what advice shall I give to a client who
for instance sells apparel and dreams of
selling more and more using more and
more resources and putting more and more
stress on already very much stressed
planet we have seen sustainability
initiatives for the last 50 years but we
are still somehow at the starting point
look the WWF calculates the number of
planets we need to sustain our current
way of living
also TED conferences and the surprising
thing is the number of planets grows
every year I think we are now was 2.7
planets we need so sustainability does
not make any progress
why is there no progress simply there is
no collective pressure to change there’s
no joint and agreed-upon target we all
do what we want everybody does what he
or she thinks is best
governments companies civil society you
and me the chances that this will
actually lead to a good solution that
saves the planet and humanity
we are very very low so how do we
progress from here it’s obvious we need
much more collaboration we need to work
in one direction how can we achieve this
before I point you in the direction of a
possible solution let’s first look at
what current actors current cicadas do
and why it start was a stakeholder the
NGOs NGOs typically drive issues that
drive donations that secure their jobs
if you see one of the largest campaigns
driven by Greenpeace in the last year’s
it was a campaign to eradicate harmful
substances from the textile supply chain
you might know it it’s prominently named
detox putting this perspective this
initiative this campaign in two
perspectives leaves at least was me some
question marks here you can see the
worldwide pollution of large German
industries accounted for in external
costs and what you see is textile is not
really in the focus so why are they
driving textiles why is there for
instance no campaign for cars or metal
products and still if we look at the
next stakeholder group the German
government jumped onto the bandwagon and
forced the German textile industry into
an alliance for sustainable textiles an
unprecedented move by a government no
other government has done this before
why are they not forming in Alliance for
sustainable cars sustainable metal
products are sustainable chemicals it’s
relatively easy politicians want to get
reelected and stay in power in Germany
this meant up to now I have to say to
not mess with the automotive or
chemicals industry and now let’s look at
the third player the big players
companies what do they do they are very
much focused on their business very much
focused on delivering results and
I must focus on doing all sustainability
activities that can increase their
profits very very often unfortunately
it’s green washing so we see a lot of
egoistic approaches to really a
sustainable world how can we overcome
this how can we make out of this
individual in the realistic egoistic
approaches one approach and since the
end of 2015 there is hope at least I see
hope there is really something which
happens in this world after failing to
fully deliver on the Millennium
Development Goals a myriad of people
intelligent people from all over the
world came together and drafted a new
set of goals more comprehensive much
more including all countries not just
the global thoughts and bringing the
complex issues we have to life born were
the so called sustainable development
goals consumer here the 2030 agenda for
sustainable development they are great
they cover everything we need to solve
from poverty to hunger gender equality
to responsible consumption or climate
action to peace and justice have a look
at them if you haven’t read through them
up to now but still they are about to
fail they will fail again and why are
they failing because they address the
wrong players the government’s 2030 is
really around the corner it’s only 12
years to go and what do the government’s
do nothing they’re just too cautious
cautious and they’re really slow in
hammering out the necessary regulations
we will need to make this happen and you
can see it now I’ll show you really good
consulting chart because you can’t see
the details but you should not see the
details just get the impression and my
first impression was this chart is it’s
red it’s rather red and alarming was
only 12 years to go there is not so much
green there but we only have 12 years to
solve the STDs there
be much more green by now but we can see
it so if governments are the wrong
players I think there is a much better
group of players we should address and
this is companies
unfortunately the STDs were not written
for companies up to now so what can we
do how can we make companies take on the
challenge with STDs that’s really a
question the big thing with companies is
they have much better economic punch
they have reach and they have pressure
to change let me elaborate on this a
little bit first is if you compare the
top 20 fortune 500 companies and their
combined revenue it is larger than the
combined country revenue of the bottom
80% of countries in the world this is
more than 170 countries
the largest fortune 500 company is
Walmart it’s larger than the number nine
country which is Spain and even the
smallest fortune 500 company it’s called
auto nation from Florida probably you
all don’t know but it’s still larger
then number 66 country Croatia so
countries companies really have the
economic power to deliver on the SDGs
the question we have now is do they have
the reach can they really reach the
different countries we live in intensely
globalized world today and you all carry
your TEDx name card around your neck
yeah take it off I have to do it very
carefully not to destroy the microphone
you should really take it off now it’s
also some exercise good to wake up again
and I wanted you to take it apart but if
you take it apart you will probably
destroy because you have to peel off
your stick and all this but still look
at it very carefully and now I want you
all to close your eyes and try to
imagine where all these things you see
came from the paper the metal clip the
spring in there the fiber
everything after 40 years of
globalization value creation spans the
globe thousands and thousands of
suppliers and subsidized are today
involved in making even very simple
products so big corporations actually
have the reach through their value
creation to deliver on the SDGs and
finally they do have really the economic
punch no I’m sorry not the economic
punch but the economic pressure to do so
they are always in a competitive
environment so companies have to get it
right to stay ahead and they evaluated
by their stakeholders typically the
stakeholders are the most important ones
