Five sustainable business trends based on evidence

The planet, people and profit – a.k.a. the Triple Bottom Line – are often referenced as the three fundamental pillars to address for a successful, sustainable business.

By evaluating how every action affects each tenet, it is said corporations can not only increase responsibility but also gain a competitive advantage in an increasingly environmentally conscious economy.

Within these broad brush strokes, there are nuances and gaps that intelligent leaders can investigate and adopt to gain those all-important fine margins.

1/ Long-term societal benefits are a bigger draw than long-term financial rewards

In a research paper released by Donal Crilly, Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at London Business School, the framing of societal benefits and the patience needed for substantial investment in social enterprise was analysed.

And in a surprising twist, highlighting long-term societal benefits does not reduce funding in the same way as long-term financial returns; in other words, the immediacy of reward differs.

“Research confirms that there is a deep-seated human tendency to favour immediate rewards over delayed ones. But what we don’t know is if people are just as impatient for societal benefits like cleaner air in the future,” Professor Crilly explained.

“In our first study we analysed crowdfunding data emphasising long-term financial returns rather than immediate rewards led to less funding.

2/ Sustainability needs the same rigour as any other business decision

Alex Edmans, Professor of Finance at London Business School, appeared in September 2026’s Think Ahead podcast to discuss rational sustainability and the case for long-term value creation.

The conversation builds on a series of articles in which Professor Edmans argues that sustainability should not be treated as a separate category of business, nor approached through ideology, box-ticking or simplistic rules.

“ESG is extremely important because environmental, social and governance factors can be critical to long-term value,” Professor Edmans explained.

“But the term ‘ESG’ can imply that these issues are somehow niche – something that should concern only people with ‘ESG’ or ‘sustainability’ in their job title. In reality, they are business issues and should be relevant to anyone concerned with the long-term success of a company.”

In The End of ESG, Professor Edmans argued that ESG should become both more mainstream and more nuanced.

Sustainability factors should be treated like any other drivers of long-term value – neither ignored nor put on a pedestal above other factors such as management quality, corporate culture, and innovative capability.

Rational Sustainability develops this further. Sustainability can sometimes be treated as an ideology whose assumptions should not be challenged. Instead, leaders should apply the same rigour, evidence, economics, logic, critical thinking and discernment to sustainability that they apply to any other business decision.

The term ESG can itself contribute to the problem by making sustainability seem either niche or ideological; rational sustainability is not simply about changing the label, it is about reforming the practice.

3/ The need for corporate structure to be more transparent

Research from Ioannis Ioannou, Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at London Business School, demonstrated that ‘apex firms’ in business groups often engage in ‘CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) decoupling relying on affiliates to do the heavy lifting for sustainability efforts while benefiting from their reputation.

This highlighted the need for greater transparency in corporate social responsibility claims.

“We have discovered that a specific type of company shows a unique pattern in sustainability reporting – the apex firms of business groups. [They sit] at the top of each group, coordinating the entire network,” Dr Ioannou explained.

“Think of business groups as corporate webs where multiple companies are interconnected through ownership and social ties, operating across a variety of different industries.

“In our study of 515 companies across 35 countries, we found something striking. These apex firms talk about sustainability just as much as their affiliated companies, but they actually do much less.

“Interestingly, when these apex firms share a brand name with their affiliates, they implement even fewer concrete sustainability actions.

“Here is the surprising part – the market seems okay with this behaviour. While other companies typically get punished for similar practices, apex firms largely escape criticism.

“Our research suggests that within this group, there is an unwritten division of labour. Apex firms act as the communicators, broadcasting the group’s green and social initiatives, while their affiliated companies serve as the implementors, doing the actual work.

“This creates a unique form of greenwashing that flies under the radar – the apex firms essentially get to claim credit for sustainability efforts without fully making substantial contributions themselves.”

4/ The timeline framing of climate change messaging is all important

Recent research from London Business School suggested that people are more likely to take action in response to climate messages if they are given the information in a certain way.

Led by David Faro, Associate Professor of Marketing, the study demonstrated that an overwhelming majority of media headlines (93%) used the date-framing approach when writing about the climate crisis.

“In several further studies,” continued the Associate Professor. “We found that participants consistently perceived environmental threats as closer in time when they were presented in the time-left frame.”

Therefore, when comparing two headlines concerning the same threat – ‘The UK will face water shortages by 2040’ or ‘The UK will face water shortages in 14 years’ for example – the latter would have more impact.

And it does not stop with climate-based headlines.

“In another study, we found a similar effect on donation behaviour, with people more likely to contribute to protecting an endangered species when the extinction risk was communicated in terms of time left, rather than a fixed date,” Dr Faro stated.

“By reducing psychological distance and bringing people closer to the threats we face, time-left announcements are likely not only to heighten perceived urgency and engagement with news about environmental threats, but also to lead to more donations to avert them.”

5/ Climate resilience is an area ripe for entrepreneurship

When asked for the ‘big problems that can be solved’ by entrepreneurs in a recent Think Ahead podcast, Ella Goldner, Co-Founder and Founding Partner of Zinc, a Venture Builder that backs entrepreneurs who build new commercial, scalable, tech companies that improve the health of the people and our planet, focused on our adaptation to climate change.

“We are not going to be able to stop some trends, so now with that in mind how do we adapt?” Goldner stated.

“Wildfires in Spain and other countries… so that is the adaptation part, which will be very important.”

This area of focussing on resilience rather than reversing global warming also marks an opportunity for business leaders.

In a report from July 2026 by the UK Government, it was estimated that “around £150 billion is already being invested globally each year into climate adaptation, in response to more frequent and severe climate impacts.

“This report identifies a significant economic opportunity for the UK. The market for British products and services that help people manage climate risks could be worth as much as £355 billion between today and 2035.”