I am happy to encourage a wide readership for this volume, but I must note at the outset that its very title conveys ambiguity. Describing the new Sustainable Development Goals as business opportunities for those pursuing profit could be interpreted by some readers as encouraging the exploitation of the world’s most severe problems for personal gain. No one involved in this project intends to encourage exploitation; but this ambiguity is inherent, not only in the title of this volume, but more widely in the growing enthusiasm for private sector solutions to grave public problems. This ambiguity is worth addressing head on.

In September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the universal 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These goals spell out the challenges we need to ensure the sustainability of our planet, and to ensure prosperity and equity for all. To achieve these goals, the participation of the private sector is essential.

In 2015, when world leaders adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, we committed to the most inclusive, diverse and comprehensive and ambitious development agenda ever. By doing so, we acknowledged that development challenges are global challenges. The new global goals represent a universal agenda, applying equally to all countries in the world.

The year 2015 was a decisive year for sustainable development. With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the world now has the most ambitious, diverse and universal development roadmap in history. The Addis Ababa Action Agenda stressed the importance of using public investment instruments and vehicles to leverage the unprecedented levels of private finance required to fund this agenda. And the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris confirmed the challenges of managing climate change – and an unprecedented global commitment to do so.

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals will require funding and co-operation on an unprecedented scale, with the private sector holding a pivotal position. This chapter asks how international co-operation can help to put sustainable development at the core of business models. It looks at why these efforts must focus on the quality as well as the quantity of private sector contributions, responding to the challenges laid out at the beginning of the chapter: making sustainability business as usual; creating conditions for good investment; building global change from the bottom up; ensuring credibility, accountability and transparency; and creating new multi-stakeholder partnerships. The chapter concludes with a set of key recommendations.Challenge piece by Amina Mohammed, former Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General on Post-2015 Development Planning. Opinion pieces by Jim Balsillie, Centre for International Governance Innovation; Olivier De Schutter, International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems; Louise Kantrow, International Chamber of Commerce.