While the debate about sustainable business practice in the face of climate change rages on, there are a number of smart businesses across the globe that have already taken the initiative and turned sustainability into an opportunity. It is these firms that Forum for the Future has championed in its recent report, Leader Business Strategies.

The Forum works in partnership with public institutions, leading businesses and the government to accelerate the transition towards a sustainable and socially just way of life. As David Bent, Forum for the Future's principal sustainability adviser and author of the report, says: "There is an opportunity for bold action now, to create profit and shareholder value in a way that also promotes sustainability."

The report identifies businesses that are "pushing the boundaries of sustainability in one or more areas of their business activity while boosting their profits". But what is sustainability, and which companies are exploring how to combine profit with best practice? According to the Forum, sustainability means "finding ways to give us what we need and want while maintaining the ecosystem services on which we rely". The "leader businesses" are interpreting these requirements in different ways.
So you may read about how Philips developed Edore, an energy-saving domestic halogen bulb, or how Marks & Spencer launched a ground-breaking marketing campaign called "Look behind the label", which informed customers of its commitment to social and environmental issues using window displays. As Bent says: "When businesses see an opportunity and get behind it, they move very quickly."

From WalMart and Tesco to Nike and Unilever, Bent says companies are putting issues like climate change into the hands of their most commercially savvy people to ask: "Where's the opportunity here, and how can I build the future success of the business?" But there's a notable absence of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the report. Is it more of a challenge to convince SMEs that sustainability is worth the time and investment?

"I feel sympathy with the fact that SMEs don't have lots of time and resources," says Bent. "But there are smaller businesses that are experimenting and making it work. Cafédirect, which started off with three people and one bag of coffee, has transformed the UK market tremendously. What we're trying to get across is that there needn't be a trade-off between profit and being sustainable. Finding the right way is the task of strategic management."

Bent has faith in the UK's entrepreneurs, those who "create the disruptive change", to spot the market gaps and make them their own. "They become leaders because they can spot opportunities," reasons Bent. "What will guide them through this growing terrain is if they ask the question: 'How can we build up our capabilities so that we are better positioned than our competitors to deal with problems like climate change, energy efficiency and social need and make money out of it?'"

He reckons it is never too late to use new strategies to differentiate your business. "There are companies that have been doing this for a long time," he says, "and others that have entered the debate with exciting initiatives right from the off. We expect the new entrants to take advantage of the opportunities if the incumbents don't."