Business Value from Digital Sustainability

MIT CISR

Ina Sebastian reads MIT CISR's January 2025 research briefing, which she co-authored with Stephanie Woerner, Peter Weill, and Daniel Woerner. See the text version and related content at https://cisr.mit.edu/publication/2025_0101_DigitalSustainability_SebastianWoernerWeillWoerner. Abstract: Sustainability is a cost of doing business for many companies today—but it is also an opportunity for creating value. Companies only achieve value, however, by embedding sustainability goals into company strategy and then developing capabilities to advance these goals. Our survey analysis suggested that there are four distinct strategic sustainability goals: compliance and efficiency, customer and investor reputation, new revenue, and company purpose. Companies in the research that pursued strategic sustainability goals beyond compliance and efficiency saw bottom-line impacts such as greater EBIT, more revenues from innovation, and improved customer experience.