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There has no doubt been a profound shift in how the sustainability agenda is articulated.
The term “value” has become the dominant framing, replacing moral responsibility and compliance language with positioning around resilience, efficiency, risk mitigation, innovation, competitiveness and growth.
But does this mean it has supplanted traditional “values”-led terminology, and what is the impact of this linguistic shift for businesses and communications advisors?
At our recent Vision of Value event, we brought this discussion to life with a brilliant panel of sustainability, communications and cultural insight experts chaired by our own Carolyn Irwin, Managing Director of our Corporate Affairs & Responsible Business team.
We heard from Lindsay Hooper, CEO, Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, Matt Juden-Bloomfield, Head of Sustainability, Lidl GB, Laura Fenimore, Senior Sustainability Manager, Transport for London and Dr Bridget Dalton, Head of Truth Futures on what the transition to value tells us about deeper changes in both consumer discourse and the business operating environment.
Across the discussion, value emerged not as an alternative to responsibility, but as a way to make sustainability more relevant: to boards weighing risk and resilience, to businesses navigating cost and supply chain pressure and to consumers making choices in a world where affordability, trust and reliability matter more than ever.
While the purpose-driven approach to sustainability has categorically not achieved what it set out to do, our panel agreed that the humans involved in making decisions, along with the consumers buying their products and services, are still motivated by values. They are just more sceptical, cost-driven and knowledgeable.
This creates a delicate balancing act for communicators.
How can we speak about sustainability in more commercial terms without losing sight of the values and long-term impact that give it meaning?
Three key takeaways from our discussion addressed this debate:
Our panellists agreed that the shift towards value is not a move away from responsibility, but a recognition that sustainability must align with commercial realities. Businesses need to show how sustainability supports performance, reduces risk and enables growth, while recognising that decision-making is still shaped by human values as well as financial outcomes.
The challenge is to make the link between value and values more explicit. Sustainable action must be commercially credible, but it also needs legitimacy and purpose. Its benefits extend beyond immediate financial returns, strengthening resilience, reducing costs, improving operational continuity, building trust and protecting long-term competitiveness.
In this way, sustainability becomes part of how a business operates successfully—not a separate CSR agenda, but a driver of efficiency, resilience and future performance. To succeed, businesses should create conditions where commercial success also delivers positive social and environmental outcomes.
Our panellists noted that, for consumers, sustainability has long-been synonymous with premiumisation: you make a choice between something that’s value for money or adds value to the planet.
But the cost-of-living crisis burst the premiumisation bubble and a say-do gap exists: people want to do the right thing but often cannot afford to.
Plus, there’s growing cynicism around paying more for products that claim to be better – people feel conned after an era of green claims and, frequently, greenwashing. This version of premium can feel less like progress and more like being asked to carry the cost of a problem they didn’t create.
This shifts responsibility back towards businesses. Sustainable value can be best felt by consumers when it is operationalised on their behalf. Through cost efficiencies and optimisation, businesses can naturally drive the sustainability agenda while removing the decision burden from their customers.
The discussion also pointed to a shift in how consumers understand value.
Geopolitical shocks are causing us all to become more exposed to the impacts of unsustainable business choices than ever before. This unprecedented exposure to the business supply chain – through energy, FMCG and food price increases – is causing consumers to reappraise the concept of sustainable value. Perception of the term “value” has shifted from discount stickers to long-term decision making and resilience.
This creates a different opportunity for sustainability communications. Consumer reality now mirrors the business landscape, and the intersection of their priorities are more aligned than ever before. Both are driven by human values, but both will ultimately prioritise cost efficiencies.
Rather than asking people to buy into abstract claims or distant benefits, brands can show how sustainable business models actually create everyday value.
Distrust of businesses and sustainability persists.
A swing towards “value” in the sustainability dialogue provides an opportunity to shift the narrative, but it will be a delicate balancing act to ensure greenwashing is not replaced by “value-washing”.
If sustainability is reframed through value, that value needs to be specific, evidenced and recognisable. Businesses cannot simply replace values-led claims with commercial language and expect audiences to trust them. Instead, communicators should:
The exponential rise of AI – and associated concerns across society – shows there’s still a significant appetite to adopt responsible practices within business decision-making. The responsible stewardship of technology is becoming a growth area, as is the ambition to innovate in ways that don’t harm society.
The combination of this rising sentiment, and visible signs of environmental and socioeconomic pressures, means we will likely see a return to a values-led sustainability agenda.
As the language of sustainability continues to shift, the challenge is to navigate audiences through this transition and make value meaningful without losing sight of values and navigating value and green-washing risks.
Despite these watch outs, our panel ended with a sense of hope. Sustainability still plays a vital role on the business agenda. “Value” framing breathes new life into the concept, helping to drive a reappraisal among audiences, keeping it credible, relevant and alive for many years to come.
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