Emerging Economies

The leading emerging economies are an increasingly dominant force in global economic, social and environmental affairs. Emerging economies represent the world’s largest potential markets, the source of both much of the world’s natural and human resources and of major sustainability challenges, and increasingly the home of leading global brands and innovation.

While many sustainability issues are relevant in both developed and emerging economies, the way they play out frequently differs. Some issues also pose particular challenges in emerging economies, affecting the context for sustainability. These can include massive poverty, weak social capital, significant inequality of access, power and wealth, and weak governance and corruption.

Success in emerging economies requires a sophisticated understanding of the rapidly evolving expectations of governments, investors, customers and society, both national and international. Sustainability tools and systems need to be adapted and tailored – or sometimes completely reinvented – to address local realities.

Given the importance of emerging economies in the 21st century, SustainAbility has developed specialised expertise which combines more than two decades leadership in the field and deep strategy development experience with a dedicated team that understands the emerging economies business context. We focus on Brazil and India, where we have been supporting clients and publishing research for over five year. As of 2008, we have had a much more active presence on the ground in India (Read News Article).

In addition to India and Brazil, our emerging economies program focuses on China and South Africa. We provide insight, challenge and guidance to help companies in emerging economies succeed in an environment characterized by increasing complexity and opportunity.

SustainAbility supports business through our consultancy services – helping companies develop sustainability strategies to access new markets and build market share, understand new opportunities and innovate to address them, identify and manage emerging risks, and build brand recognition and trust. We also help eliminate complexity through our ground breaking research on corporate sustainability in emerging economies. See our Emerging Economy clients.