Bold collaboration is key for business leaders to make an impact on sustainability

The ambition of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos is grand, but history shows that private companies are essential to achieving any real, lasting solutions and reshaping the world for the better.

Nowhere is that clearer than in global sustainable development. More than 50% of CEOs across 21 countries recently reported that sustainability is a higher priority for them and their boards than it was a year ago. However, a short-term focus on earnings in a weak macroeconomic environment has led nearly a quarter to decide that sustainability should be deprioritized. Even among CEOs who reported an increased emphasis on sustainability, these issues remain primarily a longer-term priority.

With the right approach, executives have a generational opportunity to change direction and become the sustainability leaders the world needs them to be. For that to happen, leaders across the private and public sectors must recognize three core principles:

The sustainability challenges we face have taken on new dimensions. In 2023 alone, the world emitted over 35 billion tonnes of CO2, nearly double the amount in 1990. Also, during that time, the world’s forests shrank by 502,000 square miles. What’s more, around 20 million metric tonnes of plastic end up in the environment every year.

Put together, these problems are too compounded to be addressed by any one leader, company or industry. What’s needed now is collaboration. Businesses should be looking to form goal-oriented partnerships that work toward bolstering sustainability efforts. Corporate partnerships can marshal resources at a scale that others can't, from using clean energy to cutting down on waste to integrating more recycled materials into workstreams. This provides the security and support companies need to take big, impactful risks.

This is crucial in capital-intensive industries, where overhauls are needed to address major environmental challenges, like replacing decades-old, outdated technology they have relied on with the innovations required to meet the moment. This transition comes with speedbumps: cost, scale and global supply-chain connectivity chief among them. Having partners to help de-risk these investments can help overcome these obstacles and enable major transformation. Having partners to help de-risk these investments can help overcome these obstacles and allow major transformation.

Eastman is doing this by investing more than $1.5 billion in advanced recycling facilities, including a new PET facility in Texas that will approach net zero carbon emissions. This is made possible in large part through partnerships with Rondo Energy and PepsiCo.

Other major industry leaders are also finding partners to help de-risk major investments – and their impact is evident. In September 2024, Microsoft announced a historic partnership with Constellation Energy to restart the nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. The plant was shuttered in 2019, but with steady customer demand, such as Microsoft, lowering the economic risk, Constellation can make a significant investment in reopening the facility. The 20-year agreement has the potential to create 3,400 jobs and add more than 800 megawatts of carbon-free electricity to the grid.

Earlier that same month, Hyundai and General Motors announced a partnership to deliver more competitive, environmentally friendly vehicles to customers quickly. The potential of a partnership between these two auto giants could rapidly advance electric and hydrogen technologies, significantly reduce CO2 emissions and help scale renewable energy.

Neither of these projects would be possible at their scale without bold executives following through on big ideas. But make no mistake: The government also has a supporting role to play in building corporate trust and enabling sustainable investments.

In fact, over the past decade, the global demand for public-private partnerships has surged. In the most recent Edelman Trust Barometer survey, more than 60% of respondents reported that they would trust business-led technological solutions more if they partnered with the government.

Eastman embraced this approach when pursuing its newest molecular recycling facility in Texas, receiving a $375 million investment from the US Department of Energy.

Beginning in 2015, Google has partnered with city governments in Copenhagen and Dublin to use pollution-sensing Street View cars to help map air quality as part of a global effort. Through these partnerships, the company has collected more than 100 million street-by-street air quality measurements.

Mining company Rio Tinto is partnering with the government of Québec to invest nearly $300 million in upgrading its Canadian-based smelters. The new technology will process ore into usable aluminium without generating CO2 pollutants, which could cut Canada's yearly emissions by 7 million metric tonnes.

Behind each of these initiatives are companies that saw an opportunity to solve a problem that others were ignoring. Through their actions, they have proven that businesses can be trusted to create sustainable impacts where others can’t and shown why their seat at the table must be not just considered, but guaranteed.

We must continue to identify where these partnerships can take root, ensure they present clear benefits, and expand their scope and scale. By embracing these opportunities, companies can help re-establish themselves as tomorrow’s great problem-solvers.