If you’re looking to tap the next big global growth markets, you’d better be a woman, or at least be sitting next to one.

Last year, the Business and Sustainable Development Commission outlined the $12 trillion "economic prize" in delivering on the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals to end poverty, boost social well-being and fight climate change.

Now the group is putting a stake in the role of women’s leadership in delivering  —  and capturing the gains from  —  the global goals.

“Women are bringing something different to … companies,” Cecily Joseph, a vice president at Symantec, the security software company, told the Business Commission’s researchers. “They are using the global goals as a tool to think about innovation differently, to bring new ideas to the table to help a company.”

To win in the global growth markets of the next 15 years, business leaders need to think long-term, innovate around complex social issues, and collaborate across markets and sectors, according to “Better Leadership, Better World,” the commission’s new report. Short-term profit maximizing, corporate secrecy and environmental negligence isn’t going to cut it in the long-term game of global development and sustainability.

Success in the global arena now takes new levels of corporate openness, action to mitigate climate and environmental risks and a culture of inclusiveness….That is, the core competencies of women in business.

Women occupy just 15% of board seats worldwide, and in the U.S., represent just 5% of CEOs among companies in the S&P 500.

The report cites research that shows women excel at deploying the competencies necessary to tap the economic opportunity represented by the Sustainable Development Goals. Boosting the number of women on managerial teams, for example, has been shown to boost a firm’s ability to innovative, especially around spotting new technologies, business models, products, and services for solving complex societal problems.

Read the full article about women leadership driving long-term sustainable growth by Dennis Price at ImpactAlpha.