ABSTRACT
In early 2011, the relatively new Chief Sustainability Officer of IKEA, Dr Steve Howard, was asked about their appetite for public policy intervention. 'As business leaders, must make it clear to leaders that doing the right thing for the climate is also the smart thing for global competitiveness and long-term prosperity.' One insurer that wanted to go further and faster than peers was Aviva, which has 31 million customers spread across 17 countries and £241 billion of funds under management. They can trace their history back more than three hundred years and have sought to maintain the capacity to think in the long term and identify emerging strategic risks. By any measure Unilever is big. Its products are sold in 190 countries and generated sales of €50 billion in 2013. They proudly claim that 'More than two billion consumers use a Unilever product on any given day'.
