The industrial revolution heralded the advent of business models based on extraction and trade, often with exclusionary results for the margin-alised and uneven sharing of costs and benefits across what were then short value chains. This resulted in uneven value accumulation, with consequential growth in inequality.

This inequality was worsened by globalisation, where dominant firms have been able to control sections of longer value chains with the strategy of creating value through lower costs. The adoption of the SDGs creates an imperative for more inclusive and equitable sharing of the world’s resources, where value is added in sustainable ways.

This approach requires new business models based on integrated methods within and between value chains and regenerative production processes. These models have been constrained by traditional informa-tion management systems. With the introduction of collaborative business models and technology and improved tools for creating transparency and visibility.

Businesses can now move further along the digitisation maturity curve.

This creates the benefits of mutual-isation of costs, financial returns and information through participation in business ecosystems and networks supported by systems that create visibility built on operations visibility and traceability with near real-time audit trails of item handling events.