This past year, I was describing what a “twofer” was to my colleague Jinan Budge in Australia. I casually dropped this term for getting two things for the price of one during a conversation. In addition to talking about how weird lingo can be, it also led to me proposing that what we were talking about was actually a “threefer” — getting three things for the price of one. I can’t seem to let the idea of the threefer go when it comes to environmental sustainability efforts. Forrester’s original framing of the green market revolution explicitly made the point that sustainability efforts can be good business, showing the twofer effect:

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 that they can’t ignore and, more importantly, an unprecedented business opportunity.

There’s also a hidden threefer effect, however, because sustainability efforts also achieve business strategy goals. Earth Day 2025’s theme is “Our Power, Our Planet” and calls for unification around renewable energy. Using energy transfer as an example, the threefer you get is to:

  1. Meet sustainability goals. Sixty-seven percent of business and technology professionals report that improving environmental sustainability is a business objective over the next 12 months. Of those respondents, 34% said that reducing the organization’s scope 1 and scope 2 carbon footprint was an action the organization is taking to improve environmental sustainability. Maybe you’ve done a t-shirt analysis of all your sustainability efforts — e.g., those that are easy, difficult, and hard to achieve. Transferring energy to renewable energy sources is typically in the easy-to-achieve bucket and has big returns on meeting sustainability goals for reducing scope 2. In fact, 28% of infrastructure hardware decision-makers reported that green energy procurement/investments in renewable energy credits provided the most impact for sustainability/carbon footprint reduction for their organization.
  2. Achieve better financial results. We predicted that operational efficiencies and financial benefits will eclipse regulations as key drivers this year. Energy transfer can do exactly that. Benchmark the cost of energy today and then go shopping. Additionally, investigate policies for demand-side management to get an extra boost in cost management.
  3. Reach business strategy goals. Resilience has risen as a board-level topic since the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses need to adapt to climate change to ensure uninterrupted delivery to customers as much as possible. Twenty-nine percent of global business continuity decision-makers reported that power and fuel shortages/scarcity/outages make it more difficult for their organization to deliver on its vision and brand promise, no matter the crisis. One of the ways to overcome this is to get closer to energy independence. Getting your sources of energy production more local (how much can your company produce?) and/or secure renewable sources will boost your business’s resilience strategy goals.

Want to take advantage of this threefer? Read more about sustainability, the green market revolution, and/or schedule a guidance session. Happy Earth Day 2025!