There’s a school of thought that writes most sustainability efforts off as annoying virtue signaling: Consumers with time and disposable income choose to pay a green premium for products that make them feel good, and companies plant trees and recycle coffee cups to make those customers like them. As costs rise, belts tighten, and we grapple with immediate geopolitical threats, it’s hardly surprising that this discretionary veneer of sustainability may be slipping out of favor with consumers, companies, and governments around the world.

But those same pressures make the right sustainability initiatives more important than ever. Forrester’s original framing of the green market opportunity explicitly made the point that sustainability can be good business:

A combination of macroforces will create a tipping point, after which companies will no longer view environmental sustainability as primarily an ethical responsibility with added benefits to brand and modest cost savings, but as a financial and regulatory obligation they can’t ignore, and more importantly, an unprecedented business opportunity.

A truly sustainable business requires two forms of sustainability: the green stuff that sustains the planet and the operational stuff that sustains the business. Forrester predicts that 2025 will be the tipping point, where economic and operational considerations become more significant drivers of corporate sustainability initiatives than regulations and customer sentiment.

Prioritize Projects That Help Your Business And Also Happen To Help The Planet

Even if your environmental sustainability plans are moving full steam ahead, shift the emphasis of your messaging to employees, customers, and the market to explicitly lead with clear operational benefits:

  • A machine vision system that spots defects in parts moving along an assembly line cuts the cost to your business of expensive scrap or rework. That also reduces consumption of raw materials.
  • Internet-of-things sensors on power-hungry equipment reduce energy consumption and support predictive maintenance models that may extend the useful life of that equipment, lowering energy bills and equipment budgets. That also reduces emissions.
  • Bloomberg calculates that an EV in the US becomes a greener choice than its internal-combustion-engine equivalent after driving about 25,000 miles. It can also be cheaper to operate, with any higher up-front cost amortized over all those miles. So focus electrification efforts on fleets of smaller vehicles (cars and vans) to reduce operating costs. This also reduces emissions.
  • German pump manufacturer Wilo uses excess electricity from rooftop solar panels to power electrolyzers that turn water into green hydrogen. The hydrogen is stored onsite, with fuel cells converting it into electrical energy at times of peak demand. This reduces the load that Wilo places on the German energy grid while also cutting the company’s electricity bill.
  • Virginia-based construction company Basic Construction buys pellets of waste toner from printer-maker Canon’s local factory, using them as a colorant and binding agent for the asphalt it lays on the state’s roads. Canon generates new revenue from its toner recycling operation, and Basic reduces its material costs. The road surface is apparently more durable than before, and the circular economy business model pays for a reduction in consumption of raw materials and emissions at both firms.
  • In late 2022, BASF announced plans to “as quickly as possible and also permanently” downsize operations in Europe. Rising energy prices played a key part in this decisionz and in the company’s increased investment in the renewables-powered Zhanjiang Verbund facility in Guangdong province. Energy costs often matter more than labor costs in modern manufacturing, but business and technology leaders must also consider the cost of moving raw materials and finished goods throughout their supply chain. Emerging technologies play their part in helping manufacturers settle on a multinational Goldilocks model that is neither just in time nor just in case but just right.

The need to reduce emissions and wasteful consumption of resources has not gone away, but the “green” debate might be seen as polarizing for your customers. If this is the case, don’t lose sight of the green market revolution’s promise of bettering planet and business. Most companies would be wise to lower the volume on their virtue signaling while quietly getting on with the projects that benefit both their shareholders and (whisper it) the planet.