If Planet Earth were a business, no executive could look at the metrics — whether melting glaciers or widening income disparity, whether disappearing rainforests or the global economic crisis — and not come to the same conclusion: we need a turnaround. Assuming that NASA’s Mar. 2014 forecasting is right — or even half-right — we’ve got 20 years to stave off irreversible global industrial civilization collapse “due to unsustainable resource exploitation and increasingly unequal wealth distribution.” Business leaders see this compelling case for change. And increasingly, many are taking a stand to be accountable for addressing humanity’s challenges. They recognize how we’re all part of this breakdown and are saying it’s time to change the game. Now. For good.

These leaders see that concerns about the future have become so blinkered by deeply entrenched conventional financial parameters that we’ve entirely lost touch with the true purpose of business — to provide value-added goods and services for a socially just, environmentally sustainable and economically thriving world.

That’s why companies like Unilever, Whole Foods, Salesforce and HP are shifting their products and protocols away from ones that maintain disintegrative global trends. Instead, they are leading toward a more interconnected world for the sake of a flourishing future for all stakeholders. They’re awakening to a greater responsibility for generations to come, and in so doing are proving the correlation between doing good and doing well.

As Paul Herman, author of HIP Investor (Human Impact + Profit) says, “We have mounting indisputable evidence that investing in initiatives that serve people and the planet provides a greater economic return than not doing so.” And, they aren’t doing it alone. Some people, like forerunners in social entrepreneurism, responsible investment, and the Corporate Leaders Group saw the signals early. They’ve been working on win-win solutions that deliver returns and serve the world for 10 years and longer.

More recently, creative cross-sector business partnerships like BICEP, the Business Alliance for the Future and We Mean Businessare making their members’ collective voices heard. Others finding new ways to work together and signing on to difference-making social and environmental initiatives include business groups such as BCorp, American Sustainable Business Council, Sustainable Brands, Conscious Capitalism, Huffington Post, Real Leaders, UN Global Compact, World Business Academy and many more.

Individually, these groups are having real impact. Three examples are: Social Venture Network’s Divest-Invest energy campaign, Ceres’ Call for Action on Climate Change, and World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)’s Vision 2050new agenda for business serving the world. Yet, a critical question remains — are these worthy, noble initiatives happening fast enough, or at a scale large enough to produce the systemic change we need to remedy the breakdowns we face?

This question was asked to leaders of 30 business associations and networks at a gathering of the Business Alliance for the Future earlier this year. All 30 agreed that the answer was “no.” The collective view was there is about 5 years left to turn the raging tide. Many said they’re clear that the business community has the solutions and resources to address our global challenges. But what’s missing, they said, is a way of unifying or working together, in interdependent ways to support aligned organizations. They want to work within business and with other sectors of the economy, to accelerate what’s already happening on the ground.

So what’s needed here is something to fill the gap and create a breakthrough in collaboration to exponentially accelerate needed systemic change — without creating another organization. It’s true that organizations have been working on collaborative cultures, high performance teamwork, coopetition for a few decades. Yet, the collision of immense global challenges with shifting social consciousness and exponential technological change requires totally new human commitments and capacities to think and act in unified and interdependent ways. This world isn’t a dreamscape.

New collaborations are possible, doable, and happening. Just last month, sustainability pioneer Paul Hawken revealed Drawdown.org to show how reversing climate disruption impacts is not just possible, but predictable, if we share solutions that we know already work. And in California, the World Business Academy’ Clean Energy Moonshot is calling for new partnerships across government, business, science and civil society for an audacious, accelerated pathway to 100% clean and renewable energy economy. This new way of thinking about business is the challenge — and opportunity — for our age.

The future of business is making the future its business. By accelerating Business’ Decisive Leap in creating a breakthrough collaborating for good, business will become the engine that pulls us away from the precipice of decline and collapse and toward a future where business, people and nature flourish. To learn more about the work of the authors in the Business Alliance for the Future, visit here.

