Business solutions based on scientific analysis

• Scientific analysis integrated into business sustainability solutions for first time by WBCSD, with Stockholm Resilience Center

GENEVA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and Stockholm Resilience Center (SRC) today announced an innovative collaboration to ensure future business solutions are based on the best scientific analysis. The collaboration signals, for the first time, that the WBCSD has committed to integrating scientific analysis and resilience thinking into projects focused on accelerating business solutions for sustainability. The announcement was made at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Jeju.

Stockholm Resilience Centre has grown increasingly influential within global sustainability research because of its focus on the close interdependencies between social and ecological systems. In 2009 center director Johan Rocksröm, together with a team of internationally renowned scientists, proposed a new global sustainability framework to guide world development. It defined a set of nine planetary boundaries outside which, evidence indicates, the Earth System cannot function in a stable state and this has potential critical consequences for humanity.

A CEO-led organization of forward-thinking companies, the WBCSD galvanizes the global business community to create a sustainable future for business, society and the environment. It provides a forum for its 200 member companies - who represent all business sectors, all continents and a combined revenue of more than $7 trillion - to share best practices on sustainable development issues and to develop innovative tools that change the status quo.

The WBCSD/SRC collaboration will connect resilience and sustainability science with business strategies. It will focus on aligning the Planetary Boundaries framework with the WBCSD’s Vision 2050 framework. As well as working with the WBCSD across its projects, the SRC will carry out applied research on how the Planetary Boundaries framework can be adapted in order to make the information actionable at both corporate and sector levels.

Peter Bakker, President, WBCSD said: “I am delighted to be collaborating with the SRC on this innovative partnership. The Planetary Boundaries framework provides an unambiguous picture of where environmental change is happening, and to what extent. Business plays a vital role in helping mitigate environmental change. If you bring facts to business, it will act. By working with the SRC we can bridge the gap between business and science, get access to the best scientific facts and then establish where business solutions are most needed, and make positive changes to our world.”

Johan Rockström, Professor & Executive Director, SRC said, “Humanity has reached a new, turbulent state, where social, economic and environmental changes interact with unexpected outcomes for our businesses and nations. It is of critical importance that science and business together co-design strategies to transition into a safe operating space and build resilience in the face of unavoidable surprise. This new collaboration with WBCSD offers a unique opportunity to makes substantive progress on global sustainability.”