TH E Q U E STION
Closing Gaps: What stands between sustainability ambition and action?
TH E Q U E STION
Closing Gaps: What stands between sustainability ambition and action? In each edition, we invite business leaders from across the sustainability sector to give their views on the same question 2 | Sustainability Outlook Issue 3
THE QUESTION CLOSING GAPS
BIN LU EVP Power Products, Schneider Electric Sustainability ambition is no longer the main barrier. The gap is increasingly between setting targets and having the operational visibility, infrastructure, and flexibility to deliver them. For years, the transition has focused rightly on cleaner generation, storage, and transmission. But many constraints now sit much closer to where energy is used, inside homes, buildings, factories, and data centres. Many of these sites are adding electric vehicle (EV) chargers, heat pumps, on-site renewables, batteries, and digital infrastructure, which generate significant electrical loads. The problem is existing buildings and facilities were not designed for the scale and unpredictability of today’s energy demands. Organisations can have ambitious decarbonisation plans, but without enough insight and intelligence into energy usage, they will struggle to connect and operate new electric loads without higher costs or risks of disruption. Closing this gap requires more intelligent electrical infrastructure. Connected assets, real-time data, and software can help engineers understand loads, anticipate peaks, and coordinate flexible demand such as EV charging, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), and
TOM BEAGENT Partner of Strategy, PwC UK Many businesses set ambitious climate targets around COP26 in Glasgow, with a flood of 1.5 degrees
storage without compromising comfort or business continuity. This is what we call energy intelligence. This is not a substitute for grid investment. Major network upgrades remain essential. But flexibility can unlock existing capacity faster, helping organisations act now whilst longerterm investment progresses. Ultimately, sustainability becomes achievable when every kilowatt is managed more intelligently. www.se.com
Celsius (°C)-aligned commitments. Yet delivery has proven challenging. There are a number of highprofile companies whose recent announcements to reduce, delay, or drop decarbonisation targets have made headlines. Conversely, PwC’s latest State of Decarbonisation Report found that whilst 18 percent of companies decreased their ambition, 23 percent increased it. A key challenge is that many businesses expected stronger regulatory support. As a result, the latest climate scenarios show breaching 1.5°C is now unavoidable, with best-case scenarios peaking at 1.8°C by 2050 – raising questions about business case assumptions. The real gap emerges in execution. Companies must make capital allocation decisions amidst competing demands in a very different operating environment to that in 2021.
But the value case is still strong. Our research shows a 15 to 59 percent valuation premium for companies in key sectors investing significantly in climate transition. Three factors bridge ambition and action: 1. Quantified business case – Include impact of inaction, not just transition costs. 2. Investment clarity – Secure financing and validate the investment case. 3. Governance – Strong accountability mechanisms for implementation. The question isn’t ambition – it’s whether your organisation has these fundamentals in place.
www.pwc.co.uk
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THE QUESTION CLOSING GAPS
ANNA PALAZIJ Vice President of Sustainability, PepsiCo The biggest gap between ambition and action is rarely a lack of ideas. We know many of the solutions that can help build a more resilient food system. The challenge is scaling them in ways that work for farmers, businesses, and communities. At PepsiCo, we’ve learned that transformation happens when sustainability is embedded into how people operate every day. Farmers – who are on the front lines of climate pressures, soil degradation, water scarcity, and extreme weather – must be at the centre of that transition. The second barrier is the system around those solutions. Many regenerative agriculture practices can improve resilience, soil health, water stewardship, and productivity, but adoption often requires upfront investment whilst benefits take time to materialise. Too often, markets, financing structures, and measurement systems do not fully reward those outcomes. That is why collaboration and innovative financing models matter. Collaborative programmes like RegenLend help reduce equipment costs and de-risk adoption for farmers implementing regenerative practices. Similarly, STEP Up for Agriculture invests in trusted farmer-facing organisations to expand technical support
NICHOLAS MAZZEI Vice President Sustainability, DP World The biggest gap between sustainability ambition and action is ownership. Often, sustainability is treated as something a separate specialist team will deliver for the business. But it becomes real only when operational leaders make it part of everyday decisions: how we power assets, move goods, invest, and manage risk. A second barrier is the myth that the greener option is automatically more expensive. Falling costs for solar photovoltaic (solar PV), batteries, and EVs are increasingly strengthening the commercial case for these technologies, yet outdated assumptions continue to delay investment. Finally, transitions are hard work. Changing energy systems, infrastructure, and established
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and scale solutions on the ground. Closing the gap between ambition and action requires aligned incentives, better data, innovative finance, and collaborations that turn proven solutions into widespread impact. pepsico.com