About the authors Claire Sommer is a sustainability writer based in West Orange, NJ. Since 1999, her business writing consultancy, Kayak Media, has helped Fortune 500 companies tell their stories. Clients include Wyndham Worldwide, Unilever, McGraw Hill, BNY Mellon and Aetna. In recent years, Claire’s work has centered on sustainability writing and helping sustainable businesses grow. She also writes for Greenbiz, Sustainable Brands and Green People Media.

She is a Certified Rutgers Environmental Steward, a NOLs (National Outdoor Leadership School) alumna, and a graduate of the LeaderShip for Sustainability program. Vince DiBianca, senior partner of Praemia Group has worked with thousands of leaders inspired to achieve game changing results that make a world-changing difference – where business excels, people thrive and nature flourishes.

Over the last 40 years, Vince has served as coach and consultant to CEOs and C-suite executives from global organizations including: Allstate, Deloitte, Hughes Aircraft, Men’s Wearhouse, Novartis, Reebok, Sears, Whole Foods, and the United Nations and many smaller organizations. Recognizing that we face a once-in-a-civilization opportunity to impact global change, Vince is spearheading Business Alliance for the Future, an alliance of business associations and global affiliations to advance the emerging “business for good” movement.

Ford was voted Best Global Green Brand of 2014 by Interbrand. Check out this infographic on how they are recycling and saving valuable resources as they build their cars.

We are leaving one age and entering another. The information age is waning and we are entering something new. Something beyond social, mobile and the cloud. The great synthesis perhaps. Between virtual and physical. Digital and analog. Silicon and carbon. Maybe, through the intelligent, intentional instrumentation of the physical world, we will create new ground truth. About water. Arable land. Energy. Population health. Nurtition. And with that ground truth, perhaps we will create more trust? And leadership. And meaning.

Some parts of this age need leaving The current, dominant instance of capitalism is marked by a mis-reading of Milton Friedman on the sole function of a private corporation being profit maximization. He thought, wrote, taught much more. And better. But a myopia about profit – particularly short term – limits some of the most talented people in the world to hedge, or turn away from their potential to create more and better for their customers, teams, and communities beyond shareholders. The current, advertised-as-most-advanced instance of governance is marked by a mis-reading of Darwin and the survival of the fittest that has arrived us at winner-take-all politics.

This has spawned the shaming of compromise that has cored out some of the most important local, regional, national and global institutions we have yet created. And this has severely limited the potential for our best and brightest to create systems that shed historical baggage, honor core values and leverage new insight.

The current instance of identity, marked by so many labels, likes and hashtags, has arrived us at a moment when a perception of a post in a distracted split second can be turned into reality for a product, a brand, a community, a segment of the population. This limits some of the most well intentioned people’s ability or ambition to connect deeply with the real world – including the people in the room, at the table, sitting beside them.

Who Says We Might Be In A New Leadership Moment?

Roy D Spence, Jr, is one of the planet’s greatest living ad-men. But, what a world this would be if they were all as inspired and intentional as Roy. I first met him in 2011, when we shared the stage at ScanSource’s annual partner conference. Suffice it to say, I did not belong in the same hall with the man. His primary thesis is much deeper than his pithy book title, Its Not What You Sell, Its What You Stand For. But that is a good start. Robert D. Kaplan, in his 2012 work, The Revenge of Geography, reminds us that despite the power of global tech, media and finance to obliterate many barriers, the physical world still has something to say about population health, culture, government, economy, security.

What is IoT if not the instrumentation of the physical world? Walter Isaacson, in his most recent work, The Innovators, homes in on a number of emerging themes that could likely be central to our success in selecting which systems to honor and invest in, and which to target for creative destruction, or something new. Among the arguments he hones throughout his work, is the cause for a re-elevation of the social and physical sciences. An homage to the mystery that is our creativity, our inventiveness, our unpredictability and our resilience. Great synthesis anyone?

The concept of leadership is undergoing a massive redefinition as we speak.

