Business Challenge
How to integrate climate considerations and net zero into strategic, business and operational planning processes and plans to produce a a joined-up, value-creating transformation agenda?
What’s the Challenge?
Many businesses are under pressure to transform - not just to meet sustainability commitments, but to stay competitive in a world shaped by economic volatility, disruptive technologies, and rising stakeholder expectations. Addressing the risks from climate change is essential and there are also opportunities to drive growth, efficiencies and competitive advantage. However, climate sustainability is often siloed or bolted onto business plans rather than embedded into strategic thinking and operational models. When considered separately the changes required are significant, complicated and disruptive, often the value and ROI isn’t clear.
Barriers
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Existing transformation and business plans that are bought into and underway.
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Established strategic, operational and commercial planning processes that exclude climate consideration.
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Operating and commercial models hard coded into financial plans and objectives – pivoting from these is tough.
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Standalone sustainability frameworks and analysis, however smart, add complexity and can seem overwhelming.
What next?
What’s Driving the Need to Change?
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Regulatory Pressure: New reporting standards like CSRD and mandatory transition plans are forcing companies to disclose credible sustainability strategies - not just intentions.
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Digital Disruption: Leaders face rising competition from companies using digital innovation and AI to reshape products, operating models, and supply chains in smarter, lower-carbon ways of working.
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Investor and Customer Demand: There is increasing scrutiny on how businesses create long-term value - with ESG performance influencing investment, procurement, and brand loyalty.
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Operational Fragility: Traditional models are being tested by supply chain shocks, inflation, and climate impacts, highlighting the need for resilience through more agile, efficient and sustainable operations.
During 2025 and 2026 I will be researching, collaborating and working pro-bono to co-create solutions that address this challenge.
I’ll be leveraging my strategic planning, business management, transformation and sustainability expertise and will be considering how key levers such as operating model redesign, digital efficiency, value chain optimisation and strategic partnerships are integrated into the consideration process.
The aim being to surface practical approaches that help leaders see sustainability not as a trade-off, but as a business enabler by aligning strategy, planning and operations around a joined-up, business-led, value-creating transformation agenda that makes businesses stronger because they are more sustainable — not in spite of it.