processes demands time, capital, and leadership. The temptation is to keep going as before and postpone difficult decisions. But delay is not a neutral choice. Businesses often struggle to manage energy transitions, and some will fail because they move too late. The answer is not another distant commitment. It is clear operational accountability: budgets aligned with ambition and practical delivery. The principle is simple: do not tell me your values; show me your budget. Businesses must move at the right moment – not so far ahead that they undermine themselves, but never so far behind that they lose their competitiveness. www.dpworld.com
THE QUESTION CLOSING GAPS
HANNAH CORNICK Director of Sustainability and Social Innovation, Danone North Europe Turning sustainability ambition into action means embedding nature, climate, and resilience into everyday business decisions, with measurable outcomes that deliver tangible benefits for people, communities, the planet – and the business. But the challenge can often be how to turn that ambition into action at scale. That means measuring impact, making the business case, being transparent about progress and challenges, and working with partners to deliver positive change. At Danone, data and long-term impact guide our decision-making, helping us prioritise initiatives that deliver measurable outcomes and strengthen our resilience. Our investment in locally sourced British oats for Alpro’s core oat drinks is one example, reducing carbon emissions by 25 percent in 2025 whilst supporting a stronger local supply chain. We’ve gone further by joining the Landscape Enterprise Networks (LENs) programme, supporting farmers to adopt regenerative practices that strengthen both farm businesses and the landscapes they depend on. Bringing together farmers, businesses, and environmental experts, our partnership with LENs demonstrates how targeted investment and collaboration can turn sustainability ambition into meaningful action. Ultimately, closing the ambitionaction gap depends on demonstrating how we can deliver lasting environmental impact alongside business value, and building partnerships that support the transformation of the wider food system. www.danone.com
DR MÁRCIA BALISCIANO Chief Sustainability Officer, RELX Leaders may want to advance sustainability but struggle to understand what it entails and where to start. Sustainability looks at how a company operates: its risks and opportunities. It means minimising negative impacts whilst increasing positive contributions to society, stakeholders, and the environment. It is about creating business value, maintaining a ‘licence to operate’, and ensuring long-term viability. Everyone needs to own the commitment, but sustainability must also be someone’s job. That person should work across the organisation, building consensus on meaningful goals with the board and senior leadership, and holding themselves and the organisation accountable. They must understand the business, act as a change agent, engage colleagues at all levels, and bring best practices into the organisation. Start by assessing what good looks like and identifying gaps between where the organisation is today and where it could go. Rapid technological and geopolitical change, demanding markets, and limited resources make this challenging. Pick one or two areas where you can make progress fastest and start there. There are no perfect conditions. The best way to begin is to begin. But if I have learned anything in my sustainability career, it is that the important thing is to stay the course. www.relx.com
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THE QUESTION CLOSING GAPS
CHRISTINE WISSINK Technical Director, WSP The gap between sustainability ambition and implementation remains one of organisations’ greatest challenges. One major barrier is uncertainty. Organisations want evidence before committing scarce resources, but climate change creates a particular challenge: decisions must be made today about futures that cannot be predicted with complete confidence. Climate models can indicate broad trends, but there is still uncertainty around how hazards may change, combine and affect specific assets, places, and communities. The most successful organisations focus on actions that deliver value regardless of exactly how future conditions evolve. These ‘win-win’ measures can strengthen resilience whilst supporting wider objectives – from improving asset maintenance to reduce failure risks during extreme weather to investing in green infrastructure that manages surface water whilst improving biodiversity or strengthening supplier engagement to improve reliability and operational performance. The future may be uncertain, but that should not stall action. Resilient organisations will not be those waiting for perfect information but those with the confidence to make informed decisions today and adapt as knowledge, risks, and climate conditions evolve. www.wsp.com/en-gb
PIERRE-FRANÇOIS THALER Co-Founder and co-CEO, EcoVadis What stands between sustainability ambition and action is supplier engagement. Without it, companies have no access to reliable data on the suppliers carrying most of their emissions and labour risk, and no basis to act on either one. Scope 3 emissions can be 27 times larger than Scope 1 and 2 combined, yet over 70 percent of companies aren’t tracking Scope 3 emissions and only seven percent of companies currently engage suppliers on carbon. It’s not surprising, then, that only 16 percent of companies are on track to hit net zero targets by 2050. The same gap shows up on human rights. It doesn’t surface on its own,
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and 80 percent of Tier 1 suppliers haven’t mapped their own suppliers’ risk at all to catch it. This isn’t unwillingness. Many suppliers, particularly smaller ones, don’t have the systems or expertise to measure and report consistently, so emissions get estimated and labour conditions go undocumented. That’s what supplier engagement solves. Equip suppliers with the tools, training, and support to produce verified data, and keep the dialogue going on a regular cadence rather than a one-off audit. This takes time, but it’s the difference between a target a company has set and one it can progress against.
