The Sustainable Business Council (SBC) is a CEO and executive-led membership organisation bringing together more than 120 of Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading businesses across all sectors of the economy.
Our purpose is to mobilise New Zealand’s most ambitious businesses to make sustainability a key driver for competitiveness and resilience. By turning individual business leadership into collective voice and action, we help members tackle shared challenges, seize opportunities and contribute to a more competitive, resilient and sustainable economy.
Through SBC, members gain access to executive-led leadership, trusted networks, national influence and opportunities for collective action that are difficult to achieve alone. As the New Zealand partner of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and part of the BusinessNZ network, we also connect members to global insights, programmes and best practice, translated for the New Zealand context.
We challenge and support our members to lead, while championing those setting the pace. Our long-term vision is for a competitive, resilient economy that drives sustainable growth, lifts wellbeing and restores our environment for generations.
Explore our 2026 – 2030 Strategic Plan below.
A unique positioning
SBC is the only New Zealand-based Global Network Partner of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in Geneva.
We have aligned our work to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.
How SBC walks the talk on sustainability
We recognise that credibility matters. As an organisation that encourages business leadership on sustainability, we are committed to applying the principles of sustainability to our own operations, decision-making, and ways of working.
Leading through collaboration
SBC brings together businesses from across New Zealand’s economy to address sustainability challenges and opportunities that no organisation can solve alone. Through leadership networks, Communities of Practice, collaborative initiatives, events, research, and thought leadership, we help members turn ambition into action and individual commitment into collective impact.
Our role is to connect insights, leadership and action, enabling businesses to collaborate on the issues that matter most and helping shape the conditions for a more competitive, resilient and sustainable economy.
Managing our emissions
SBC is part of the BusinessNZ Network, New Zealand’s largest business advocacy network. As a network partner within the BusinessNZ Group, SBC’s operational greenhouse gas emissions are measured and reported as part of BusinessNZ’s organisational emissions inventory.
BusinessNZ maintains Toitū certification and publicly reports on its emissions management programme. SBC’s operational emissions are included within this reporting boundary.
To learn more, visit BusinessNZ’s Toitū certification profile: BusinessNZ Toitū certification.
Continuous improvement
Sustainability is a journey of continuous learning and improvement. As expectations, science, and best practice evolve, we remain committed to improving how we operate and how we support business leadership on sustainability.
By working alongside our members, partners and stakeholders, we aim to contribute to sustainable growth, improved wellbeing, and a restored environment for current and future generations.