Sustainable development is a very complex issue that requires business leaders to think in a different way. Sustainable development is about planning for a future that can be. A sustainable society, as well as a sustainable organization, is about running economies that do not systematically erode the two commons on which society is based, the social and ecological fabrics. No trend will put higher demands on strategic leadership than this challenge.

Today, global human society is moving deeper and deeper into a "funnel" of declining opportunities to sustain prosperity, and in the end, civilization itself. Our habitat, the biosphere, is exposed to ever higher concentrations of "left-over-matter" in the biosphere, smaller areas of remaining ecosystems, shrinking biodiversity, and fewer healthy cultures where people are glued together by trust in each other and by vital stories of meaning.

Today, most organizations are part of the unsustainability problem, systematically contributing to pollution, encroaching on ecosystems, and erosion of the social fabric. Soon there will be 11 billion people, no longer 6 billion, laying bids on the remaining natural resources in the biosphere. It can be shown, with scientific rigor, that this leads inevitably to increased financial risks associated with costs for natural resources, waste management, insurance, taxation, flawed investments, and vice versa. Systematic innovation and design to provide human services without contributing to the funnel-problem implies systematically lower risks of hitting its walls.