Robert Haigh, Strategy & Sustainability Director, Paula Oliveira, Global Head of Strategic Services, Sofia Liska, Strategy & Sustainability Senior Consultant
What the latest sustainability conversations mean for brand strategy, credibility, and differentiation.
Picture a cotton farmer during the dry season. The rain is late again, the soil is tired and dry, and the brand buying her harvest is thousands of miles away. Her problem isn't carbon: it's water, soil, and prices. This is also the brand’s problem, because its products, margins and reputation all start in the same field. The sustainability of a product begins long before it reaches the shelf - and the natural resources behind it can shape everything from product availability to the credibility of a brand’s sustainability claims.
For brand leaders, a new question is emerging: how can you build a brand that people value today without undermining the resources it will depend on tomorrow?In September, that question surfaced across three very different spaces: NYC Climate Week, Cascale's Annual Meeting in Athens, and the London School of Economics’ workshop on regenerative economies. The leaders worth listening to were sharing a much broader view of sustainability - one that moves beyond carbon reduction to consider what a business depends on, how it can help protect those resources, and how those efforts translate into lasting value for the brand.
Beyond carbon: A broader sustainability story
At NYC Climate Week, the conversation made clear that climate remains essential, but it is only one part of the sustainability picture. A more holistic approach considers environmental, social, and human factors together — and recognises how closely they are connected to business performance.
Apparel is a telling example, as an industry whose value chains are tangled up in water, land use, chemicals, labor, and circularity. They influence the products a brand can bring to market, the claims it can credibly make, and the expectations it must meet from customers and other stakeholders.
No single company can solve these alone, and the brands that lead coalitions are seen as credibly shaping the future of their category.
From supply chains to shared value
The Annual Meeting for Cascale (formerly the Sustainable Apparel Coalition) in Athens took that thinking deeper, placing apparel within a much wider web of nature dependencies. From the fields where fibers are grown to the rivers manufacturers rely on, businesses depend on natural systems that are often overlooked until they come under pressure.
Protecting these resources requires more than individual commitments. Brands, suppliers, farmers, investors, and NGOs all have a stake in a shared vision of the industry; without dialogue, each may pull in a different direction. For brands, those relationships are hard to copy, which makes them a source of lasting value.
This matters to marketers because a brand’s sustainability story is only as strong as the reality behind it. Claims about responsible sourcing, better materials, or positive environmental impact depend on practices that extend far beyond the brand’s direct control. Stronger relationships across the value chain can help turn broad commitments into tangible progress - and give marketing teams a more credible foundation for communicating that progress.
Making the value of nature visible
At the London School of Economics (LSE), the focus shifted to a persistent challenge: how to finance businesses that are resilient and regenerative.
Sectors such as food and apparel depend on healthy soils, reliable water, and functioning ecosystems. Yet the investment needed to protect and restore these resources can be difficult to secure. One reason is that many conventional measures of business performance were designed around a model in which nature’s contribution was treated as free, or its degradation as an external cost.
Consider a farm that improves soil health, or a multi-year programme that pays farmers a premium to adopt more regenerative practices. These initiatives can help protect the resources on which future production depends, but their benefits may take years to emerge and be distributed across farmers, suppliers, brands, and communities. Their value is not always captured by conventional financial measures.
For marketers, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. Sustainability initiatives need to be understood not only in terms of the impact they deliver, but also in terms of the value they help protect or create. Better ways to measure that value can strengthen the case for investment, help teams prioritise initiatives, and connect sustainability activity to a brand’s wider business strategy.
Turning sustainability into lasting brand value
Taken together, the three events tell one story. New York Climate Week showed that the conversation has moved beyond carbon encompass all of the natural resources a business depends on. Cascale showed that protecting those dependencies relies on relationships across the value chain. And the LSE showed that until we can measure the value of resilience, our current worldview will keep overlooking it.
Brands are well placed to change that. They sit where supply chains, investors, and consumers meet, and they shape what each of those groups notices and trusts. The brands that lead coalitions, invest in relationships, and help close the measurement gap will be protecting the same land where the farmer's harvest and their own value begin.
