As the world puts its hope in the Paris UN climate change conference to bring real sustainable change to the future of our planet, Guardian Australia is pleased to announce the launch of Guardian Sustainable Business (GSB) in Australia.

Businesses, alongside governments and citizens, will lead the way towards a more equitable, sustainable future. Along with our UK and US counterparts, GSB Australia will investigate the social and environmental impact of business in Australia.

To ensure we know about the most important sustainability issues, we asked Australia’s top thought leaders and change-makers in this area to form an advisory council. The members include Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore, Climate Council’s Amanda McKenzie, Social Ventures Australia’s Michael Traill, Sustainable Business Australia’s Andrew Petersen, Diversity Council Australia’s Lisa Annese, WWF’s Dermot O’Gorman, 350.org’s Blair Palese, Greenpeace’s David Ritter, Beyond Zero Emissions’ Dr Stephen Bygrave, BLabs Australia’s Alicia Darvall, Australian Youth Climate Coalition’s Amelia Telford, Earth Hour’s Anna Rose, Do Something! Jon Dee, Professor Stuart White, the Director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures’ and Professor John Thwaites of Monash Sustainability Institute & ClimateWorks Australia.

We asked these members to nominate the issue they consider the most pressing. Here is a selection of their thoughts.

‘Start with cities’

Clover Moore, Lord Mayor, City of Sydney

Our cities have become one of the crucial battlegrounds in the fight against climate change. They cover just 2% of the earth’s surface, but contain over half the world’s population – even more here in Australia – and cities generate 75% to 80% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

That’s why in Paris, city leaders will be part of the discussion for the first time at a UN climate conference. It’s vital we demonstrate the pivotal role cities can play in reducing global emissions.

Our experience in Sydney is that you can deliver on ambitious emissions reductions targets without compromising economic growth.

We have the most ambitious target of any Australian government – to cut emissions 70% by 2030, on 2006 levels – and we’re well on track. And those targets have been matched by strong growth and an unprecedented construction boom. Indeed 40% of new jobs in greater Sydney in the five years to 2012 were created in our local government area, and $3.9bn of new development was approved last year.

Our Better Buildings Partnership brings together the owners of more than half of the city centre’s commercial-floor space in a group that works collaboratively to reduce emissions. So far, the program has reduced emissions in these buildings by 35%, reducing their energy bills by $30m a year.

The City’s residential apartment plan, on the other hand, outlines a suite of simple measures to reduce the environmental impact of apartment living – applicable to over two thirds of the city’s population. And our climate adaptation strategy, which was prepared with help from major science groups and leading business and property organisations, contains 39 actions to deal with issues ranging from changing rainfall patterns and rising sea levels to more severe heat waves.

The uncomfortable truth is that the slow response to this urgent threat means some climate change is now inevitable. But we must not waver from the common goal of limiting a global temperature rise to 2 degrees. Cities are where these national commitments will turn from words to action.

‘Divorce politics and coal’

David Ritter, CEO, Greenpeace Australia

National coal freight trains and coal at port of Newcastle in 2010. Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Almost 30 years since Paul Keating’s “Banana Republic” speech, Australia faces another vital moment of economic transformation arising from the greatest sustainability issue of our time. The coal industry – soon to be followed by oil and gas – must be swept into the dustbin of economic history. And clearly, things are rapidly changing. According to Goldman Sachs coal is in decline and will never come back.

The collapse of coal is to be celebrated. Coal is the single largest global driver of climate change and the CO2 generated when Australian export coal is burned overseas is our biggest source of emissions. According to the Climate Council (pdf), 90% of Australia’s current coal reserves will need to be left in the ground if global warming is to be kept to no more than 2C.

But the demise of coal raises profound questions around how we handle the change. It is essential that the transformation in our economy is managed justly and fairly. Good new jobs must be found for coal workers. Coal communities must be economically supported in transition. Genuine alternatives must be found for traditional owners who may have been relying on coal for revenue streams. Low-carbon economic alternatives must receive appropriate government support. But underlying all these practical measures must be an exercise in truth-telling.

The Abbott government was particularly egregious in its ludicrous worship of coal as good for humanity. But no Australian state or federal government has as yet been honest with the Australian people and spoken the truth: that the days of coal are over. An absurd political charade persists; somehow Australia is going to have a coal industry and the world is going to tackle climate change.

The problem is political economy. The fossil fuel mining industry has too much influence over Australian politics. Astonishingly, the Australian government still provides $1.8bn in production subsidies to the coal mining industry every year. According to the IMF, Australia provides fossil fuel subsidies equivalent to $1,712 per person per year, or around $40bn a year. Bizarrely, despite the downward spiral of coal, new mine proposals such as Carmichael and Shenhua Watermark, remain in play.

The reign of coal is over. It is time for our political leaders to do their job and to call it and to bring on the reforms to match the necessary reality.

