The Breakthrough Challenge Lib/E: 10 Ways to Connect Today's Profits with Tomorrow's Bottom Line

by John Elkington, Jochen Zeitz

Businesses today need to balance the pursuit of profit with the needs of growing numbers of people on a planet under pressure. While sustainability programs, government action, and nonprofits are all parts of the solution, a growing contingent of forward-looking leaders recognizes the real a fundamental shift in the nature of commerce. CEOs and other leaders must focus the practice of business on social, environmental, and economic benefitnot only because it will make the world a better place, but because it will ensure lasting profitability and success in the business climate of tomorrow. The Breakthrough Challenge is an inspiring call-to-action and guide for this transformation, based on the work of the B Team, a major initiative uniting leaders in sustainability. As founding members of the B Team, John Elkington and Jochen Zeitz map out their agenda for change. The most important goal for businesses must be redefining the bottom line to account for true long-term costs throughout the supply chain. To achieve this, leaders must rethink what counts on balance sheets, how to incentive performance, who does what in the C-suite, and even what inspires us. The Breakthrough Challenge draws on over 100 exclusive interviews to show this shift in action, sharing the pioneering work of leaders such as Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever; Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of The Huffington Post; Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman of the Nestle Group; Linda Fisher, pioneering Chief Sustainability Officer at DuPont; among many others. Change-as-usual strategies are not enough to move business from breakdowns to breakthroughs. The Breakthrough Challenge shows leaders how to achieve a true transformation and refocus the definition of profitability on the lasting wellbeing of people and planetfor the lasting success of their business.

Audio CD

Published January 28, 2022

About the author

Professor John Elkington is an Executive Director of SustainAbility Ltd. A leading authority on the role of industry in sustainable development, he is a consultant to such organisations as BP, Procter & Gamble, USAID, and the UN Environment Programme.
He sits on advisory panels at the Merlin Ecology Fund and the Nature Conservancy Council. He has authored or co-authored numerous books and has published several hundred reports, papers and articles for a wide variety of journals, magazines and national newspapers.
On World Environment Day in June 1989, John Elkington was named to the United Nations Environment Programme's 'Global 500 Roll of Honour' for his 'outstanding environmental achievements'.