Key Takeaways
- The strongest sustainability strategies are built directly into the business. Companies making real progress today use sustainability to reduce risk, improve daily operations, strengthen trust, and create long-term value.
- Renewable energy and supplier standards drive resilience and competitive edge. Transitioning to clean power and setting high sourcing expectations help organizations hedge against volatility, build consumer trust, and increase supply chain reliability. This combination ultimately fuels sustainable brand growth.
- AI, circularity, and social impact are fueling new growth opportunities. From automating efficiency improvements to rethinking materials, reducing waste, and strengthening communities, these approaches help unlock operational value and lasting market impact.
- Talent is what turns sustainable business strategies into results. Renewable energy needs Engineers and Analysts. Supplier standards need procurement and compliance expertise. AI, circular design, and social impact all require people who can turn ideas into systems, decisions, and results.
In the past decade, many companies made bold climate and ESG commitments. Today, the picture looks very different. Macroeconomic uncertainty, political division, and changing regulations have made it harder for businesses to pursue sustainability with the same confidence they once did. For some leaders, the pressure to protect short-term margins is pushing aside longer-term environmental and social goals. But sustainable business hasn’t disappeared. It has evolved. The companies making progress now are the ones who understand sustainability is just part of running a business well. They know that strategies such as investing in clean energy, improving supplier standards, or sourcing more responsible materials can positively impact the bottom line. That matters because, at its core, sustainable business is about helping companies stay resilient. Here are five ways businesses are continuing to drive sustainability forward, even in unpredictable markets.
1. Renewable energy as a volatility hedge
Renewable energy was once framed mainly as a climate commitment, but companies are increasingly viewing it as an operational advantage.
That shift is important. Businesses are facing ongoing energy price volatility and grid instability in some regions, along with increasing pressure from stakeholders to reduce emissions. Renewable energy can help address all three. It can reduce exposure to fluctuating fuel prices, support long-term decarbonization goals, and give companies greater control over how they power their operations.
Companies are using power purchase agreements, on-site solar, battery storage, and other clean energy strategies to stabilize operations. Even organizations that are not household names are finding ways to reduce risk as they move toward lower-carbon operations. In manufacturing, logistics, and industrial operations, renewable energy is increasingly part of the conversation around competitiveness.
Take, for instance, Ørsted, a former coal utility in Denmark that now generates 99% of its electricity from renewables. This transition has reduced the company's exposure to fossil-fuel economics, as most of its earnings now come from regulated activities or long-term, fixed-price contracts. As a case in point, one of its U.S.-based projects, Revolution Wind, is deploying offshore wind power to Rhode Island and Connecticut grids through fixed-price, 20-year agreements. The payoff from this strategy is clear: In 2025, Ørsted’s bottom-line profit rose nearly 200-fold despite sharp swings in energy markets.
The math works in other industries as well. Global logistics giant Brambles, which operates in 60 countries, powers its operations with 100% renewable energy via contracts, onsite generation, and energy attribute certificates. By doing so, the company can keep its cost per pallet steady despite swings in fossil-fuel prices. Lower-carbon shipping helps its customers meet their own climate goals as well. As a result, Brambles has shown strong financial performance, with a 10% increase in profit and 62% increase in dividend payout in 2025. Moreover, the company consistently lands on lists such as TIME’s World’s Most Sustainable Companies and Newsweek’s World’s Greenest Companies.
Beyond energy management, companies are pursuing other strategies, such as sustainability standards, to reduce risk, build trust, and strengthen their position with customers.
2. Driving competitive advantage through supplier standards
In many sectors, the supply chain can represent 50-80% of costs and up to 90% of total emissions. That reality is pushing businesses to go beyond internal goals and focus on how products are sourced, made, and verified.
This is where ESG certifications and supplier standards come into play. Strong quality standards can help reduce supply chain risk, strengthen brand trust, and make it easier to respond to new regulations. For consumer goods companies, the business case is even stronger: Sustainable goods grow 2.3 times faster than conventional ones.
Some companies rely on existing third-party certifications, such as Fairtrade, USDA Organic, EU Ecolabel, or Cradle to Cradle. Amazon’s Climate Pledge Friendly program is an example. Others, like Sephora’s Clean and Planet Aware standards and Ulta’s Conscious Beauty framework, are homegrown. Suppliers that meet these requirements gain valuable shelf space, digital visibility, and consumer trust. Those that do not are left behind.
