Sustainability Strategy

Advancing Sustainable Innovation: Strategic Market Research and Technology Solutions for Industry Leaders

Scroll ↓

Introduction

Background

In 2015, the United Nations introduced the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a comprehensive framework designed to address global challenges such as poverty, inequality, and climate change. These 17 goals serve as a roadmap for achieving a more sustainable future by 2030, urging businesses, governments, and individuals to collaborate on solutions that promote peace and prosperity for all.

Challenge

The United Nations Global Compact-Accenture CEO Study on Sustainability offers a candid look at the perspectives of more than 1,230 CEOs across 113 countries and 21 industries on the urgent opportunities and challenges for leaders to address the climate crisis. According to the study, CEOs report that their businesses are experiencing the damaging effects of climate change and are ready to take bold action; however, only 57% of CEOs believe they are working towards a 1.5C temperature rise trajectory, yet only 2% of these have a target validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Leaving thousands of business needing to increase their ambition to ensure a viable future.

My Role

As a Sustainability Strategist, I was responsible for drafting narratives, conducting market research, and developing client offerings that aligned our consulting services and sustainability practice with the SDG goals of businesses across various industries. I leveraged product management processes such as stakeholder management, cross-functional collaboration, iterative development, and feature prioritization to ensure our strategies were both effective and tailored to our clients’ needs.

Project Timeline: 5 Months
Primary Stakeholders: Internal—Accenture’s sustainability and SAP business group leads; External—sustainability leads from various companies.
Tools Used: Miro, Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, PowerPoint, Word)

Outcome

The market research and narratives our team developed enabled clients to clearly define a strategic path toward achieving their sustainability goals and commitments. By leveraging product management principles, our work empowered clients to:

Identify and prioritize their industry-specific sustainability imperatives.
Assess their current sustainability progress and pinpoint opportunities for significant improvement.
Recognize the critical role technology plays in accelerating sustainability efforts.
Align targeted technology solutions with their key sustainability priorities.
Experience product demos that directly addressed their specific pain points, driving actionable insights and decisions.