Building a Sustainability Strategy Around Customers

Building a Sustainability Strategy Around Customers

From HBR IdeaCast by Harvard Business Review

March 31, 2026 · 32 min · Episode 1072

About this episode

Goutam Challagalla discusses how to integrate sustainability into business models by focusing on customer value and innovation.

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.

People in this episode

Guest: Goutam Challagalla

Topics covered

  • sustainability
  • business strategy
  • customer value
  • innovation
  • affordable products

Keywords

  • sustainability
  • business model
  • customer value
  • innovation
  • affordable products
  • strategy

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: IMD Business School

Books & works: Clean Winners: Sustainability Strategy That Puts Customers First

More episodes of HBR IdeaCast

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the HBR IdeaCast podcast page.