If you’ve been following politics in the UK for the past month, you can’t have missed the fact the new Prime Minister is a woman. Theresa May is only the second female PM in British history, after Margaret Thatcher, and the inevitable avalanche of questions about the role her gender plays in her politics began in earnest the moment she took to the media scrum outside Number 10.

It’s a conversation running in parallel just over the water, after Hillary Clinton formally accepted the Democratic Party presidential nomination last week, marking the first time a woman has ever been granted that opportunity in the USA. Come November, we may have a second Clinton in the White House and a new term of reference for her husband (my favourite suggestion so far is ‘First Ladies Man’).

In Japan, another gendered trope was broken on Sunday when voters in Tokyo elected their first female governor, Yuriko Koike, who also happened to be the nation’s first female defence minister. Koike has picked up a tough brief – from an aging population, to a series of scandals in the run up to the 2020 Olympics, she is also responsible for a metropolis living with the constant threat of a massive earthquake.

In a world faced with the social, economic, and environmental consequences of climate change, it is women and girls who risk losing the most

You’d be forgiven for thinking these instances pointed to a trend. But the truth is, despite this teasing increase in the number of women in political leadership – joining the likes of Germany’s Angela Merkel and South Korea’s Park Geun-hye – it’s a sorry state of affairs. Women are still consistently absent from the highest offices of power, from the rooms where the biggest decisions are made, and from the moments where small groups of people get to decide our future. And with it, the world loses something vital which I have seen women repeatedly bring to the table – their insight into sustainability.

In a world faced with the social, economic, and environmental consequences of climate change, it is women and girls who risk losing the most. Now, the Sustainable Development Goals have firmly positioned gender equality and the empowerment of women within the context of sustainable development. This is good and right for two compelling reasons: first, we have a moral duty to address the disproportionate impact of our changing planet on women; and, second, it’s the smartest move we can make. In so many countries it is more often women who are closest to our most challenging problems, from water shortages to malnutrition and sexual violence, and this makes them closest to the solutions. For every May or Clinton or Koike making cracks in the ‘highest and hardest glass ceiling’, I can show you countless more women nurturing green shoots that are pushing through the concrete floor.

In this year’s Sustainia100 publication, a review of the world’s most sustainable innovations, we mapped global action against the new SDGs and revealed than no fewer than 12 of the 100 solutions featured directly impact on global goal 5 – gender equality.

In so many countries it is more often women who are closest to our most challenging problems, from water shortages to malnutrition and sexual violence, and this makes them closest to the solutions

Code to Inspire is one those solutions, founded by Fereshteh Forough with a mission to empower young women from Afghanistan by improving their technical literacy. This remarkable CEO knows that breaking down barriers to digital communication can empower entire generations of women, and she is leading by example by connecting her own experience to those of the women in her region. Code to Inspire draws an unwavering bond between its own mission and the almighty ambition driving the global goal for gender equality.

This is also the case for MakaPads – ecological sanitary towels produced and manufactured in Uganda. These simple, sustainable and affordable feminine hygiene products may, on the face of it, only relate to women’s health concerns, but their broader, proven benefits enable girls to stay in school, they produce less toxic chemicals, and create new job opportunities. These are remarkable and interconnected outcomes which all begin with women but reach far and wide into their surrounding environment, communities and local economy.

And so it goes. As I work my way through the list, exploring the incredible solutions which put gender equality at the heart of all they do – from SMS-based medical guidance for expectant mothers in Kenya, to business development for artisans and homeworkers in India – something becomes resoundingly clear. Gender equality is both an individual goal in itself, and the means by which we can achieve so many more.

At Sustainia, we’ve been tracking sustainable solutions since 2012, a good few years before the SDGs were launched. One of the most inspiring leaders we’ve collaborated with during that time is the 2014 Sustainia Award winner Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola, the founder and CEO of Wecyclers, a Lagos-based waste initiative which gives Nigerian communities the chance to make an income from rubbish collection. Earlier this year, when I asked her to reflect on her work as we celebrated International Women’s Day, she pointed to the fact that 89 percent of her subscribers are female, saying, “As a social entrepreneur, I see the leadership role women take in positive things happening in the community… This goes to show that women should be actively sought after in sustainable development, as facilitators, early adopters and eventual beneficiaries.”

Bilikiss is spot on – only by including women in every part of the innovation chain, from creation to consumption, can we possibly achieve the global goals and build the future we deserve. So there is cause for celebration when I say that women’s leadership, knowledge and collective action is clearly reflected in this year’s Sustainia100, and I can see, more than ever before, how women are initiating and facilitating sustainable action. Those green shoots are reaching up higher and higher towards that glass ceiling.

Back in the corridors of power, it’s worth noting that there’s another big job description doing the rounds at the moment. It’s arguably one of the most important roles an individual can play in steering the global agenda towards peace and prosperity, that of the United Nations Secretary-General. Once again it’s an office yet to be filled by a woman, but this might be the year we finally break with convention. One of the candidates being considered for the role is Christiana Figueres, the individual responsible for bringing 175 governments together in the conclusion of the historic climate agreement in Paris, at the end of last year. To have a woman with such commitment to sustainable action take the helm of the UN could be no better endorsement of the kind of future the SDGs have set out to achieve – cleaner, greener and fairer for everyone.

Whether they’re smashing glass ceilings or ripping the floors up, woman at every level are taking the keys to our sustainable future – and unlocking it for us all.

Image: Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola, Cofounder/CEO, Wecyclers. Photo: Ruth McDowall.