Climate change is sometimes misunderstood as being about changes in the weather. In reality it is about changes in our very way of life.
Looking at the world through a sustainability lens not only helps us 'future proof' our supply chain, it also fuels innovation and drives brand growth.
Renewable energy could reduce emissions but also create jobs and improve public health.
Our political leaders have great responsibilities, but as with many situations in life, people often rise or fall to meet your expectations. Our responsibility as citizens is to expect our leaders to lead and to give them enough support so that they may do so.
I believe that the financial crisis of 2008/9 exposed more a lack of ethics and morality - especially by the financial sector - rather than a problem of regulation or criminality. There were, of course, regulatory lessons to be learned, but at heart, there was a collective loss of our moral compass.
Working together on solving something requires a high level of humility and a high level of self-awareness.
If we all act together - business, governments, NGOs and citizens and, especially, the young - just imagine the good we could create.
There are billions of people in the world who deserve the better quality of life that products such as soap, shampoo, and clean drinking water can provide.
Sustainability makes good business sense, and we're all on the same team at the end of the day. That's the truth about the human condition.
If we tackle deforestation in the right way, the benefits will be far-reaching - greater food security, improved livelihoods for millions of small farmers and indigenous people, more prosperous rural economies, and above all, a more stable climate.
The basic skills of leaders are always the same: be driven by a deeper purpose, be a human being, have a passion for what you do, and it's also about hard work and ethics.
My own fear, if I have one myself, is a fear of being obsolete. This is a world that changes very fast, and one of the main human desires is to belong to, to be part of, something. It's probably one of our greatest needs next to oxygen.
Every few decades, we have an opportunity to make a drastic change to the way we live our lives. We get a chance to design the building blocks of our daily routines, the infrastructure that will support and accompany us for the years to come - from the trains and trams we ride, the offices we work in, to the energy that powers our homes.
Why would you invest in a company which is out of synch with the needs of society, that does not take its social compliance in its supply chain seriously, that does not think about the costs of externalities or of its negative impacts on society?
Businesses and governments need to work together and make a joint commitment if we want to address climate change effectively and quickly.
The great challenge of the 21st century is to provide good standards of living for 7 billion people without depleting the earth's resources or running up massive levels of public debt. To achieve this, government and business alike will need to find new models of growth that are in both environmental and economic balance.
I don't subscribe to, 'Here are the top ten tips to successful leadership,' or, 'How to learn leadership in ten minutes.' A leader is someone who gives positive energy to others which then results in a better change than would have happened. I think everyone is a leader.
We can no longer pretend that business is immune from the rising tide of environmental or social challenges or that companies can create value in isolation from the communities of which they are a part.
I wanted to be a priest. I could have done that. I wanted to be a doctor. I could have done that. Circumstances didn't lead me to it, so my fallback option was business. I wasn't really motivated to this.
Leadership is not a contest of likeability. Leadership often boils down to making the tougher choices. You are not in a popularity contest.
