The pressure on private and public businesses to act on environmental, social, economic and governance (ESEG) aspects of sustainability from all stakeholders has been increasing at an accelerated pace as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The planet's natural ecosystems continue to be severely degraded, compromising the ability to sustain life. Billions of people are living without the basic necessities of life as a result of exploitation and overconsumption of finite resources, ever-growing income and social inequality and lack of access to food, water, housing, sanitation, health care and education.

In this world of accelerating change and disruption to all industries and sectors all at once, businesses of all sizes are looking to technologies, processes, frameworks and partnerships that will help to ensure their long-term viability, resilience and adaptability. While incremental changes can be a good first step, there is a growing recognition that businesses are facing an overwhelming need for transformational change, pivoting and reinventing their business models to remain sustainable and scalable in a volatile, uncertain, chaotic and ambiguous (VUCA) world.