Sustainability at a Crossroads: Why Commercial Value Now Drives Action
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Michael O’Hara
Co-Founder
Techies Go Green
Sustainability is undergoing a reset. After years of momentum driven by regulation, reporting frameworks, and net-zero commitments, many businesses are reassessing how and why they invest in sustainability.
This shift is explored in Techies Go Green’s recent article, “Is it Time to Rethink Net Zero?”, which argues that ambition alone is no longer enough. In a more complex economic and political environment, sustainability must increasingly stand on its commercial merits.
What remains consistent is that businesses act when sustainability delivers clear commercial benefits
Regulation Has Softened And Focus Has Drifted
The easing and delaying of elements of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) has had a clear impact. For many organisations, reduced regulatory pressure has led to sustainability slipping down the priority list, with investment paused or deferred.
This has affected not only businesses themselves but also the wider sustainability ecosystem — including consultancies, educators, and solution providers that grew in response to regulation-led demand.
Change By Degrees: A Signal, Not a Failure
The recent wind-down of Change By Degrees should be seen in this context. Over eight years, the organisation delivered real impact — educating thousands, supporting hundreds of companies, and helping embed sustainability thinking into business culture.
Its closure does not represent failure. Rather, it reflects how sustainability models that rely too heavily on regulatory momentum can become vulnerable when policy signals weaken. The value created by Change By Degrees lives on through the people, organisations, and capabilities they helped build.
What Actually Drives Sustainable Business Decisions
What remains consistent is that businesses act when sustainability delivers clear commercial benefits such as:
Cost reduction and efficiency
Reduced supply chain and climate risk
Faster time to market
Improved resilience and reliability
Competitive advantage and customer trust
When sustainability improves business performance, investment continues, regardless of political or regulatory shifts.
Example: Shorter, Lower-Carbon Supply Chains Now A Commercial Imperative
Image courtesy of Renault Group
As a case in point. Suppliers today must increasingly demonstrate the value of shorter, lower-carbon supply chains, particularly to large enterprise customers. This is about far more than emissions reporting, it is about speed, resilience, and competitiveness.
A strong example is Renault’s Renault 5 E-Tech.
Renault chose to localise production in Northern France through its ElectriCity model, with the majority of suppliers within 300 km. by doing so Renault reduced logistics complexity, improved supply chain visibility, and accelerated production timelines to compete with international rivals.
Drawing upon the expertise of The Future is NEUTRAL, a Renault Group subsidiary, their strategy reduces embodied carbon through:
Localised sourcing
High level of recycled and bio-based material use
Eco-design and circular manufacturing principles
The result: To lower emissions and achieve stronger commercial performance Renault worked with qualifying suppliers to shorten its supply chain. The Renault 5 E-Tech is now one of Europe’s best-performing electric vehicles, a clear example of sustainability driven by business value, not compliance alone. Suppliers across a wide range of sectors must prepare for this growing trend.
From Compliance to Competitiveness
As highlighted in Techies Go Green article “Is it Time to Rethink Net Zero?”, the future of sustainability lies in moving beyond abstract targets and reporting exercises toward practical, outcome-driven action.
Regulation still matters, but the sustainability initiatives that endure will be those tied directly to:
Core business strategy
Operational performance
Risk reduction
Growth and competitiveness
When sustainability delivers clear positive outcomes, it stops being a “nice to have” and becomes a fundamental business capability, resilient to policy change and economic uncertainty alike.