Episode

Building a Sustainability Strategy Around Customers

Podcast
HBR IdeaCast
Published
Mar 31, 2026
Duration seconds
1923
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://hbr.org/podcast/2026/03/building-a-sustainability-strategy-around-customers
Audio
https://audio.hbr.org/ideacast/20260330125318-1072_BuildingaSustainabilityStrategyAroundCustomers.mp3
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/hbr-ideacast-650643/episodes/building-a-sustainability-strategy-around-customers
Markdown
/podcast/hbr-ideacast-650643/building-a-sustainability-strategy-around-customers.md

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Summary

For sustainability to be a core part of your business model, you might need to rethink how and why you incorporate sustainable policies and products. That's according to IMD Business School professor Goutam Challagalla, who explains that many customers don't want to pay a premium for sustainability. Instead, he argues that good intentions around sustainability can often lead to weak strategy and wasted investment. He explains how instead, leaders should think about sustainability as a way to create innovation and truly drive customer value, by doing things like reducing inefficiencies and creating affordable products. Challagalla is coauthor, along with Frédéric Dalsace, of the book Clean Winners: Sustainability Strategy That Puts Customers First.