‘Transition away from fossil fuels’

Blair Palese, CEO, 350.org Australia

The end of coal is not a radical, future idea but a reality already upon us. Scientists tell us that if we want a liveable planet in the future, we must keep 80% of fossil fuel reserves in the ground. That’s why Australia’s need for a rapid and well-planned transition from fossil fuels and out-of-date power plants to clean energy is our most critical sustainable development issue. It’s high time to end the divisive political rhetoric and to set a progressive action to make the move.

As other countries have moved to rapidly take up renewable energy such as solar and wind, Australia has turned climate change into a political football and largely opted out. Despite being a solar energy dream nation, our entrenched leaders have ignored and even blocked renewable energy development and tied itself to polluting king coal. We are now a nation playing “catch up” in an industry experiencing exponential growth and evolution.

This week the Climate Council of Australia released a report (pdf) showing that global clean energy investment has grown by 43% with 7.7m new jobs created in the industry worldwide, nearly doubling renewable energy job numbers since 2009. China’s renewable energy investments have increased by 32% from last year, adding 1.2m more jobs to their economy. In the US, investment is up by 8% and with a jump of 31,000 new jobs created since 2013.

By comparison, Australia’s investment in renewable energy has dropped by 35% to its lowest level since 2009. Thank you Tony Abbott!

Meanwhile, a new report by Barclays estimates that US$5.8tn will be wiped off the global coal trade by 2040 as the world addresses climate change. Australia’s Whitehaven Coal recently reported losses of A$343m and the company’s shares are down more than 80% in five years. If that doesn’t supercharge Malcolm Turnbull’s party to heed his call for innovation including renewable energy, nothing will.

Australia needs to plan for the transition away from fossil fuels, especially coal and coal exports. The move toward clean energy is now our most critical environmental and economic issue. Our failure to do so is already impacting workers, communities and our economic opportunities in this rapidly emerging new global market. It’s time to turn that around.

‘Decarbonise the economy’

John Thwaites, chairman of Monash Sustainability Institute and ClimateWorks Australia

Despite the significant global success in reducing poverty and improving health in the past 20 years, we can’t go on as we are. Global growth has come at the expense of unsustainable environmental degradation and potentially catastrophic climate change.

The challenge for those leading sustainable development is to find ways to achieve economic prosperity and social opportunity for the world’s growing population, while protecting the environment from degradation that threatens human livelihood. This will require good planning, the right incentives, new technologies and behaviour change.

Decoupling growth from resource use, pollution and climate change is possible. In Australia we have shown we can use water much more efficiently in irrigation and industry, boosting output while reducing water consumption. Our cities are now much more water–sensitive, and we are using far less water than we were. We can do even better with more recycling, stormwater harvesting and integrated water cycle management.

However as one of the world’s worst per capita carbon polluters, we need to urgently decarbonise our economy. If global warming is to be kept below 2 degrees, Australia will need to be near net zero carbon pollution by the middle of the century. This will only be possible if we start now to implement the four steps to decarbonisation: energy efficiency, 100% renewable electricity, shifting fuels in transport and industry to low carbon electricity and planting forests to sequester carbon.

‘Create a diverse and sustainable workforce’

Lisa Annese, CEO, Diversity Council Australia

Sustainability is usually related to natural resources, food supplies and energy. However, humans are a vital resource to the future of our planet, and like any other resource, it is important that we consider the workforce and the ways in which businesses manage people in a sustainable way.

Having a sustainable business requires us not only to think about the way our companies impact on our environment, but also our impact on temployees, people working in our supply chains and the communities in which we operate. It also means thinking about our longer term human impact and whether we are contributing to a sustainable and, inclusive global economy.

To ensure companies deliver the greatest social impact benefit, it is critical that organisations examine their workforce, and whether they attract and retain a diversity of people who can contribute fully.

Happily for employers, there is also a strong business case to support diverse and inclusive workplaces, with well documented bottom line benefits. Research shows that diverse and inclusive workplaces are associated with improved job and team performance, greater innovation, productivity, profit and employee wellbeing and engagement.

Too many organisations across the globe have yet to properly understand these benefits to their own business, in addition to the greater social good. Many still churn through their people, treating human resources as dispensable tools, and failing to recognise the consequences for broader society in unemployment, mental health impacts, substance abuse and poverty.

Many groups in our society currently remain underrepresented and undervalued in the workplace including people with disability, Indigenous Australians, older workers, and those from culturally diverse backgrounds. Barriers to equal participation and more inclusive workplaces are still substantial for women and LGBTI Australians. And while we know that flexibility is a key enabler for a healthy and productive workforce, it is still out of reach for many employees.

There is a lot to gain if we can change this picture. Better harnessing the full potential of the workforce can have significant economic benefits. For instance, it has been estimated that removing barriers to women’s workforce participation has the potential to increase the size of the Australian economy by about $25bn a year. And closing the gap in labour market participation and unemployment rates between people with and without disability by one-third would provide a $43bn increase to Australia’s GDP over a decade.

