"Business as Part of the Solution": SDG 8 Challenges Popular Views in the Global Sustainability Discourse

Sustainable Development Goal 8 (SDG 8) aims to make the global economy more inclusive by directing its attention to the many unmet material needs of the poor on this planet. SDG 8 also recognizes the need to decouple economic growth from the unsustainable use of natural resources. Tackling these challenges effectively requires action-oriented public–private partnerships and the mobilization of innovative entrepreneurship for sustainable and inclusive change. However, this approach is contested in the current global discourse on sustainable development in affluent societies, which is more concerned about the negative impact of economic growth. This concern is also omnipresent in the teaching material used in “Education for Sustainable Development” (ESD). It is often strictly normative in nature and frames the pursuit of growth-oriented business activities as being opposed to sustainable lifestyles. This chapter challenges this view by looking at business not just as an external black box, but as an integral part of society. In this context, concrete examples are presented to illustrate how sustainability challenges have been addressed effectively in society by making “business part of the solution”. Since SDG 8 stands for such an approach, it could lead the way from the rhetoric to action in the decade that remains to meet Agenda 2030.