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Environmental sustainability|Getting Strategic About Sustainability
Environmental sustainability

Getting Strategic About Sustainability

Use these four lenses to focus on what matters. by Jason Jay, Kate Isaacs and Hong Linh Nguyen

From the Magazine (January–February 2025)
Suzanne Saroff

Summary.   

Companies often overextend them­selves when it comes to sustainability by addressing too many issues at once, leading to scattered efforts that fail to generate a meaningful impact. In this article the authors introduce a framework leaders can use to better focus their sustainability strategies. It consists of four lenses: the business value lens (What affects our bottom line?), the stakeholder influence lens (What are people trying to tell us?), the science and technology lens (What does the data tell us about our impact and future?), and the purpose lens (What do we stand for?). Each lens uses different types of data and methods of inquiry, and each brings a particular set of issues into focus. Companies should invest in, innovate around, and build strategic coalitions for issues that fall at the intersection of all four lenses. Applying these lenses will help leaders balance external pressures with internal priorities and objective data with stakeholder perceptions. The framework allows leaders to more effectively allocate resources to achieve meaningful sustainability outcomes. The authors use the example of Keurig Dr Pepper to illustrate the framework.
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Strategy, it is often said, is about choosing what not to do. But when it comes to sustainability, many companies toss that advice aside and try to tackle too many issues at once. The result? Scattered efforts that fail to generate either business results or meaningful impact. In extreme cases, overpromising and underdelivering can even lead stakeholders and watchdogs to assume that the companies are greenwashing.

Read more on Environmental sustainability or related topics Strategy, Strategy formulation, Business and society, Analytics and data science and Leadership vision
A version of this article appeared in the January–February 2025 issue of Harvard Business Review.
Read more on Environmental sustainability or related topics Strategy, Strategy formulation, Business and society, Analytics and data science and Leadership vision

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