In 2006 SustainAbility entered into a multi-year partnership with the Skoll Foundation to explore what opportunities might exist to build bridges between mainstream business and social entrepreneurs. The Skoll Foundation is dedicated to advancing the work of social entrepreneurs around the world, and this unique partnership supported its strategy to collaborate with experts who can advance its work in the field of social entrepreneurship.

Growing Opportunity: Entrepreneurial Solutions to Insoluble Problems (2007), the first of two reports published in partnership with Skoll, surveyed 100 social entrepreneurs to better understand the potential for more innovative and entrepreneurial solutions to the world’s greatest environmental and social challenges. The report assessed the current state of social entrepreneurship including the possibilities created by new mindsets and the challenges entrepreneurs face in scaling their organizations. It also highlighted the many things that mainstream business people can learn from social entrepreneurs in terms of future markets and business models.

In the partnership’s second phase, SustainAbility appraised the challenges and opportunities faced by an emerging force for positive change within business – the social intrapreneur. These agents of change create and deliver new products, services and business models that generate business value and provide practical solutions to social and environmental challenges where progress may otherwise be stalled by market failures. For The Social Intrapreneur: A Field Guide for Corporate Changemakers (2008) SustainAbility interviewed individuals in twenty leading corporations, including Banco Real, BP, Ford, Morgan Stanley and Nike to assess different corporate approaches to the incubation and delivery of intrapreneurial projects. The research provided an important indication of how future business models and leadership styles are likely to evolve to meet the world’s sustainability challenges.