It’s time for more businesses to step up to the plate. Overcoming the barriers to long-term workforce sustainability will require commitment, innovation, creativity and ingenuity. We need to get serious about diversity and inclusion by implementing robust strategies with measurable goals, and holding people accountable for achieving them. Until we do, we will continue to waste our greatest resource – people – to the detriment of individual businesses, our communities and our economy.

‘Use super funds for sustainability’

Michael Traill, founding chief executive of Social Ventures Australia and chair of Goodstart Early Learning.

We have a pool of close to $2tn in superannuation funding in this country. How liberating would it be if we could think a little differently about how even small chunks of it could be allocated in ways that do not compromise the financial returns reasonably expected to sustain retirement incomes of fund members and contribute a sustainable social, environmental and productivity dividend to the nation?

This is a real possibility, as a transaction like Goodstart Early Learning is demonstrating. In the case of Goodstart, $165m in capital was raised to acquire the bankrupted assets of the nation’s largest childcare chain, ABC Childcare centres. In the five years since the deal was closed, the initial investors received a 12% annual interest coupon and the debt provider, National Australia Bank, has had virtually all its debt repaid. This $850m revenue social enterprise is being run effectively with business disciplines for social purpose. The surpluses being generated in Goodstart are directly funding improved quality early learning across the network of 643 centres and targeting improved outcomes in postcodes of need.

We are now a nation playing “catch up” in an industry experiencing exponential growth and evolution. Blair Palese, 350.org Australia

The model, thinking and capital structure behind Goodstart is entirely repeatable. If we think about the many sectors of the economy across spheres of education, aged care and health where there is a combination of revenue generation and a public policy imperative for high quality social purpose outcomes, Goodstart provides a precedent in demonstrating that both reasonable financial returns and high quality social purpose outcomes are possible.

The Goodstart capital structure was predicated on contributions from private investors, the government and a traditional debt provider. If we can bring the most significant capital provider in the country – the masters of our $2tn in superannuation to allocate even 2% of the funding pool to such large scale opportunities - we would create a sustainable $40bn pool of impact investment.And we could help to change the country in the process.

‘Empower people’

Dr Stephen Bygrave, CEO, Beyond Zero Emissions

A seasonal worker picks Riesling grapes at Surveyor’s Hill vineyard outside Canberra. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Dr Stephen Bygraves, Beyond Zero Emissions. Photograph: supplied

Climate change is pervasive, cuts across all sectors, does not discriminate, affects rich and poor, all races of the world, both men and women and young and old, as well as all living species on Earth. It is the most urgent issue facing humanity. We are all deeply connected to this issue, but most importantly we are all part of the solution.

With technical disruption and innovation occurring in almost every sector, individuals, households and communities are increasingly empowered to take climate action in the absence of any real commitment by national governments. Renewable energy is now cheaper than new coal and new gas, and with the price of solar power dropping a third over the past few years, Australian households continue to have one of the highest penetration rates of rooftop solar in the world. Battery storage is here, making the prospect of households generating their own energy and storing it 24/seven a reality. Autonomous and electric vehicles, as well as companies providing innovative car sharing arrangements, are shaking up the way we move ourselves around the landscape. With LED lighting, induction cookstoves, highly efficient electrical, heating and cooling appliances, as well as smart home energy management systems, our houses can be net generators of energy, not net consumers of energy. Energy retailers are becoming as much our customer as we are theirs.

Every home can achieve energy freedom, empowered to be renewable energy powerhouses. Communities are embracing micro–grid technology, renewable energy community projects, electric bicycle networksand virtual net metering. Additionally farmers are revegetating, using zero or minimum tillage approaches, recycling nutrients and minimising the need for costly inputs such as fertilisers.

This is the present and, increasingly, the future of climate action. Serious action on climate change will make for a more prosperous, more equal , cleaner and fairer world. Action on climate change is not a threat but a huge opportunity.

‘Transform the purpose of business’

Alicia Darvall, executive director, B Lab Australia & New Zealand

Alicia Darvall, Executive Director, B Lab Australia & New Zealand. Photograph: supplied

One of the greatest sustainability issues Australia faces is the drive for business to deliver return to its shareholders at any cost. The impact that rapid growth and profit focushas had on society, community and especially the environment in the last 50 years is detrimental.

This drive for short-term gain at the cost of both our stewardship of the environment and social equality has lead to a loss of trust in our most powerful institutions.

While business has all too often been a bad influence on our world, that is not always the case, nor does it have to be. We are beginning to see an evolution in business from a 20th century view that the purpose of business is to maximize value for shareholders to a shared view that the purpose of business is to maximize value for society.

I believe our challenge is to create a generation of conscious consumers, employees and investors who make decisions based on the impact of a business on society and the environment not just price, salary and financial return. This in turn will create a cultural shift so that one day all companies compete to be Best for the World and society will enjoy a shared and durable prosperity.