Sustainability was once perceived as the purview of the environmentally-inclined, idealists and young. Today, sustainability has become one of the core components of business strategy. It has even begun to impact corporate reporting and supply chain management. But progress may not be moving quickly enough within government and business.

“Businesses in the UK are already doing a lot to rise to the challenge, but our government has proved to be willfully negligent in matching those business commitments,” Jonathan Porritt, author of The World We Made and founder of Forum for the Future, says.

Porritt took his years of experience managing the relationships between government, business and NGOs and poured it into a book set in the year 2050 that documents the technological advancements and sustainable solutions required in the future. The moves made by world leaders toward sustainability over the past 20 years have been inadequate, he says.

The World We Made is supported by Arup, which, at its heart, seeks to promote sustainable business practice and technological innovation.

In one week, tickets to the 2013 Sustainable Brands conference will increase for the final time. In one month, attendees will be shepherded into the Lancaster London hotel for two days of exhibitions, talks and speeches by some of the top minds in sustainability today. Effecting change in business is still possible.