ecovadis.com
THE QUESTION CLOSING GAPS
LIANNE PEMBERTON UK and Ireland Sustainability Lead, Smurfit Westrock For many businesses, the biggest gap between sustainability ambition and action is turning long-term targets into practical, commercially viable decisions. Extended producer responsibility is shifting packaging conversations from long-term ambition to practical decision-making. Materials previously considered acceptable are now being reviewed more closely for recyclability, recovery infrastructure, and overall packaging efficiency. Regulation is accelerating that process, but uncertainty, cost, and operational complexity can slow progress. Ultimately, businesses need to move from broad commitments to measurable changes. In practice, some of the biggest improvements come from getting the basics right. Reducing unnecessary material, simplifying packaging formats, and better use of transport space can help businesses improve efficiency whilst preparing for changing regulations. Data is also critical. Our customers aren’t just buying packaging; they’re working with us to make it work harder for their business. Drawing on insights from over 110,000 supply chains, we can quickly identify opportunities to reduce material, improve pack design, or move to packaging formats that better support circularity. The opportunity is to demonstrate that sustainability and commercial performance aren’t competing priorities. Often, by simplifying materials, right-sizing packaging, and making transport more efficient, businesses can reduce both their environmental impact and their costs. That is what turns ambition into action. www.smurfitwestrock.com
KATE AHERN Head of ESG, Sandoz Broad access is what keeps modern healthcare moving forwards. When patent protection ends, Sandoz makes high-quality medicines available at scale worldwide. As a global leader in generics, we help health systems stay strong and ensure treatments remain affordable and within reach for generations to come. That makes affordability central to our sustainability decisions. Like many EU companies, we face evolving reporting demands. Our challenge is to meet sustainability expectations without increasing medicine costs or making access harder. So, we start with practical changes that can deliver both environmental and financial benefits. Omeprazole, a common heartburn medicine, is one example. Redesigning its packaging cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 63 percent and saved over USD$500,000. We are reviewing 80 more packaging formats to see where the same approach could work. We are also working towards longer-term change. We have submitted decarbonisation targets to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) as part of our commitment to net zero, whilst expanding renewable electricity and on-site solar. Everything must work within the realities of a generics business. For Sandoz, the test is simple – can we reduce environmental impact whilst keeping medicines affordable and accessible? That is the balance we must get right. www.sandoz.com
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THE QUESTION CLOSING GAPS
SOPHIE GRAHAM Chief Sustainability Officer, IFS Most organisations are committed to their sustainability targets. Where they struggle is turning those high-level goals into decisions that operational teams make every day. In practice, this starts with making better use of the data the company already collects. Sustainability reporting can become a tick-box exercise, inadvertently creating distance between ambition and action. Reporting tells businesses what has happened, but not necessarily what is happening now, or what is likely to happen next. To drive real progress, organisations need to move from retrospective accounting to real-time, proactive management across every level of the business. But when these datasets are embedded into operational
workflows and combined with artificial intelligence (AI), they have the potential to deliver real-time proactivity. Instead of simply measuring performance after the fact, organisations can identify the crucial patterns of inefficiencies and anticipate emerging issues as they happen. For example, predicting an energy usage spike creates an opportunity to intervene before unnecessary consumption and associated emissions occur. Moving from reactive reporting to continuous, intelligent optimisation is what turns ambitious climate goals into measurable operational impact. For corporate sustainability, this represents a crucial shift from a retrospective exercise to continuous visibility, prediction, and action.
www.ifs.com
AMY WORTH
By providing a single view of purchasing data, procurement teams can set product policies directing employees towards over a million products with sustainability certifications, making it easier to choose products that align with procurement policies. Supporting small to mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) and buying locally are also central to many organisations’ commitments. We aim to make it easier to identify and purchase from local businesses to help organisations deliver on their social value goals. With steps like these – which embed commitments into processes – businesses can make responsible purchasing part of everyday decisionmaking.
