Growing Revenue While Reducing Carbon Emissions: Myth or Opportunity?

For decades, the question has lingered: is it growth or sustainability? The answer, increasingly backed by data and real-world examples, is that sustainability is part of growth — not a subdivision. In a recent Green Element Group webinar, we explored why more businesses are proving that revenue growth and carbon reduction can go together, and what is holding others back.

Sustainability as a Differentiator — With a Caveat

The classic line is that you can differentiate yourself by being more sustainable. That is true — but only if you are already competitive on price and quality. Sustainability and broader ESG can become a powerful differentiator when the fundamentals are in place; it is not a panacea that fixes everything else.

The Supply Chain Is Shifting Fast

CDP had 50% more companies registered in 2024 than three years earlier. EcoVadis grew by 67% in the same period. That surge in supply chain disclosure and assessment is driven by procurement decisions. Bain’s CEO Sustainability Guide found that 36% of companies would already change suppliers today if they do not meet sustainability criteria. In three years, that figure is projected to rise to 60%. If you are not meeting the bar, you are increasingly not even in the room.

What Consumers Are Saying

PWC’s Voice of the Consumer survey, covering over 20,000 people in 30+ countries, identified six imperatives for building trust. The first was climate change. 85% of people say they are now experiencing climate impacts personally. 80% are willing to pay more for more sustainably produced or sourced goods — and that was during inflation and cost-of-living pressure. Nearly half are starting to change what they buy to reduce their own impact. There is still a say-do gap at the till, but even if a portion of that intent is overstated, it represents a major shift in behaviour that is already driving business action.

Cost and People: Two More Levers

As the ex-CEO of Unilever UK put it in a Sustainably Solved podcast: if you use less stuff, it probably costs you less. Sometimes you need to invest to get there, but fundamentally, using less usually leads to cost savings. On the people side, framing change as part of a bigger purpose — benefit to the world, not just the business — is far more likely to drive the behaviour change you need than simply asking people to cut costs.

Bain and EcoVadis analysed 80,000 private companies and 20,000 listed ones. In the supply chain, companies that focused on ethics, environment, and labour practices tended to be 3–4% more profitable. At the same time, companies that really engaged staff and had the most satisfied employees saw revenue growth that was 5% higher over three years — and environment was a key part of that engagement package.

Real Numbers: Clients Decoupling Growth From Carbon

One health and social care client grew revenue by 58% while cutting absolute emissions by 8% and normalized emissions by 42%. LEAP, a design and impact agency, reported 33% revenue growth with 72% reduction in normalized emissions and 63% in absolute terms. These are examples of deliberately embedding sustainability as a business decision with environmental benefits, rather than the other way around.

Case Study: Bates Wells — 80% Emissions Cut, 119% Revenue Growth

Bates Wells became the first UK law firm to achieve B Corp certification in 2014 and is now the highest-scoring global law firm. Carly Hitchcock, real estate partner, explained how they did it: a Climate and Nature programme with management leadership and volunteer staff who propose ideas and hold the firm to account. They took structural steps — slimming down printers, then reducing further so people have to plan and walk to print; taking bins away from desks and centralising 12 bins in the kitchen so recycling becomes the norm. They communicated the why and the how, so behavioural change was understood, not imposed.

Staff incentives include travel perks — extra annual leave if they take trains instead of planes for holidays — plus an ideas box with rewards for suggestions that are adopted, and volunteering days (tree planting, litter picking) that double as team bonding. Over 10 years, the firm has reduced emissions by 80% and grown turnover by 119%. Their strategy is now explicitly built on growth aligned with clients, profit, people, and planet, because they have shown it works. Sustainability has also opened a new revenue stream: more work in sustainability-focused legal projects, from drafting sustainability clauses to land recovery schemes.

Why Aren’t More Companies Doing It?

Often it is human and structural: lack of knowledge, sustainability sitting on the edge of someone’s desk, fear of getting it wrong, or CFOs treating it as optional cost rather than part of growth strategy. The sector can feel overwhelming — acronyms, legislation, complexity. The point is not that it is automatic or easy, but that the business case is there. Start by being clear you want to measure and reduce; bring your people along, ask for their ideas, and do not be intimidated by things like science-based targets at the outset. Get started, and the rest can follow.

For frontline and field-based teams, the same principle applies: authentic communication. If the narrative does not make sense for the business, it disconnects. Explain the why so that people can convey the what — for example, that taking the train between cities is part of the business plan to minimise emissions. When the story is genuine and ongoing, not a strategy in a drawer, it sticks.