“What holds long-term value is now defined by what can withstand pressure.”
Sustainability & purpose books shaping long-term value in a volatile world
The environment businesses are operating in is more volatile, more connected and changing faster than before. In that context, sustainability and purpose are not side agendas. They are part of how organisations build resilience, protect long-term value and stay competitive. The books in this section focus on how environmental, social and economic pressures translate into real business decisions. The speakers behind them bring that into focus.
Net Positive; How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More than they Take
In Net Positive, Paul Polman delivers an aggressive corporate reboot, dismantling the "do no harm" philosophy to make way for a regenerative revolution. Polman, the former Unilever visionary, provides a high-stakes operational diagnostic for the 2026 enterprise, asserting that true profitability requires a "handprint" that heals more than it takes.
The Caring Company
In The Caring Company, leadership expert Isaac Getz presents a radical shift from traditional corporate hierarchies toward a "liberating" business model. Getz delivers a profound strategic diagnostic, arguing that prioritising the well-being and autonomy of employees and customers over short-term profits leads to superior long-term financial performance.
Abundance: How We Build a Better Future
In Abundance, journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson offer a powerful antidote to pessimism by championing "supply-side progressivism." They deliver a high-stakes strategic diagnostic, arguing that modern crises—from housing shortages to high energy costs—are solved by making building and innovation easier, moving beyond the limitations of managing scarcity.
Tech For Good: Solving the World’s Greatest Challenges
In Tech for Good, sustainability visionary Marga Hoek provides a definitive blueprint for leveraging Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies to solve global challenges. Hoek delivers a high-stakes strategic diagnostic, asserting that the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent a multi-trillion dollar business opportunity for forward-thinking enterprises.
Doughnut Economics
In her poignant book Doughnut Economics, the renegade Oxford economics Kate Raworth delivers a radical economic recalibration, seamlessly replacing the 20th-century obsession with endless GDP growth with a model of dynamic balance. Raworth provides a vivid visual diagnostic for a world facing ecological collapse and social instability.
Consumed: How Big Brands Got Us Hooked on Plastic
In Consumed, investigative journalist Saabira Chaudhuri exposes the global addiction to single-use plastics. Drawing on a decade of reporting, she delivers a stark strategic diagnostic on how consumer giants turned "disposability" into a multi-billion dollar business model, prioritising convenience over environmental health.
Embedding Sustainability
In the book Embedding Sustainability, Pia Heidenmark Cook delivers a practitioner-led guide to integrating environmental goals into the core of any organisation. Drawing on her tenure as IKEA’s Chief Sustainability Officer, she provides a high-stakes operational diagnostic for driving systemic change, exploring the tactical realities of securing board buy-in and reshaping global supply chains.
Under a Metal Sky: A Journey Through Minerals, Greed and Wonder
In Under a Metal Sky, Philip Marsden explores the profound link between human civilisation and the Earth's minerals. Marsden delivers a high-stakes strategic diagnostic, revealing how our thirst for metals drives both technological wonder and global greed, balancing geological awe with the harsh realities of the global mining industry.
Why book a Sustainability author speaker
In volatile conditions, short-term decisions can create long-term risk and resilience is no longer separate from responsibility. Environmental, social and regulatory pressures are no longer external. They are shaping cost, supply chains, investment and long-term competitiveness. A speaker in this space helps organisations connect sustainability and purpose to resilience, performance and long-term value, so decisions made now hold up over time.