Director, Amazon Business UK For many organisations, the challenge is no longer making environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments but embedding them into everyday purchasing decisions across the organisation. Responsible purchasing remains top of mind for 80 percent of decision-makers, with supply chain visibility and social value creation at its heart. Yet turning commitments into action is difficult when purchasing data is fragmented, supplier visibility is limited, and sustainability considerations are not embedded into routine buying. At Amazon Business, we see procurement as central to bridging the gap between sustainability ambitions and action. Greater visibility over spending, supplier credentials, and purchasing patterns
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can help teams understand where money is going, reduce waste, and make more responsible purchasing decisions.
business.amazon.co.uk
THE QUESTION CLOSING GAPS
STEFAN PREMER Senior Director, Corporate Sustainability Consulting, Sphera The biggest barrier between sustainability ambition and action is visibility. Businesses may have sustainability targets in place, but without reliable and granular data, they struggle to translate those ambitions into everyday decisions.
As organisations gain greater regulatory clarity, sustainability is becoming more closely connected to wider business priorities, with companies increasingly looking at how sustainability data can deliver measurable value. Our research found that two-thirds of organisations are using sustainability data to improve supply chain transparency and risk management, but its value extends much further. The same data can help businesses identify and implement decarbonisation measures, address deforestation and human rights risks in their supply chains, improve resource efficiency, and inform investment in products and technologies. Decarbonisation is a good example. Detailed data on emissions and potential carbon reduction levers can give companies a quantitative basis for transition planning. It can help them understand which technologies or operational changes could deliver meaningful reductions, strengthen the evidence behind climate targets, identify technologies for further development, and inform procurement teams about what to request from suppliers. Sustainability information becomes more valuable when it reaches the people making day-to-day business decisions. Connecting those insights across financial, operational, procurement, and risk systems can help businesses identify emerging risks earlier, understand where emissions, resources, and costs are concentrated, and make betterinformed decisions about where action and investment will have the greatest impact. That depends on having data that is accurate, auditable, and accessible to the people making those decisions. Without that foundation, sustainability risks remaining primarily a reporting exercise rather than something that shapes how the business operates. With it, businesses can implement sustainability programmes that deliver measurable environmental and social impact, whilst also creating tangible value for the organisation. Ultimately, closing the gap between ambition and action means making sustainability data part of how the business operates, so longterm commitments can be translated into informed decisions, targeted interventions, and measurable progress. sphera.com
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DAVID JONES CMI Policy and Innovation Manager, Chartered Management Institute The evidence points to one answer: management capability. Threequarters of UK managers tell us their organisation places at least a moderate priority on net zero, yet a third lack confidence that their organisation is ready to deliver. Over half say they lack clarity on what net zero means for their role, and 42 percent don’t fully understand how it connects to daily responsibilities. This is a leadership issue, not a technical one. Technical knowledge provides the tools; management and leadership provide the means to use them. It takes a manager skilled in systems thinking and ethical decision-making to translate targets into redesigned processes or revised key performance indicators (KPIs). Yet 82 percent of UK managers enter their roles without formal management training – otherwise known as ‘accidental managers’ – and it is this group we ask to lead a generational transition. Organisations that invest in management development see, on average, a 23 percent improvement
THOMAS NESFIELD Environmental and Energy Manager, EGGER For an organisation to go from sustainability ambition to sustainability action, it needs to have net zero goals with a clear roadmap.
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in performance. Encouragingly, 80 percent of managers would welcome sustainability leadership training. The willingness is there; what is missing is systematic investment. Sustainability efforts stall not from a lack of commitment, but because
too few leaders are equipped to navigate the transition. Close the management capability gap, and the say-do gap closes with it.
At EGGER, we set milestones on the way to our net zero by 2050 objective. Our first milestone is a 30 percent reduction in direct emissions from our plants by 2030. These are Scope 1 emissions, accounting for 10 percent of our carbon footprint. To achieve this, we are focusing mainly on saving energy through specific and actionable levers. We constantly invest in our facilities and ensure our plants are running on the latest technology. This is also a sustainability lever, helping to lower energy consumption with state-of-the-art facilities that are efficient both in function and process. Another key lever is the
modernisation of our internal motor vehicle fleet, with the integration of electricity-powered forklifts. Finally, by utilising biomass power plants situated within our manufacturing sites, which use material not suitable for production, we ensure the valuable material that is wood is used to its fullest potential. Most recently, our St Johann headquarters generated electricity for the first time with a new power plant. Identify your levers and set milestones to get started on real sustainability action.
