André Hoffmann
Accelerating nature loss and climate breakdown mean business schools must help business leaders accelerate the transition to a net-zero, nature-positive global economy and deliver on the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
On the threshold
With more than half the world's GDP at risk from nature loss, and the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global heating to 1.5°C barely alive, what the private sector does next will determine whether, in the next decade, we can prevent climate and ecosystem breakdown.
We stand on the threshold. One way lies extinction and catastrophe, the other way, a brighter future. Pursuing business as usual will only exacerbate the grave and unprecedented environmental and societal challenges now facing humanity. In contrast, transitioning to a nature-positive economy could generate over $10 trillion in annual business opportunities and create 395 million jobs by 2030.
Ensuring we make the right choices depends on leadership - but have we got what it takes ?
That only now, thirty years after the establishment of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, has one of its official texts acknowledged the need to move away from the fossil fuels, is perhaps a measure of the current failure of collective leadership in all sectors, public and private.
Acting and delivering on the Race to Zero and putting nature on the road to recover is what matters now. The time for talking is over. Business can be a force for good - but only if its leaders are rightly circumstanced. This relies in part on government incentives - but to paraphrase Nelson Mandela, education is the most powerful weapon we have with which to change the world. The world's leading business schools must step up, not only by nurturing the next generation of business leaders but also by furnishing today's best with the know-how, skills and courage to drive the transition to a fairer, greener, more resilient world.
From knowledge to wisdom
Properly understanding the interconnected, reinforced crises that we face is a critical first step. Deforestation and land conversion, for example, increase our exposure to zoonotic disease, risk future pandemics, exacerbate water scarcity, restrict our opportunities to harness nature-based solutions to tackles climate change, and lock the poorest and most vulnerable in a downward spiral.
From the World Economic Forum's New Nature Economy series and WWF's Living Planet Report to Sir Partha Dasgupta's review of the Economics of Biodiversity, there are undoubtedly some core texts on the value of nature alone that should be compulsory reading for today's business leaders. But it is not fundamentally a lack of scientific and socio-economic analysis that is holding us back.
Beyond imparting knowledge and understanding, education for leadership means inspiring new ways of thinking that enable us to innovate and do things differently rather than repeating the mistakes of the past.
Developing good judgement and the ability to apply knowledge in solving the wicked problems we face is the path to creating the wise business leadership we need. This is why INSEAD's mission as a business school is to develop responsible leaders who transform business and society. It is also why the Hoffmann Global Institute for Business and Society at INSEAD seeks to enable leaders to make decisions for the benefit of business, people, and planet.
In doing this, the Institute is aligning INSEAD more closely with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), not just because many business leaders increasingly use them to inform purpose, strategy, and vision, but also to encourage others to join together to realise the promise of the SDGs - prosperity for all on a healthy planet.
Driving the development of sustainable business models, inclusion, and wellbeing are especially important. And business leaders need tools, approaches, and opportunities that facilitate cross-sectoral collaboration, allow risk-taking and enterprise, and stimulate the creation of solutions that attract investment and trigger scaling.
The Business Schools for Climate Leadership (BS4CL) initiative launched by eight European business schools at COP26 in Glasgow, for instance, is designed to equip present and future leaders to address climate change. Its digital toolkit helps leaders pose key questions and assess their readiness to act, and explores critical related issues, including nature, equality, technology, and geopolitics.
At a grassroots level, the Community Impact Challenge, led by INSEAD alumni and now an official Race to Zero Accelerator, brings together 7'500 community members to take climate action. These are just two examples of how business schools can help catalyse real world change through their networks by engaging alumni around the world and offering continuing professional development and lifelong learning on sustainability.
Investing in tomorrow
Education should underpin the fundamental shift to sustainability that humanity must make. And in this decade of action, all business schools have a responsibility to enable the private sector to drive prosperity and societal progress - by developing new theories and business models, by engaging alumni and partners, and by forging and inspiring diverse, talented leaders for tomorrow who deliver value for the whole of society. Most importantly, business schools must renew their license to operate - by putting sustainability at the core of their offer and at the heart of business research and education.
Time is short but that spent on education will be an investment whose rewards are manifold.