Following the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in New York from September 25-27, United Parcel Service (UPS) CEO David Abney called for business to “step up” in meeting the needs of today’s global society in a speech at the Detroit Economic Club on September 29.
UPS, a USCIB member company, posted a synopsis of Abney’s speech on its blog, UPS Longitudes, in which he noted that “[w]e simply cannot continue on our current unsustainable path.” The blog post addresses the changes to partnerships between governments, NGOs, business and the UN necessary to embark on the now adopted UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The importance of connecting business opportunity and societal need is demonstrated by UPS as well as contributors to the Business for 2030 portal. UPS sees one of the greatest opportunities for collaboration in fostering innovation as well as human well-being – in line with Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive & sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation among others of the Sustainable Development Goals.
According to Abney, “[b]usiness has the reach, resources and big-project management skills. It clearly has incentives to create a world that is strong enough, fair enough and healthy enough to support business growth. It is also the nexus for innovation.”
Company contributions to Goal 9 on Business for 2030 thus far include initiatives by Bechtel, PPL, DuPont, TTNet and Google.