Giving Compass' Take:

• NextBillion interviews the authors of a new book called “All In: The Future of Business Leadership,” who argue that business must lead the way on sustainability issues.

• How can we make sustainability a primary mission across the board, both in the private and public sectors? What goals would be realistic to set?

• Here's more on how to incorporate CSR into your everyday operations.

Global warming. Mass migration. Extreme inequality. That’s just part of a familiar laundry list of global challenges, each of which is huge — and growing. Solving any of them will be difficult. Taken together, they’re likely to overwhelm the best efforts of governments and civil society.

So what’s the solution? To mobilize “the most global set of actors in existence, with both the ability and responsibility to drive greater sustainability across markets and society”: In other words, for-profit business. That’s the position of David Grayson, Chris Coulter and Mark Lee, three leading thinkers in the field of sustainability and the authors of the new book “All In: The Future of Business Leadership.”

But how can massive global corporations make the transition to sustainability — especially when many of their business models currently depend on unsustainable resources or practices? The book explores this and other questions, describing how companies can combine and apply the essential attributes of corporate sustainability leadership — both for the success of their businesses and the survival of the planet. It draws on research involving thousands of experts over two decades, and reveals insights from dozens of interviews with leaders of global companies like 3M, BP, DuPont, Google, GE, Huawei, IKEA, Nestlé, Nike, Patagonia, Shell, Tata, Toyota, Unilever and Walmart.

Read the full article about corporations and the transition to sustainability by James Militzer at NextBillion.