Vision 2050: The New Agenda for Business

In 2050, around 9 billion people live well, and within the limits of the planet

Just 40 years from now, some 30% more people will be living on this planet. For business, the good news is that this growth will deliver billions of new consumers who want homes and cars and television sets. The bad news is that shrinking resources and potentially changing climates will limit the ability of all 9 billion of us to attain or maintain the consumptive lifestyle that is commensurate with wealth in today’s affluent markets.

In the WBCSD’s Vision 2050 Project, 29 global companies representing 14 industries tackled this dilemma. They developed a vision, based on dialogues in 20 countries with several hundred companies as well as experts, of a world on-track toward sustainability by 2050. This will be a world in which the global population is not just living on the planet, but living well and within the limits of the planet. By “living well”, we are describing a standard of living here people have access to and the ability to afford education, healthcare, mobility, the basics of food, water, energy and shelter, and consumer goods. By living within the limits of the planet”, we mean living in such a way that this standard of living can be sustained with the available natural resources and without further harm to biodiversity, climate and other ecosystems. Read more.