Our next great cadre of leaders is being forged in part by these ideas as expressed in the instrumentation of the physical world. These are the people defining, developing and deploying Internet of Things, or IoT solutions. They are doing it with intention, intelligence and a keen eye toward mitigating unintended consequences. We will benefit in many ways, especially their willful destruction of the false choices in too many systems. Following are a few examples of how they are going about conceiving and delivering their work Three maxims, three tactics, three examples of the new leadership expressing itself in IoT

During our TEDx talk on IoT last year, we were thrilled to share three maxims of emerging leadership in IoT. These are elements of a vision that we see over and over again in some of the most compelling IoT startups in the world.

1. Grand challenges before small conveniences
2. People above machines
3. Faces more than screens

In an INEX post recently, we defined three ways that the new leadership in IoT is creating a new class of products, services and experiences, based in part on a new set of technical, commercial and social values. These are a core set of common tactics evident in some of the most powerful IoT solutions deployed today.

1. Human-centered – or accessible analytics for anyone
2. Persistent sockets – or the rise of reliable hardware
3. Transparent business models – or the rise of authentic value over edge

And here they are. Three IoT companies with approaches that map – at the conceptual level with the maxims, and at the tactical level with the development approaches – to a number of elements of an emerging new leadership. In IoT. In national security and public safety. In resource management. In agriculture. Blueforce Development. Mike Helfrich’s team enables remote teams from multiple entities to rapidly stand-up manage and tear-down secure networks of people, proximate sensors and remote services. Securely. While the business began in the Tier 1 SOF (Special Operations Forces) and Intelligence communities, versions of these capabilities are now available to first responders and enterprises deploying mobile workers across a number of vertical markets.

Clearly a human-centered approach to IoT, Blueforce is a brilliant example of the faces more than screens maxim by delivering a single pane of glass common operating picture that enables operators to see only what they need to see quickly, accurately, actionably. They can get in a screen, get what they need, and get out quickly. Wellntel. Marian Singer and Nicholas Hayes have been bridging the mechanical engineering and geohydrology worlds, the real time control and extreme remote telemetry domains for nearly 20 years.

Their work made them global experts on pump equipment and machinery management. Their IoT company Wellntel goes beyond the pump to instrument the groundwater BEFORE it is consumed. Two of the strongest value propositions in their solution include: The design of their device, optimized to operate at the wellhead for years, and their focus on creating a business in profitable sustainability for them, well owner/ operators, and a number of other interested stakeholders. Farmobile.

Jason Tatge and his partners brought commodities markets to farmers on their hand held devices in the last decade. His new company aims to bring precision agriculture to the mid-sized, family and small scale agriculture operations. From application- specific sensors for ag equipment, machinery and ambient environments, to a cloud-based electronic farm record suitable for delivering regulator-authenticated intelligence, Farmobile is enable another revolution in ag, food, nutrition, population health and rural economic development.

There are a number of things unique about the Farmobile model, but, two map most closely to the maxims and tactics checklists: People above machines, and transparent business models. Each Farmobile client secures a licensing agreement that enables them to define the authorization of the re-exploitation of their data to 3^rd/ 4^th/ 5^th parties – and share in the revenue from those subscriptions.

Chris Rezendes is responsible for leading client and partner engagements and new research initiatives at INEX Advisors, LLC. In his current advisory engagements  Rezendes focuses on helping clients define, select, and prosecute their most promising growth and investment opportunities in internet of things, M@M, and related kill enabling technologies markets. Rezendes has nearly 22 years of experience analyzing, advising, or operating in mission critical, real-time, embedded, mobile, and wireless technology businesses.

Deforestation. Pollution. Soil degradation. Poverty. These are just a handful of the critical social and environmental problems Social Venture Network’s 2014 Innovation Award winners are addressing through groundbreaking business practices. From stoves that save 10 tons of firewood each year to a pioneering training program for low-income entrepreneurs, the SVN Innovation Awards program recognizes companies and organizations that are changing the way the world does business.