www.managers.org.uk
www.egger.com
THE QUESTION CLOSING GAPS
ALEXANDRA SMITH CEO, FuturePlus Working with hundreds of businesses over the past five years, we’ve seen UK SMEs improve sustainability performance by almost a fifth. Businesses are investing in people, strengthening governance, and changing operations. Yet turning ambition into consistent, evidenced action remains harder. Our analysis of 191 UK SMEs shows where the challenge lies. FuturePlus scores verified sustainability performance out of 100, based on evidenced actions. SMEs average 66 out of 100 on responsible business and governance, compared with 38 out of 100 for environment and 37 out of 100 for climate. Scope 3 is a particular stumbling block: 42 percent of SMEs committing to measure supply chain emissions miss their target timeframe. The common thread is complexity. Progress becomes harder when it depends on technical measurement, investment, reliable data, or cooperation beyond a business’ direct control. The answer isn’t simply to set more ambitious targets, but to create the structure that helps businesses deliver them. The strongest performers we’ve worked with set specific, short-horizon ambitions over three to six months. Moving from ambition to action requires breaking long-term goals into manageable steps, assigning responsibility, and tracking progress. It’s non-negotiable for businesses to evidence sustainability achievements, prove their credentials, strengthen bids, and open the door to new business. future-plus.co.uk
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ADAM WHITE Co-Founder, Positive Planet
RAJIV JALIM Global Director of Sustainability Solutions, Novisto The gap between ambition and action depends on what kind of ambition we’re talking about. When companies set hard, quantifiable targets during sustainability’s hype phase, such as net zero and diversity goals, they often skip the groundwork. Meaning, nobody had worked out the budget, people, technology, or policies it would take to get there. It’s like aiming for a summit without ever mapping the mountain. That gap is large because the target was never rooted in real business data. When ambition is more directional and there is a genuine intent to integrate sustainability into how the business operates, the gap is much smaller. Progress happens iteratively, with time to build stakeholder buyin, procure the right tools, and train people properly. The real barrier here is applying the wrong methodology to this kind of ambition. Unfortunately, many companies try to run integration like a rigid, linear project with fixed milestones, when it actually calls for small, iterative steps across every business function. To close the gap, you don’t need a bigger target. You need to treat sustainability the way you’d treat any other strategic priority as part of the company’s DNA. novisto.com
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Too often, it’s not a lack of intent. It’s a lack of confidence. Organisations worry about saying the wrong thing, being challenged on incomplete data, or making commitments they might struggle to meet. So, they say very little at all. That silence leads to greenhushing, delayed decisions, and less shared learning about what actually works. The good news: in our experience, most organisations are already doing more than they say. Progress requires pragmatism. Act on the best data you have, be transparent about your assumptions, and communicate honestly about where you are. Language matters here too. There’s a meaningful difference between exploring, piloting, or planning an approach and claiming to have solved it. Match the verb to your intention and resourcing; nobody can hold “exploring” against you the way they can a broken commitment. We also need to be more open about what doesn’t go to plan. A record that includes failures alongside successes is more credible than one showing only wins, and it makes the next proposal easier to defend. Ambition becomes meaningful when it’s followed by action. Organisations don’t need everything figured out – they need the confidence to start, learn, and keep moving. positiveplanet.uk
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KEVIN DUNCKLEY Founder, Earthwise Partners In my experience, it’s rarely a lack of ambition. Most leadership teams genuinely want to do the right thing. What stops them is the gap between the boardroom commitment and the day-to-day decisions that actually shape impact. Three things usually sit in that gap. First, ownership. Targets get set at the top, but the people who buy, design, and ship products often don’t see sustainability as part of their job, and nobody has made it so. Second, data. You can’t manage what you can’t see, and most organisations have little visibility beyond their first tier of suppliers, which is where the bulk of their footprint lives.
Third, incentives. If a buyer is measured purely on cost and speed, that’s what they’ll deliver, whatever the annual report says. Working with more than 6,000 suppliers across 64 countries taught me progress comes from making sustainability practical, not aspirational. Build it into procurement criteria, supplier conversations, and performance reviews. Give people simple tools and clear accountability. Use technology to illuminate the supply chain, but keep humans in the lead on the judgement calls. Ambition sets the direction. Embedded, everyday decisions make the journey.
earthwise-partners.com
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