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sustainability action among leaders, according
to our survey. Today, the most commonly cited
barrier to success is low customer willingness to
pay for sustainable goods. But forward-thinking
companies aren’t deterred by this obstacle. They
are expanding their reach beyond a niche group
of customers by making sustainability part of a
holistic value proposition, using innovation to
create attractive product attributes, such as price
savings, customer service or performance, that are
complemented by sustainability.

Companies that move to the Fig. 3
next economy will need to
“pursue two tracks— System thinking starts with identifying the
simultaneously improving and root causes of challenges by mapping all the
participants in the ecosystem and considering their
starting to reinvent their core incentives—everything from government incentive
business structures to labor incentives for suppliers.
Often, solutions to underlying challenges require
innovative collaboration. In fact, our survey found
Procter & Gamble was one of the fi rst companies that companies expect to increase their work
to market cold-water detergent, which allows with regulators, legislators, multi-stakeholder
consumers to save on energy and increase clothing coalitions and competitors substantially over the
longevity. It reduces the energy used in washing by next fi ve years. Partnerships with NGOs, industry
up to 90%. Bulb, a UK-based renewable energy associations and value chain partners will remain
supplier start-up, has signed up 2% of the UK popular but will not grow as quickly, according to
market in just three years—quite an achievement the survey.
for a new entrant, given that the top six players Nespresso and its nonprofi t development partner
controlled 84% of the market in 2016. Bulb’s value TechnoServe are working with USAID to rebuild the
proposition is to offer a fair price, great customer coffee industry in South Sudan after it was stifl ed
service and interfaces, and green practices. Many by the country’s civil war. The project seeks to train
companies in the petrochemical-intensive shoe 1,500 South Sudanese farmers by 2019 in an effort
industry are exploring more sustainable materials to increase farmer wages and exports. More than
options: Adidas sold over 1 million pairs of shoes 700 farmers have attended monthly agronomy
made with ocean plastic in 2017, combining an trainings since August 2015. For its part, Olam
environmentally friendly proposition with desirable International, one of the largest global agribusiness
design and performance. Each of these companies companies, with nearly $20 billion in annual revenue,
has integrated sustainability seamlessly into a has achieved a number of successes working
superior or cheaper product or service, rather than collaboratively to transform the sustainability and
simply counting on sustainability to be inherently yields of its plantations. For example, it became
attractive. the fi rst agribusiness company to achieve the
Alliance for Water Stewardship Standard for its
Achieving systems change Aviv coffee plantation in Tanzania, after working
with nonprofi ts and local stakeholders to ensure
with partnerships that focus water security for the 300,000 people living in the
on meaningful action at scale surrounding Ruvuma River basin. Olam’s recently
launched AtSource platform aims to shape change
Sustainability leaders aren’t just looking to optimize on the ground by increasing the involvement and
their operations and those of their value chains; engagement of its consumer products customers.
increasingly, they are seeking to address the root
causes of the challenges their value chains face.
For over a decade, leaders have been collaborating Using advanced technologies
to make commitments, outline solutions and to create a step change within
develop frameworks for action. Now we are seeing
these same leaders collaborate on the deep on- the industry
the-ground work required to achieve real system Companies have always used technology to
changes at scale. Among the companies we improve sustainability, but leaders will seek and
surveyed, 64% say focusing on changing the seize opportunities to use advanced technology
system will be very or extremely important for to intensify their efforts while achieving competitive
their company in fi ve years, a signifi cant increase advantage. Rapid advances are putting game-
compared with the 38% who view it as very or changing tools within fi rms’ grasps like never
extremely important today (see Figure 3). before. For instance, when Google applied artifi cial

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