Zoe Le Grand is a leading voice in innovation sustainability and a featured speaker on The Sustainability Speakers website. As Managing Director at Forum for the Future (UK/EU), she supports global brands like Unilever and Levi’s in building bold, future-ready strategies.
Co-founder of The Net Positive Project, Zoe combines systems thinking with a passion for embedding environmental and social responsibility into business.
In this exclusive interview, she explores how companies can embrace innovation to drive long-term sustainability and real climate impact.
Q: How can businesses create ambitious sustainability strategies that tackle climate change?
Zoe Le Grand: “I think, for me, there are probably four key aspects to bear in mind when developing a sustainability strategy.
“One is to keep it future-looking. Chances are the next 10 to 15 years are going to be significantly different to the last 10 to 15 years. Business as usual is really not going to cut it in a world impacted by the massive forces of climate change – whether that’s about requirements to reduce emissions dramatically or the actual weather impacts on a business’s supply chains, production facilities, or customers.
“As we see more and more of those impacts, we’ll also see society responding – whether that’s big waves of migration or rising inequality. There will be communities impacted heavily and calling for climate justice.
“Whichever way you look at it, the next 10 or 15 years are likely to be much more volatile, harder to predict. Nonlinear things will happen at different times and speeds, and we need to be prepared for that.
“When you’re thinking about sustainability strategy, you need to think about how that context is likely to be really different. There are tools and techniques you can use to do that but taking that longer-term view helps you get out of the day-to-day, away from your email list and to-do list, and start thinking about how the world could be different.
“If the world’s really different, how could your business be different? Take away some of the constraints of today and really think about what that transformation could look like. In 10 years, you could be in a place where you’re much more resilient, adaptable, flexible, and able to withstand some of the major impacts of these contextual trends.
“The next thing is to consider yourself as part of a system. It’s easy for businesses to think, ‘We’ve got our sustainability strategy, and when we meet our goals, we’ll be sustainable.’ But you can’t be a sustainable business in an unsustainable system. Everything is interconnected. You’re reliant on your suppliers, your marketplace, on clean air, clean water, and soil that produces food.
“Although it can feel like we all operate in isolation, the reality is we’re all interconnected. It’s important to take that systemic view, recognising you’re part of a bigger picture. We’re seeing big companies do that.
“Nestlé, for instance, has committed to playing its part in a sustainable food system. Rather than just looking at its own business, it’s thinking about its place in the wider system – sustainable nutrition, production that regenerates soil, clean water, clean air, and carbon savings.
“The third aspect is innovation. I’m a big believer that there’s a huge technical aspect to a business’s response to climate change. It’s important to run the numbers – what are your biggest opportunities to save carbon? How much will it save? What is your transition plan?
“Most transition plans get us to about 80%. A lot of low-hanging fruit – efficiencies, switching production facilities – will get us partway there. But I think it’s a creative issue. We need to think differently, be inspired, look to other industries, and rethink how we do business.
“The innovations we need to bridge the last 10 to 20% of emissions haven’t happened yet. I don’t think we know how to get to an absolute net zero business. So, there’s a huge innovation gap. Any strategy needs to acknowledge that.
“Set your ambition where the world needs it to be, accept that there’s a black hole in how we’ll get there, but also know that you’ve got amazing people, suppliers with great capabilities, and customers willing to go on the journey with you.
Finally, the last point is collaboration. It builds on the idea that you can’t be an isolated sustainable business. To meet the challenge of carbon emissions, whether your goal is net zero by 2050 or by 2030, you’ll need to work with partners in the supply chain, your customers, research universities, local authorities, and peers.
“You may need to lobby for stricter carbon targets or rules to level the playing field. That might mean coming together through trade associations or similar bodies. Collaboration is key. The scale of the challenge is too big for one organisation to fix alone. Even if you do nail it, you’ll still be affected by climate change. It has to involve collaboration, whatever you do.”
Q: As businesses transition to net positive, what challenges should they expect to overcome?
Zoe Le Grand: “The first for me is that this is a long-term approach. There are four principles to a net positive approach.
“The first is about being really material – focusing on what matters most to your business. That’s fairly obvious. The next is taking a systemic view. Recognise that your business operates as part of a wider system. You’re not in isolation. To create meaningful change, you’ll need to work with your suppliers, customers, and others in your ecosystem.
“It also needs to be regenerative. It’s not just about stopping harm, like preventing damage to agricultural land, but actively regenerating it to make soil more fertile and productive for the future.
“So, the four principles are: material, systemic, regenerative, and transparent. Transparency means you must share what you’re doing – the successes and the failures. It allows for accountability and enables the wider community to learn.
“These principles are critical, but they’re also hard. It’s a long-term commitment and might involve doing things very differently. For example, if you’re used to selling products, it might mean investigating how to offer them as services. You might need to collaborate with peers and work together on common issues to have a net positive impact.
“That long-term view is really important. This isn’t something you’ll achieve in a couple of years, and if you do, I’d be sceptical that it was authentic to the concept of net positive.
“Net positive is also a way of being, not just doing. Targets are important. IKEA has targets like producing more renewable energy than they consume or planting more trees than they use. Targets provide focus and accountability.
“But net positive can transform your business. For example, when IKEA opens furniture repair shops in its stores, it’s building new relationships with customers – saying: ‘Bring your things back, we’ll upskill you, let’s repair together’. It drives a different way of operating and behaving across staff and suppliers.
“The last point, again, is transparency. It can be tough for companies not used to airing their dirty laundry in public. Especially now, with terms like ‘green hushing’, where businesses are afraid to talk about their sustainability efforts for fear of being criticised.
“But transparency is critical. I heard a story about Levi’s producing a ‘wasteless’ jean, made from a polyester-cotton mix that reduced production waste. But it turned out the mix was difficult to recycle, making it harder to meet circular economy targets.
“They talked about that and shelved the product. That openness is so important. I don’t know how we move forward as a business community without sharing those kinds of failures – so the next manufacturer can learn and not waste the time we don’t have.”
Q: In business, what is the biggest contribution to climate change?
Zoe Le Grand: “There are two ways to look at that. One is the literal amount of carbon emissions that businesses produce. That’s huge. There’s a big opportunity for businesses to reduce those emissions – from their own facilities, factories, offices, transport, supply chains, or how their customers use their products and services.
“Another contribution could be where businesses choose to invest, like in pension funds. There’s controversy around funds invested in fossil fuels. So, it’s not just about direct impacts – business activities like investment choices also contribute significantly. I think business can also make a big contribution to fighting climate change. Business is about innovation, and innovation is key to solving this crisis.
“Businesses operate across national boundaries. They’re not tied to electoral cycles or the need to create popular policies. They can move quickly, and that’s what they’re good at.
“In my 10–15 years working in this field, the pace of change has been extraordinary. When I started, eco-initiatives were niche. Now, they’re mainstream. From Hellmann’s mayonnaise with free-range eggs to McDonald’s with organic milk, it’s much more normalised.
“That’s the power of business – to bring sustainability into homes and everyday life, as well as using its investment and influence to reduce carbon emissions. There’s opportunity in that. People want to work for companies that are part of the solution. There’s data to support that. Consumers want to buy from those companies too, even if they’re not yet rewarding them in the way business might hope.
“A business’s licence to operate increasingly depends on its carbon strategy. Having a sensible, ambitious approach helps mitigate future risk too. There’s more legislation coming in from the EU and elsewhere – encouraging more carbon-saving, more sustainability. It’s only moving in one direction.”
This exclusive interview with Zoe Le Grand was conducted by Jack Hayes, Director at The Champions Speakers Agency.
