The Global Goals, consisting of 17 Sustainable Development Goals as well as the Paris Agreement, are the global consensus and blueprint to achieving an environmentally sustainable and socially just future for humanity. All United Nations member countries agreed on these goals, but governments alone are not capable of financing the sustainable transition. Most businesses, on the other hand, are not used to considering social and environmental issues in their operations or investments. Why should businesses internalise complex problems that have been externalised for so long? Lack of data, lack of comparability or computability of data are often stated as deterrents for sustainability to be considered by business. However, the same blocks are often considered competition- or value-generating challenges when the purpose is profit. In the context of governments needing help to achieve their own goals, and of society needing integrity of products and services by both businesses and nature, being a front-runner of sustainable business is a strategic choice to make even before individual business cases for specific opportunities are considered. Victoria de Castro is a sustainable finance expert helping to build a non-financial ranking of 400 keystone financial institutions worldwide at the World Benchmarking Alliance. She works towards building benchmarks for the sustainable transition, and believes a systemic view is essential to solve problems without creating new ones.

She has assessed pension and sovereign wealth funds’ sustainability reports for the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, written monthly articles on public budgets and public finance for the Federal Economics Council of Rio de Janeiro, optimised processes for a real estate company, and sold real estate at another. Victoria holds a MSc in Innovation, Human Development and Sustainability from the University of Geneva, an MPA for the SDGs from Tsinghua University in Beijing, and a BSc in Economics from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx