By Shameen Prashantham

At a recent CEIBS Executive Forum on reinvigorating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that I moderated, there were speakers who discussed how a large Western multinational, Budweiser APAC, and a much smaller young company, Allbirds (which makes shoes from biodegradable materials), had leveraged innovation in China to generate green solutions. In the case of Budweiser, by working with innovative Chinese startups, this company had gained access to technologies that helped its breweries make substantial progress in becoming net-zero. And Allbirds China – the subject of an award-winning CEIBS teaching case –had been able to engage with EV-maker Nio and utilize sustainable materials that the latter had developed for its cars’ interiors to come up with a new shoe model.

Both examples are featured in a Harvard Business Review article that I co-authored with Lola Woetzel, senior partner emerita at McKinsey, which discusses how Western companies could engage with businesses in China to help create a greener future. What complicates the picture is that the emergence of Chinese innovations that are relevant to decarbonization has coincided with the intensification of Sino-Western geopolitical tensions. Therefore, as the article argues, it is sensible for companies to pursue safe strategies – and this too calls for effective partnering, such as participating in coalitions of companies that promote the development and sharing of expertise relevant to combating climate change. An example of a coalition is Tencent’s Global Carbon Neutral Technology Alliance, which includes other technology giants like Alibaba and Microsoft, and allows carbon neutrality patents and technologies to be shared.

Additionally, engagement within the Global South is vitally important. Affordable green solutions from Chinese businesses can be valuable in Africa, for instance. Consider Shenzhen Power Solutions, a social enterprise founded by Susan Li, a Schwab Foundation Award-winning social entrepreneur. The CEIBS MBA students in my Business, Society and Environment class were inspired by Susan’s guest lecture in which she described how she and her team have developed solar-powered affordable lamps (just $5) that provide light to African families who live off the power grid. Not only does this social innovation use clean(solar) energy, it also reduces health hazards by replacing kerosene lamps that produce harmful fumes.  By partnering with the French energy multinational, Total, it has widened the reach of impact of these lamps – dubbed “pocket sunshine” by Total – in Africa.

All of these examples point to the potential for business to be a force for good – which is the theme of a mini-documentary I worked on which features CEIBA alumna Brandy Yu, the former Allbirds China Managing Director, as well as the CEOs of social enterprises in China such as the Naked Group which builds low-carbon holiday resorts and Coffee Commune which seeks to uplift the economic prospects of coffee farmers in Yunnan by helping them grow high-quality coffee beans that command higher margins. Also a CEIBS MBA alumnus who, along with a couple of classmates, initiated a project to make the CEIBS campus greener while they were students – over a decade ago! In all of these cases engaging with relevant stakeholders has been crucial to having effective social impact.

Without doubt, bringing sustainability to the heart of business is far from easy. Yet the inspiring people and companies that I have been fortunate to encounter through my research and teaching, some of whom are mentioned above, indicate that there are valiant attempts being made to embrace the tension between economic goals (doing well) and social impact (doing good). While these businesses are contributing to differing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – for example, clean energy (SDG 7) and decent work (SDG 8) – a common theme I find across them relates to the final of the 17 SDGs: partnerships for the goals (SDGs). That is, these examples have demonstrated the capacity to forge effective partnerships with other entities that have valuable complementary resources and capabilities.

Business can and should be a force for good – and this, in part, calls for effective partnering. As a business school in China with campuses in both the West (Zurich) and the Global South (Accra), and a plethora of alumni involved in multiple Chinese businesses, CEIBS has a potentially significant role to play in facilitating the exchange of SDG-relevant ideas and solutions between China and the world. This is important and necessary because global problems like climate change – and the myriad other grand challenges encompassed by the SDGs – need global solutions.

Shameen Prashantham is a Professor of International Business and Strategy at CEIBS, and the author of Gorillas Can Dance: Lessons from Microsoft and Other Corporations on Partnering with Start-ups (Wiley, 2022).