Why sustainability is good for business, and how to sell it to your board.

It’s going ok at home. You’re eating less meat, flying a bit less, and you’ve moved your banking and pension to responsible businesses. You’ll probably get an EV or hybrid when the car finally dies. But the story at work is different and that’s beginning to grate.

Your colleagues are focused on the business – serving clients, delivering great products and services, hitting revenue targets, managing costs. Issues related to sustainability might be on their minds, or they might feel like a distraction.

Of course your colleagues are right to focus on commercial performance – that’s what keeps the lights on. And you’re right to feel some urgency around sustainability. How can you ignore the ‘Triple Planetary Crisis’ threatening life on earth – climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution?

There’s growing evidence that the businesses building sustainability into how they operate are finding both cost and commercial advantages. The Willow Review of 2025 – led by Small Business Britain and backed by the UK government – surveyed 425 small businesses, of which around a third were seeing direct financial benefits from sustainability. Among that group, 67% reported reduced operational costs, 52% attracted new customers, and 35% saw improved customer loyalty. It’s worth noting that Barclays co-chaired the review – a bank with a well-documented history of lending to fossil fuel businesses – though the findings themselves are grounded in the real experiences of small business owners, not in Barclays’ interests.

The commercial benefits span materials, waste, logistics and supply chains – of the businesses surveyed, 65% are using sustainable materials, 60% have introduced waste reduction measures, 57% have reduced business travel. The review also finds that commercial pressures are building: 37% of the businesses reviewed have been asked to provide carbon data or environmental policies as part of a customer’s procurement process. For a growing number of organisations, sustainability is no longer just a values conversation – it’s a condition of winning contracts.

A year on from the original report, the picture is strengthening. 35% of SMEs say sustainability has had a more positive financial impact than it did a year ago. 45% say they’ve done more on sustainability in the past year than before, and 65% plan to go further over the coming year. Just 3% have pulled back. The businesses acting now are building something that will be harder for slower movers to replicate.

What the right response looks like for your organisation depends on your sector and your business’s circumstances. But you need to start a conversation with your board and that can feel scary.

So how do you start a sustainability discussion with the board?

Start with the business case. Flesh out your thoughts in these seven areas:

  1. The problem or opportunity – what’s driving the need for a decision, and why now?
  2. The proposed response – what are you recommending the business does?
  3. The commercial rationale – revenue opportunity, cost savings, or risk mitigation
  4. The evidence – data, research, or examples that support the case
  5. The risks of acting – costs, resource, disruption
  6. The risks of not acting – what happens if the business does nothing?
  7. What you need from the board – approval to launch, funding or other resource commitments

Start small. On The Impact Files podcast where we have conversations with leaders balancing purpose with profit, we ask the same question towards the end of every episode: what one piece of advice would you give to businesses pursuing sustainability and financial objectives? Over the 30 episodes recorded so far, a lot of people have said words to the effect of ‘choose one small thing, and do it. Don’t make it expensive or scary. Learn from it and course correct if necessary. Then choose another small thing and do that’.

So, none of this needs to be big or complicated. You know what a business case looks like. You’ll find some small, low-risk projects. What you’re really looking for is permission to start. The business sustainability journey isn’t a destination, it’s a series of decisions, each one building on the last. The businesses that look back with pride in ten years won’t necessarily be the ones that moved fastest or shouted loudest. They’ll be the ones that had the courage to start – and the discipline to keep going. Just get on with it.

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