At SVN’s Fall Conference—where SVN’s peer-to-peer network of influential, values-driven entrepreneurs and investors gather every year—the SVN Innovation Award winners have the opportunity to share how they’re working in cutting edge ways to solve the most pressing social and environmental problems. They’ll take the stage in front of 300 high-impact founders and CEOs and spend four days immersed in the SVN experience.

With the right people, resource and ideas in the room, SVN’s Innovation Award winners can create the support system they need to improve their business, enhance their leadership and expand their impact. Selected by an expert panel of judges for their innovation, impact and capacity to scale, the Innovation Award winners share SVN’s imperative to leverage business to build a more just, humane and sustainable world. It’s the common thread that connects them to SVN’s 27-year history of innovation and leadership, and it goes a long way in building lasting business and personal relationships.

The Winners Jason Bradford and Craig Wichner, Farmland LP:

The demand for organic foods continues to grow exponentially, but the availability of organic farmland and raw materials lags far behind. With more than $50 million of acreage under management, Farmland LP demonstrates that sustainable agriculture at scale is economically superior to conventional agriculture, which relies on agrochemicals and commodity crops, due to the high cost of land. Farmland LP provides investors with the opportunity to own high quality farmland, while the company’s land management practices increase investor cash flow by using sustainable crop and livestock rotations. By providing access to high quality, organic, sustainable acreage, Farmland LP enables organic farmers and sustainable ranchers to focus on the crops and livestock they produce best.

Shannon Dosmegan, Public Lab:

A broken CD, an old VHS case and an inexpensive webcam. These three items usually end up as trash, but the innovators at Public Lab have turned them into a low-cost, do-it-yourself alternative to the traditional spectrometer – a tool used to detect neurotoxins that ordinarily costs thousands of dollars. This innovation is just one example of Public Lab’s unique approach to addressing environmental issues. Operating at the intersection of social entrepreneurship, the maker movement and citizen science, Public Lab makes inexpensive, do-it-yourself techniques available to underserved communities by applying open-source techniques to the development of tools for environmental exploration and investigation. In addition, Public Lab generates knowledge and shares data about community environmental health, while focusing on locally relevant outcomes that emphasize human capacity and understanding.

Alfa Demmellash, Rising Tide Capital:

Combatting poverty and isolation with opportunity and innovation, Rising Tide Capital believes the best way to revitalize local economies is to support and grow the entrepreneurial energy and talent that exists in every neighborhood. Rising Tide Capital works with a community of emerging entrepreneurs to equip them with the tools, skills and access to funding they need to grow successful businesses. When these entrepreneurs are empowered to succeed, they not only generate income for their families, they create a ripple effect that catalyzes the social and economic development of their local community.

Svati Bhogle, Sustaintech India:

Severe respiratory disease, unsustainable CO2 emissions and indoor air pollution are grave concerns facing India as a direct result of traditional cook stoves. Sustaintech India is a social enterprise that manufactures and sells sustainable energy products, including fuel-efficient commercial cook stoves, designed to improve the health of underserved populations, reduce firewood consumption, slow deforestation and contribute to India’s climate change mitigation efforts. Sustaintech’s smoke-free PYRO stoves provide a path out of poverty for street food vendors along with substantial environmental benefits: each stove in its lifetime conserves two acres of open forests and saves 10 tons of firewood per year.

Social Venture Network’s 2014 Fall Conference SVN’s Fall Conference unites these emerging innovators with pioneers like Linda Mason of Bright Horizons Family Solutions, Nikki Silvestri of Green for All, David Fenton of Fenton, Daniel Lubetzky of KIND Healthy Snacks and Baratunde Thurston of Cultivated Wit. The conference will be held October 23-26 in Greenwich, CT, and focuses on building valuable connections and collaborations among high-impact, innovative business leaders. More information on guest speakers and registration is available at www.svn.org/fall2014.

Since 1987, Social Venture Network (SVN, www.svn.org) has been the leading network of entrepreneurs who are transforming the way the world does business. SVN connects the leaders of socially responsible enterprises to share wisdom and resources, form strategic alliances and explore new solutions that build a more just and sustainable economy.