Whole Foods has created a clear competitive advantage through its quality standards. The grocer built its brand on ingredient safety, responsible sourcing, and transparency, including its position as the first and only certified organic national grocer. The result is an industry-leading framework that sets a high bar for suppliers and helps shoppers trust the products on its shelves. Altogether, 560+ ingredients are banned across these quality standards—part of a wider commitment that goes well beyond clean labels.
These rules are part of the company’s larger sustainability strategy, which includes regenerative agriculture, waste reduction, and meaningful support for communities. The business results suggest the strategy is working. According to Amazon, Whole Foods has grown sales by more than 40% since its 2017 acquisition, with customer traffic and store growth outpacing the industry. To capitalize on this success, Amazon plans to open more than 100 new Whole Foods stores over the next few years, even as it closes Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores.
As companies look for the next layer of advantage, many are turning to AI to reduce waste, improve operations, and uncover new sources of value.
3. Using AI for better efficiency and revenue
While the debate over whether AI is sustainable or not continues, most businesses are moving forward with deploying it across their operations. Sustainability Teams are no exception. From carbon accounting to Scope 3 supplier analysis to climate risk modeling, AI is helping Sustainability Teams handle work that’s become too data-intensive to manage by hand. Data centers are getting in the game as well, using machine learning to optimize cooling, reduce peak loads, spot equipment problems early, and shift workloads to cleaner power.
But AI’s strongest use case is not limited to the Sustainability Team or the data centers that power them. It is about helping companies save money or generate revenue. In a factory, a company can use AI to avoid leaking value from chemical waste, inconsistent quality, or lost production time. In a circular-economy business, such as Sortera or AMP, AI automates the sorting of materials for recycling. In one case, AMP used vision AI robots to help its customer, RDS of Virginia, sort recyclables at 80 picks per minute with 98% accuracy. The result?
“Our bottom line has improved drastically. It's been an improvement in efficiency, and you see a complete difference in the grade of the material, which helps you understand the function of the robots versus not having them.”
RDS of Virginia Portsmouth, VA
Solenis shows how this works on the plant floor. Its AI-powered platform uses machine learning and predictive analytics to optimize paper and packaging production in real time, improving quality while minimizing waste. For one North American producer, this increased sheet strength, eliminated 3,000 metric tons of wet-end starch, and generated a 300% ROI.
These examples demonstrate the real power of AI to drive a sustainable business. It’s not about PR but rather about wasting less, recovering more value, and moving faster.
4. Riding the circular economy growth wave
That same logic is also reshaping how companies think about materials. As businesses look for new ways to waste less and recover more value, the circular economy is becoming a major growth market, projected to reach $888 billion by 2030. This is driven, in part, by rising input costs, tighter regulations, and ongoing pressure to use fewer virgin materials.
In response, companies are increasing recycled content, experimenting with lower-impact alternatives, and building reuse or take-back models, such as Patagonia’s Worn Wear and IKEA’s Buyback programs, into their offerings. Others are redesigning packaging to cut waste, improve recyclability, or reduce the amount of material used in the first place.
Switching to circularity isn’t always easy. There can be challenges around sourcing or creating new inputs, updating production processes, and product performance. But making the shift can also unlock benefits. When companies rethink materials, they often strengthen customer loyalty, reduce inefficiencies, and open new markets.
Consider footwear maker Crocs, which achieved 25% bio-circular material across 80% of its product portfolio in 2024. The Croslite™ material is made from plant-based waste products, like cooking oil from the food industry. The shift to Croslite™ reduced Classic Clogs' carbon footprint by 10% relative to its baseline, without asking customers to accept a different product experience or price. The result is a strong brand that continues to be favored by shoppers. That’s reflected in the company’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) revenue for the Crocs brand, which grew by 9.9% in 2024 and 3.4% in 2025.
Other companies, including Sortera, AMP, and UBQ Materials, have built their entire business models around the circular economy. UBQ Materials, for example, converts household waste into a “climate-positive material that matches the price and quality of conventional plastics.” Together, these companies are showing strong signs of market momentum. Sortera has raised $45 million, AMP has raised $91 million, and UBQ Materials has raised $70 million to expand operations.
Circularity empowers businesses to create value from what used to be thrown away. The next opportunity is just as important: creating value for the people and communities connected to the business.
5. Building markets by strengthening communities
Sustainability is often discussed as an environmental issue. But the companies leading today tend to take a wider view.
