BETTER BUSINESS BETTER WORLD

Or they can reduce the risks of regulatory change by leading it themselves – as in
the run-up to 2015’s COP21 climate summit in Paris, when enlightened CEOs came
together under the unified umbrella of We Mean Business to demand governments
set a more predictable, ambitious and longer-term agenda. Progressive leaders are not
waiting for governments to act on price before doing anything. Some have already
started to “shadow price” social and environmental costs in internal accounting, in
effect preparing for the future in which markets are sustainable.
America’s fourth largest craft brewery, the New Belgium Brewing Company, offers an
example of the benefits of this approach. The company has adopted its own internal
electricity tax – charging itself 2.4 cents for every kilowatt-hour of power generated
from fossil fuels that it consumes. 153 The tax creates a powerful incentive to use clean
energy. Already, much of the firm’s electricity is generated onsite, and all purchased
power comes from wind. The “tax” revenue also provides a source of capital for
future investment in sustainability – it goes into a fund for further renewable power
development and energy saving measures. For more detail on this case see
report.businesscommission.org.
Advancing public/private collaboration to scale innovation. Innovation
partnerships between public, private and academic partners have been critical to
transforming scientific discovery into mass-market products and services in public
health, clean energy and nutrition among other areas. They will be essential to
delivering the speed and scale of innovation needed to achieve the Global Goals.
Economists have recently provided powerful evidence of how the public-privateacademic
“innovation ecosystem” has led to astonishing social and private returns
across a wide range of sectors. 154
In pharmaceuticals, for example, the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Innovation
(Gavi) provided strong incentives for private companies to come into developing
vaccines for tropical diseases. 155 It also provided “advance market commitments”
that encouraged companies to invest in the manufacturing facilities and cold chain
logistics needed to provide pneumococcal, rotavirus and pentavalent vaccines,
among others, in Sub-Saharan Africa. 156 By taking away market and demand
uncertainty from the vaccine suppliers, the Gavi facility also made it possible to bring
down supply costs dramatically. The facility was largely financed through future
overseas development assistance (ODA) commitments that were then translated into
a social impact bond.
On clean energy, governments representing 20 participating countries have
committed to doubling the average share of research and development on clean
energy (currently around 0.1 percent of GDP) in public budgets. 157 They have also
set up a coordination mechanism – Mission Innovation – whose design will allow
for much more strategic alignment and prioritisation across countries. 158 In parallel,
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