our customers and the financial market
and the money which is very important
this aspect always flows to those
companies that have a brighter prospect
to the future if you combine this
thinking with the thinking of companies
of fear for looming regulations by
governments to fulfill the SDGs
we have a pretty compelling case to
change recap I see there is a solution
for all the problems we have in the
world because we have agreed upon it as
a country as a global unanimously all
the countries countries said STDs are
great we wanted to fulfill them I see
that companies actually are the better
players to fulfill the STDs because they
have economic punch reach and pressure
to change but still how do we make them
to do this because we know already if we
don’t do anything they will not move
because they have a clear focus in one
direction and therefore I think what we
really need is an independent
incorruptible body that evaluates the
SDG performance of companies this sounds
like an impossible task I know it’s
difficult but I am very convinced that
it can be done we would need three major
ingredients to make such an independent
body a success the first thing what we
need is we
to calculate the global impact companies
have through the entire value equation
so if BMW sells a car we need to know
who on earth participated in creating
this car today and this might be a
surprise to many of you is these
calculations can be done with publicly
available information so we don’t really
need to know what BMW is doing in detail
we can do these calculations today so
then we know where they all have impact
the second thing is we need to match
these findings with the SDG performance
of the countries where the value
creation happens then we will know on
what issues for instance BMW actually
should focus in the different countries
where they create value and thanks to
the Bertelsmann foundation we already
know how well different countries
perform in terms of SDG delivery you
have seen this chart already this is
from the bottom on foundation and this
in much better granularity will do the
trick
and third we need a new element which is
not existing yet which is a scg company
index that evaluates the company
performance in terms of SDG delivery
this index this ranking will lead to a
self-improving cycle because companies
suddenly know where they actually have
to take action where to focus on and
they will invest their scarce resources
on issues that truly matter to countries
and their societies to perform and for
the first time in history we would have
a set of goals that is universally
agreed upon and that guides the
corporate world the first time we have
sustainability goals that guide
everybody all we need to do is we really
need to build this index and get started
and I hope today there’s somebody here
who is also passionate about this earth
and has further ideas how we can create
this SDG company index to deliver a
sustainable world thank you very much
[Applause]
what a title you have just seen it
delivering a sustainable world
we need to zoom out now to focus on
everything on the really big picture I
have a question to all of you who has
been in China or any other country in
Southeast Asia recently just lift your
arms quite a lot of you so there are
many world travelers here have you seen
the enormous social and environmental
transformation that happens there it
just blows my mind away as a
sustainability consultant it really
blows my mind away if I see this kind of
massive change they really turn the
country upside down it’s unbelievable so
I struggle whose the development this
earth takes day in and day out every day
what advice shall I give to a client who
for instance sells apparel and dreams of
selling more and more using more and
more resources and putting more and more
stress on already very much stressed
planet we have seen sustainability
initiatives for the last 50 years but we
are still somehow at the starting point
look the WWF calculates the number of
planets we need to sustain our current
way of living
also TED conferences and the surprising
thing is the number of planets grows
every year I think we are now was 2.7
planets we need so sustainability does
not make any progress
why is there no progress simply there is
no collective pressure to change there’s
no joint and agreed-upon target we all
do what we want everybody does what he
or she thinks is best
governments companies civil society you
and me the chances that this will
actually lead to a good solution that
saves the planet and humanity
we are very very low so how do we
progress from here it’s obvious we need
much more collaboration we need to work
in one direction how can we achieve this
before I point you in the direction of a
possible solution let’s first look at
what current actors current cicadas do
and why it start was a stakeholder the
NGOs NGOs typically drive issues that
drive donations that secure their jobs
if you see one of the largest campaigns
driven by Greenpeace in the last year’s
it was a campaign to eradicate harmful
substances from the textile supply chain
you might know it it’s prominently named
detox putting this perspective this
initiative this campaign in two
perspectives leaves at least was me some
question marks here you can see the
worldwide pollution of large German
industries accounted for in external
costs and what you see is textile is not
really in the focus so why are they
driving textiles why is there for
instance no campaign for cars or metal
products and still if we look at the
next stakeholder group the German
government jumped onto the bandwagon and
forced the German textile industry into
an alliance for sustainable textiles an
unprecedented move by a government no
other government has done this before
why are they not forming in Alliance for
sustainable cars sustainable metal
products are sustainable chemicals it’s
relatively easy politicians want to get
reelected and stay in power in Germany
this meant up to now I have to say to
not mess with the automotive or
chemicals industry and now let’s look at
the third player the big players
companies what do they do they are very
much focused on their business very much
focused on delivering results and
I must focus on doing all sustainability
activities that can increase their
profits very very often unfortunately
it’s green washing so we see a lot of
egoistic approaches to really a
sustainable world how can we overcome
this how can we make out of this
individual in the realistic egoistic
approaches one approach and since the
end of 2015 there is hope at least I see
hope there is really something which
happens in this world after failing to
