Yara International : “Time to Transform”

Geneva, Switzerland, 25 March 2021 - The world faces three critical challenges: the climate emergency, nature loss and mounting inequality. The COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated that these challenges are interconnected, and that our systems are ill-prepared for shocks. As global risks continue to build, business leaders are rallying behind a bold and urgent transformation agenda developed by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), a CEO-led organization of over 200 leading companies.

Vision 2050: Time to Transform sets a shared vision of a world in which more than nine billion people are able to live well, within planetary boundaries, by 2050. To achieve this vision, we need transformation at scale, and business needs to focus its actions on where it can lead the system transformations.

Vision 2050: Time to Transform maps how systems transform and lays out a new framework to guide business action in the decade ahead. At the heart of this framework are nine transformation pathways - actionable routes for companies to take - covering the areas of business activity that are essential to society: energy; transportation and mobility; living spaces; products and materials; financial product and services; connectivity; health and wellbeing; water and sanitation; and food.

The vision and transformation pathways are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the targets of the Paris Agreement. Each of the nine transformation pathways contains ten action areas for the decade ahead, designed to help companies drive transformative change in their strategies, business operations and impact on society.

To move beyond business-as-usual into the accelerated transformations necessary, business leaders must adopt three mindset shifts: reinventing capitalism that rewards true value creation; focusing on building long-term resilience; and taking a regenerative approach beyond doing no harm.

While business can take a leading role, it must work on and design system transformations, together with scientists, policy makers, financiers and investors, innovators and consumers. Only collaboration at unprecedented levels will create the impact and speed needed to achieve all people living well within planetary boundaries by 2050.

'Vision 2050: Time to Transform should not be read with the idea that tomorrow is going to be much the same as today. This is a report for change, starting now, outlining how business needs to play a leading role. We have no time to waste. Achieving this vision requires a wholesale transformation of everything we have grown up with: energy needs to decarbonize; materials need to go circular; food needs to be produced sustainably and equitably and provide healthy diets', said WBCSD President and CEO Peter Bakker. 'Our future depends on transformation. One of the keys to success will be a mindset shift around capitalism. Our economic systems, incentives, global accounting standards and capital market valuations can no longer just be based on the financial performance of businesses: we must integrate our impact on people and planet as part of how we define success and determine enterprise value.'

The report's foreword, signed by 42 top executives from WBCSD member companies, makes a collective call to global business, stressing: 'Business can lead. Business can forge the collaborations required to drive change. It can… but more than that, it must. It is in business's interest to pursue the transformations set out in Vision 2050 - because its long-term success depends on thriving societies to trade with, and a healthy planet for us all to exist on.'

WBCSD member companies that engaged in the development of Vision 2050: Time to Transform were: 3M, ACCIONA, Arcadis, ArcelorMittal, BASF, Bayer, Chanel, DNV, DSM, EDF Group, ENGIE, ERM, EY, Fujitsu, Givaudan, Godrej Industries, Henkel, IFF, Inter IKEA Group, Microsoft Corporation, Mitsubishi Corporation, Natura, Neste Corporation, Nestlé, Olam International, PwC, Rabobank, Banco Santander, Shell, Sompo Japan Insurance Inc., SONAE, Syngenta, The Navigator Company, Toyota Motor Corporation, Unilever, Vale, Volkswagen, and Yara.

The launch of Vision 2050 follows the announcement in October 2020, that WBCSD, together with members, raised the bar of business commitment to sustainability through a set of new criteria put forward as part of WBCSD's membership conditions. The new criteria also focus on the top three priority sustainability challenges that our society faces: climate emergency, nature loss and inequality.

Additionally, WBCSD expects its member companies to strive to the highest standards in corporate governance and transparency, aimed at enhancing the comparability of data for investors and other stakeholders. Over the coming months and years, WBCSD will continue working together with its members and partners to realize the required transformations and 'getting sustainability done'.

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Yara's President & CEO Svein Tore Holsether is a member of the executive committee and Chair of WBCSD's Food & Nature program.

More information

• Vision 2050: Time to Transform is supported by a range of deep-dive issue briefs, practical toolkits and other promotional resources, all of which are freely available via the Vision 2050 website
• For more resources and for the latest insights from business on this framework for action, contact the WBCSD Vision 2050 team or visit the Vision 2050 website