They understand that long-term sustainability and value creation depend on people: workers, customers, suppliers, and the communities that make growth possible. In that sense, social impact is less about “giving back” and more about enabling the conditions that foster business growth. Whole Foods and Crocs have put this philosophy into action through initiatives focused on supporting farming communities, improving access to healthy food, developing youth skills, promoting workplace inclusivity, and more.
Warby Parker has taken a similar path. The eyewear company built social impact into the sale itself with its “Buy a Pair, Give a Pair” program. For every pair of glasses purchased, it provides a pair to someone in need. So far, the company has distributed 20 million pairs of glasses, including 350,000 to children in the U.S. While the company does not directly attribute the program to sales, the connection is hard to ignore. In its S-1 filing, the company said half of the surveyed customers first heard about Warby Parker through word of mouth. It also reported nearly 100% sales retention within 48 months for customers acquired over a four-year period. That loyalty shows up in the business results as well. In 2025, the company grew revenue by 13%, average revenue per customer by 5.7%, and achieved $1.6 million in net income. It also opened 47 new stores.
Other companies, such as Too Good To Go and d.light, have built their entire business around purpose-driven growth. In the financial services sector, Northern Arc, an Indian company, provides credit to households and small businesses that are overlooked by traditional finance. Since 2009, the company has facilitated over $21.1 billion (INR 2 trillion) in financing, positively impacting more than 118 million lives. That is a positive societal impact, but it’s also market creation. For 2024 and 2025, Northern Arc averaged about $32 million in annual profit after tax (INR 308 crore and INR 305 crore, respectively).
The pattern is clear. When companies help solve real problems for people and communities, they can also build stronger markets for themselves.
What ties all five trends together
At first glance, renewable energy, supplier standards, AI, circular materials, and social impact may seem like very different topics. But they are connected by a shared mindset.
Each one reflects a move away from short-termism and toward more durable value. They are about thinking further ahead, understanding risk more holistically, and building systems that can hold up over time. That is why the companies making progress today are not treating sustainability as a separate initiative. They are weaving it into the decisions they already have to make: how to source materials, manage energy costs, use technology, design products, strengthen communities, and hire the people who can make all of that work.
The language around sustainability may continue to change. Companies may avoid certain labels and talk instead about operational efficiency, resilience, risk management, or long-term performance. But the underlying work is still moving forward, often in practical, business-focused ways.
And increasingly, that work depends on people.
The talent side of sustainability is becoming impossible to ignore
Behind every one of these strategies is a workforce challenge. None of them happens just because a company announces them.
Renewable energy strategies need Engineers, Analysts, Operators, and Contract Specialists who can turn goals into working systems or agreements. Supplier standards only matter if Procurement and Compliance Teams know how to verify them. AI-enabled efforts need people who can interpret data and validate outputs. Circular design takes materials expertise, Product Teams, and Supply Chain Managers. And social impact only works when leaders can connect purpose to the way the business actually runs.
In other words, these strategies work when the right people are in place to turn good intentions into decisions, systems, and results. This is where modern recruiting infrastructure can make a real difference.
The bigger point is simple. Sustainability progress does not happen in a vacuum. It happens when companies have the talent to translate strategy into action.
Looking to bolster your sustainability efforts? Aquent Sustainability is here to help. Whether you're building an in-house Sustainability Team or need an expert to advise on best practices, our sustainability recruitment and consulting services help companies grow their impact. Get in touch.
About the authors
Jody Mousseau is currently VP of Sustainability Solutions at Aquent. She has over twenty-five years of combined management consulting, client relationship management, and sales leadership experience and a strong passion for sustainable living and social justice. Jody joined Aquent in 2015 in a business development role and subsequently also worked on the recruiting side of the business. Her goals include creating meaningful relationships with clients and colleagues, creating safe and inclusive spaces for all, and normalizing sustainability in life every day.
Julie Yamamoto is a sustainability, Climate & Tech Content Strategist. She has over 20 years of global experience creating ESG, B2B tech, and environmental communications for multiple sectors. Her work has been featured in leading platforms, including Forbes, TechTarget, GreenBiz, and American Forests, as well as in numerous enterprise and nonprofit digital channels. In previous roles, she led content marketing for Cloverly, OneTrust’s ESG & Sustainability Cloud, and the IBM Center for Applied Insights. A trained Climate Reality leader, Julie has driven sustainability initiatives such as IBM AI for Social Good (Environment), Watson Green Advisor, Forests for the Earth, and data science for conservation efforts. She holds a Master of Science in Marketing Management from Nanzan University and a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Oglethorpe University.
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