As markets evolve and stakeholder expectations rise, organizations have a unique opportunity to transform their investments in sustainability into tangible commercial gains and future-proof their business. A useful way to navigate this is by focusing on three waves of opportunity, with each wave bringing distinct benefits and opening different paths for growth and differentiation.

Wave 1: Capitalising on existing sustainability investments

Many companies already have sustainability initiatives in place, from supply chain transparency to energy efficiency, but often they haven’t been able to fully capitalise on these efforts. By systematically reviewing what has been achieved so far, businesses can identify overlooked ways to enhance profitability and strengthen brand reputation. This might involve highlighting low-carbon offerings in marketing campaigns, ramping up collaborations with suppliers who share your sustainability goals, or simply developing capabilities around communicating all the actions that your organisation has already done regarding sustainability.

Capturing commercial value at this stage often requires less new investments and generate quick wins that enable building momentum within your organisation. By delivering these types of quick wins, organisations are more likely to see, and invest in, the broader commercial potential around sustainability.

Wave 2: Incremental development of products and services

Once the low-hanging fruits have been captured, the next wave of opportunities is refining or extending core offerings through incremental development. This could mean tweaking designs and packaging to reduce waste and enable more circular business models, creating trade-in or resale programs, or rethinking how products are priced and bundled to deliver upside potential or reduce production costs.

Incremental innovation can yield significant brand and customer loyalty benefits while maintaining alignment with existing operational structures. In this wave of opportunities, a typical challenge is ensuring commercial teams actively champion these solutions, marketing and pricing them in ways that resonate with diverse customer segments and evolving regulations.

Wave 3: Radical innovation and new business models

The third wave revolves around fundamentally reimagining how your company creates, delivers, and captures commercial value. Organisations that embrace circular or regenerative models, product-as-a-service arrangements, and other disruptive ideas often tap into completely new growth engines.

This wave can be the most transformative and presents the chance to become a recognized market leader in sustainability. It also raises strategic questions about which new business models are most viable in which markets, how to deploy digital tools to support customers, and how to ensure commercial teams are equipped to sell and communicate these new offerings. Although this step is bold and requires significant investments and organisational alignment, it has the potential to unlock outsized commercial returns and reshape entire value chains.

Where to begin?

Developing a robust approach to commercialising sustainability that delivers real commercial returns often hinges on understanding your unique business lines, product portfolios, and core capabilities. As you chart a path forward, it’s helpful to consider questions such as:

• Which existing sustainability initiatives could be leveraged as commercial drivers?

• What capabilities are needed to leverage current actions for commercial results?

• Which product and service lines show most potential for delivering commercial returns in different markets?

• How can sustainable solutions be distinctly commercialized and priced to meet both customer expectations and evolving regulations?

• How can commercial teams fully embrace and effectively communicate the value of sustainable offerings?

• Which opportunity areas should be focus for more radical innovations? 

By taking a structured approach to commercialising sustainability, companies can establish a meaningful competitive edge for the future. Each described wave brings distinct advantages: quick financial gains, strengthened brand reputation, deeper customer engagement, and the potential to pioneer entirely new market categories. With solid strategy work, stakeholder alignment, and a clear roadmap, sustainability can be developed into something that also drives commercial results.