fully deliver on the Millennium
Development Goals a myriad of people
intelligent people from all over the
world came together and drafted a new
set of goals more comprehensive much
more including all countries not just
the global thoughts and bringing the
complex issues we have to life born were
the so called sustainable development
goals consumer here the 2030 agenda for
sustainable development they are great
they cover everything we need to solve
from poverty to hunger gender equality
to responsible consumption or climate
action to peace and justice have a look
at them if you haven’t read through them
up to now but still they are about to
fail they will fail again and why are
they failing because they address the
wrong players the government’s 2030 is
really around the corner it’s only 12
years to go and what do the government’s
do nothing they’re just too cautious
cautious and they’re really slow in
hammering out the necessary regulations
we will need to make this happen and you
can see it now I’ll show you really good
consulting chart because you can’t see
the details but you should not see the
details just get the impression and my
first impression was this chart is it’s
red it’s rather red and alarming was
only 12 years to go there is not so much
green there but we only have 12 years to
solve the STDs there
be much more green by now but we can see
it so if governments are the wrong
players I think there is a much better
group of players we should address and
this is companies
unfortunately the STDs were not written
for companies up to now so what can we
do how can we make companies take on the
challenge with STDs that’s really a
question the big thing with companies is
they have much better economic punch
they have reach and they have pressure
to change let me elaborate on this a
little bit first is if you compare the
top 20 fortune 500 companies and their
combined revenue it is larger than the
combined country revenue of the bottom
80% of countries in the world this is
more than 170 countries
the largest fortune 500 company is
Walmart it’s larger than the number nine
country which is Spain and even the
smallest fortune 500 company it’s called
auto nation from Florida probably you
all don’t know but it’s still larger
then number 66 country Croatia so
countries companies really have the
economic power to deliver on the SDGs
the question we have now is do they have
the reach can they really reach the
different countries we live in intensely
globalized world today and you all carry
your TEDx name card around your neck
yeah take it off I have to do it very
carefully not to destroy the microphone
you should really take it off now it’s
also some exercise good to wake up again
and I wanted you to take it apart but if
you take it apart you will probably
destroy because you have to peel off
your stick and all this but still look
at it very carefully and now I want you
all to close your eyes and try to
imagine where all these things you see
came from the paper the metal clip the
spring in there the fiber
everything after 40 years of
globalization value creation spans the
globe thousands and thousands of
suppliers and subsidized are today
involved in making even very simple
products so big corporations actually
have the reach through their value
creation to deliver on the SDGs and
finally they do have really the economic
punch no I’m sorry not the economic
punch but the economic pressure to do so
they are always in a competitive
environment so companies have to get it
right to stay ahead and they evaluated
by their stakeholders typically the
stakeholders are the most important ones
our customers and the financial market
and the money which is very important
this aspect always flows to those
companies that have a brighter prospect
to the future if you combine this
thinking with the thinking of companies
of fear for looming regulations by
governments to fulfill the SDGs
we have a pretty compelling case to
change recap I see there is a solution
for all the problems we have in the
world because we have agreed upon it as
a country as a global unanimously all
the countries countries said STDs are
great we wanted to fulfill them I see
that companies actually are the better
players to fulfill the STDs because they
have economic punch reach and pressure
to change but still how do we make them
to do this because we know already if we
don’t do anything they will not move
because they have a clear focus in one
direction and therefore I think what we
really need is an independent
incorruptible body that evaluates the
SDG performance of companies this sounds
like an impossible task I know it’s
difficult but I am very convinced that
it can be done we would need three major
ingredients to make such an independent
body a success the first thing what we
need is we
to calculate the global impact companies
have through the entire value equation
so if BMW sells a car we need to know
who on earth participated in creating
this car today and this might be a
surprise to many of you is these
calculations can be done with publicly
available information so we don’t really
need to know what BMW is doing in detail
we can do these calculations today so
then we know where they all have impact
the second thing is we need to match
these findings with the SDG performance
of the countries where the value
creation happens then we will know on
what issues for instance BMW actually
should focus in the different countries
where they create value and thanks to
the Bertelsmann foundation we already
know how well different countries
perform in terms of SDG delivery you
have seen this chart already this is
from the bottom on foundation and this
in much better granularity will do the
trick
and third we need a new element which is
not existing yet which is a scg company
index that evaluates the company
performance in terms of SDG delivery
this index this ranking will lead to a
self-improving cycle because companies
suddenly know where they actually have
to take action where to focus on and
they will invest their scarce resources
on issues that truly matter to countries
and their societies to perform and for
the first time in history we would have
a set of goals that is universally
agreed upon and that guides the
corporate world the first time we have
sustainability goals that guide
everybody all we need to do is we really
need to build this index and get started
and I hope today there’s somebody here
who is also passionate about this earth
and has further ideas how we can create
this SDG company index to deliver a
sustainable world thank you very much
[Applause]
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