A Great Read on Sustainability Strategy

Over the past decade, sustainability has worked its way into business plans and business initiatives, to various degrees. While the intentions are always good, the end result is not always profitable. Deeper thinking is required to make sustainability programs ... sustainable. More is needed then just the intention. Cause and effect needs to be considered. Even though much time, effort and money has been put into the sustainability cause, it often is not quite profitable for many businesses.

Clean Winners: Sustainability Strategy That Puts Customers First by Goutam Challagalla and Frederic Dalsace is a new book that addresses this. There perspective is like a breath of fresh air on the topic. The key, according to the book, is aligning the sustainability mission with customer satisfaction - which in theory results in profits!

The authors explain that what drives a customers to make a purchase needs to be considered. Sure generally customers care about the environment, but that is not the only factor that goes into making a purchase. Plus with greenwashing going on, some customers may be skeptical.

A ground breaking way to look at it - instead of touting that products or services are sustainable, businesses need to educate their customers on how the sustainability improves the value and/or performance of the product itself and/or make it more affordable.

Some of the businesses they spotlight that are using this view are Nespresso, Michelin and John Deere. And in the age of storytelling replacing traditional advertising, this goes hand in hand with telling your story. Its a great opportunity to refresh your social media and website. Storytelling creates that connection and understanding of what you're doing - driving sales, building a loyal customer base and driving profits.

This book offers an assortment of action items, ideas, examples, and outlines of how to shift your approach.

A great read for 2026!