The voices of sustainability professionals working across industries reveal common patterns in how the discipline is evolving. From manufacturing giants to boutique agencies, sustainability leaders are shifting from reactive compliance to proactive strategic integration. Their insights illuminate where the field is heading and what capabilities will drive success in the coming years.
Building internal engagement through strategic communication
Communication as a foundation for change remains the most critical skill for sustainability professionals. Different stakeholders require different messaging approaches, but the core challenge remains consistent: making sustainability tangible and relevant to daily operations.
Maude Rougier, Sustainability Manager at Deimos Group emphasises this dual approach: "Sustainability should be a collective project rather than one department's responsibility." Her team successfully transformed initial scepticism by pairing foundational projects with visible actions like water fountains that show real-time impact. This demonstrates how concrete, measurable initiatives build momentum for larger strategic changes.
Erik Sørensen, Sustainability and Global Partnerships Manager at Modulex Group has systematised this approach through quarterly training sessions and multiple communication formats.
This structured approach transforms sustainability from a departmental responsibility to company-wide capability.
The most effective sustainability leaders adapt their communication formats for busy stakeholders. As the practitioners point out: use short, accessible videos rather than lengthy emails, and always connect actions to bigger objectives that matter to each audience.
From reporting to strategic integration
The consensus among practitioners is clear: 2025 must prioritise implementation over endless disclosure frameworks. Gus Bartholomew from Leafr articulates this shift:
Sustainability managers should double down on implementation over reporting, prioritising the execution of high-impact decarbonisation and transition levers rather than getting bogged down in endless disclosures, frameworks, and ESG theatre.
This transition requires embedding sustainability considerations into core business decisions. Irina Bolgari, Sustainability Manager at La Prairie Switzerland explains:
Drishti Masand, Senior Manager, Sustainability Direction at adidas AG champions this approach through circularity integration:
This means aligning product design, supply chain, finance, and marketing around circular principles rather than treating them as side initiatives.
Collaborative approaches and external partnerships
The most successful sustainability initiatives leverage external expertise and industry collaboration rather than attempting to build all capabilities internally. This approach acknowledges the complexity of modern sustainability challenges while maximising internal resources.
Gus Bartholomew advocates for this strategic approach:
The mindset shift from doing everything in-house to leveraging on-demand experts. Instead of trying to master every new regulation, methodology, or stakeholder request internally, we've embraced the idea that a small, strategic internal team can drive far more impact when supported by flexible, highly-specialised consultants.
Drishti Masand's work with the Closing the Footwear Loop consortium demonstrates the power of industry collaboration. This initiative united over 15 global brands, including direct competitors, around shared circularity goals for footwear. "Sustainability is a team sport, and progress demands pre-competitive collaboration," she notes.
This collaborative approach extends to supplier relationships. Elena Ricciuti, Sustainability Specialist at Holding Moda has integrated sustainability into their M&A process and supplier management: "We regularly visit and assess suppliers to monitor their alignment with our standards." Their three-tier classification system, compliant, improvement-needed, and non-compliant suppliers, creates clear pathways for value chain transformation.
Advanced carbon management and data strategy
Carbon management is evolving from basic accounting to strategic business intelligence that drives decision-making. The most sophisticated practitioners are moving beyond simple emissions calculations to create integrated data architectures that inform business strategy.
Giovanni Migliore, ESG and Sustainability Senior Manager at Flix demonstrates this evolution through their fleet transformation programme.
In 2024, we established a more robust method to account for emissions from alternative drives, gathering regional data and certificates where available.
This analysis provides strategic value by estimating decarbonisation trajectory, quantifying emissions saved, and highlighting data quality improvements over time.
Best practices emerging from the practitioner community include:
- Building clear carbon data architecture with defined ownership and automated inputs rather than collecting spreadsheets
- Applying consistent but flexible methodologies that balance rigour with pragmatism as data maturity grows
- Using baseline data to drive strategic decisions by mapping emissions hotspots to business levers
- Developing decarbonisation portfolios that prioritise high-impact, feasible actions with clear ROI
Irina Bolgari emphasises the strategic imperative:
Carbon accounting should lead to reduction, always ask yourself what data do I need to inform my reduction roadmaps. Don't do reporting just for the sake of reporting.
Supply chain transformation and sectoral leadership
Supply chain decarbonisation emerges as the highest-impact area for most organisations, with practitioners advocating for proactive engagement rather than waiting for regulatory requirements. This approach positions companies for competitive advantage while building resilient operations.
Lena Engel, Director Sustainability at TÜV Rheinland Consulting articulates this priority:
Most companies' emissions originate in their supply chains, especially Scope 3, which can represent up to 75% of their overall footprint. Businesses that proactively tackle supply chain emissions will have a competitive advantage.
The approach requires sophisticated supplier engagement strategies that go beyond compliance monitoring. Erik Sørensen at Modulex Group has developed "a detailed checklist for procurement teams with eight to nine main points, allowing them to evaluate materials qualitatively and quantitatively." This system considers factors beyond emissions, examining every angle of a product's environmental impact.
Christoph Bock, Senior Expert ESG & organisational development at RTLZWEI demonstrates sector-specific innovation through their Green Motion standards for TV and streaming production.
These encompass 22 criteria, including green electricity, energy-saving LED technology, waste separation, and the involvement of a trained Green Consultant throughout production.
This systematic approach creates measurable impact while transforming industry practices.
Future resilience through agile sustainability
The most successful sustainability professionals adopt agile methodologies that enable rapid adaptation to changing regulations, market conditions, and stakeholder expectations. This approach prioritises progress over perfection while building systematic capabilities.
Drishti Masand champions this mindset:
I embrace a 'progress over perfection' approach. In sustainability, there's always a temptation to hold out for the perfect solution, but if we wait for perfection, we risk stalling the momentum we urgently need.
Morvan Le Boulanger, Head of Sustainability at Olala Homes applies formal agile methodology:
The Agile mindset is fundamental, advancing through iterations, celebrating small successes, and continuously adjusting.
This structured flexibility enabled his team to manage over 30 cross-border projects while maintaining global CSR direction.
This agile approach proves essential for navigating regulatory uncertainty. Giovanni Migliore notes: "The main challenge is uncertainty around the sustainability regulation landscape, which makes it hard for sustainability managers to define long-term plans." Flexible strategies that can adapt to evolving requirements become competitive advantages.
For businesses seeking to develop this adaptive capability, Plan A's expert services provide the external support that enables internal teams to remain agile while accessing deep technical expertise as needed.
Building the sustainability organisation of the future
The practitioners' insights reveal a sustainability function that has matured beyond its compliance origins to become a strategic capability that drives business resilience and competitive advantage. Success requires combining technical expertise with organisational change management, external collaboration with internal integration, and strategic thinking with operational execution.
As Dany Leroux, Sustainability Manager at L'Oréal Italia concludes:
This alignment between internal capability and external commitments defines the next phase of corporate sustainability.
The future belongs to organisations that can embed sustainability thinking throughout their operations while maintaining the agility to adapt to rapidly evolving expectations. These practitioners show that such transformation is both possible and profitable when approached with strategic discipline and collaborative spirit.
