The success of ecosystems is a hot topic these days—and rightly so. Apple, for example, has built a powerful business ecosystem of app developers and software players around its iOS operating system. Amazon has similarly built a robust business ecosystem including brick-and-mortar and online retailers. And Visa has built a robust business ecosystem around its payment platform. But what if the power of business ecosystems could be taken a bit further? What if business ecosystems could be leveraged to help save the planet?

That’s not as far-fetched as it may sound. As companies around the world remake their business models to advance their sustainability and boost their business advantage, many are finding that they need to drive change beyond the boundaries of their business. Creating changes in the wider system in which a company operates demands collective action. In some cases, that change is best driven through the creation of a business ecosystem—a specific form of business collective action wherein a dynamic group of independent businesses creates products or services that together constitute a coherent solution to a marketplace or consumer need.

Business ecosystems are complex and often more difficult to develop than alternative approaches to collective action, including partnerships or joint ventures, as well as broad-based corporate-led sustainability alliances. So how do companies determine when a business ecosystem is the best option for a specific sustainability challenge? On the basis of BCG Henderson Institute’s continuing research into sustainable business model innovation (SBM-I) and business ecosystems, we have identified six barriers that often inhibit a company’s ability to address a sustainability challenge, either in their own operations or for their customers, and where business ecosystems could provide a solution:

• Fragmented demand
• Fragmented supply
• Matching challenge
• Lack of trust
• Insufficient co-innovation
• Lack of close coordination across industries

Companies looking to tackle sustainability challenges that exhibit at least one of these barriers should consider creating a business ecosystem to drive collective action toward an ecosystem with enhanced sustainability performance.