The Council on Sustainability Transformation, a group of senior leaders from corporations, governments, and academia convened by ERM, recently launched a new white paper urging companies to move sustainability out of organizational silos and embed it within core business decision-making. 

At a time when organizations are navigating geopolitical and policy uncertainty, energy and water constraints, rapid technological change, value chain disruption, and shifting capital pressures, the paper argues that sustainability delivers the greatest value when it is integrated into the decisions that shape strategy, operations, investment, and growth. 

From Silo to System: Connecting sustainability to the core of business sets out a practical framework for helping organizations connect sustainability more directly to business outcomes. The paper warns that companies that continue to treat sustainability as a separate function risk overlooking opportunities to strengthen resilience, improve capital allocation, enhance operational performance, and create competitive advantage. 

The paper calls on leaders to shift the conversation from sustainability as an additional responsibility to sustainability as a lens through which better business decisions can be made. 

The paper outlines five key actions that companies can take to capture sustainability's full strategic value in supporting core business priorities: 

  • Reposition sustainability within business: Treat it as a cross-functional capability embedded in strategy, planning, finance, and operations, not as a standalone workstream. 
  • Reframe sustainability in CFO-grade financial terms: Translate sustainability risks and opportunities into quantified financial impacts on costs, productivity, resilience, and competitive advantage. 
  • Prioritize resilience-critical investments: Focus on initiatives that most clearly strengthen or protect performance and enable efficiency gains, revenue opportunities, or differentiation. 
  • Reassign accountability across the business: Embed responsibility within core functions such as finance, operations, procurement, and technology to ensure sustainability is tied to execution. 
  • Build capability to realize impact: Help teams to apply sustainability insights in day-to-day decisions by equipping them with data, tools, and shared language. 

Sabine Hoefnagel, ERM’s Interim CEO, said: “Sustainability has the greatest impact when it is embedded in the decisions that shape business performance. Across industries and markets, decisions on energy, water, operations, and capital are increasingly sustainability decisions.

"Companies that treat sustainability as a standalone agenda will struggle to capture its full value. Those that integrate it into the core of the business will be better positioned to enhance performance, strengthen resilience, and create lasting value." 

About the Council on Sustainability Transformation 

Convened by ERM, the Council marshals the extensive experience of its members across industries to provide C-suite executives and board members with practical guidance on how to tackle obstacles to progress on ambitious sustainability targets, while preserving and growing financial value. 

Current Council members are: 

  • Peter Agnefjäll, former CEO of IKEA Group, former Chair of Ahold Delhaize 
  • Mark Cutifani, former CEO of Anglo American
  • Connie Hedegaard, former EU Commissioner for Climate Action
  • Naoko Ishii, former CEO and Chairperson, Global Environment Facility
  • Hixonia Nyasulu, former Chair of Sasol, former board member of Anglo American
  • Feike Sijbesma, former CEO of Royal DSM, current Chair of Philips
  • Johannes Teyssen, former CEO of E.ON, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG 

About ERM 

Sustainability is our business.  

As the world’s largest sustainability consultancy, ERM combines integrated expertise and implementation capabilities, powered by AI and technology, to help clients turn sustainability into measurable business value. 

With more than 50 years of experience, ERM’s diverse team of 8000+ experts in 40 countries and territories helps clients create innovative solutions to their sustainability challenges, unlocking commercial opportunities that meet the needs of today while preserving opportunity for future generations. Learn more here.