SHARE OF SUSTAINABILITY LEADERS PRIORITISING ROI
VERDANTIX
Aligning long-term sustainability investments with short-term financial goals requires a new approach to capital allocation. Boards increasingly expect sustainability leaders to deliver financial results, but traditional accounting tools evaluate long-term risk-prevention projects using the same metrics as short-term efficiency initiatives.
Verdantix research shows that nearly 70 % of sustainability leaders prioritise measurable returns on investment( ROI). However, CFOs have significant control over funding; over 80 % of respondents identify the CFO as a key decisionmaker in sustainability strategy.
Jessica Pransky, Senior Manager of ESG & Sustainability at Verdantix, believes the main challenge is differing definitions of value. Sustainability leaders focus on long-term outcomes, while finance and operations teams are measured by shortterm performance and immediate savings.
70 %
SHARE OF SUSTAINABILITY LEADERS PRIORITISING ROI
( Source: Verdantix)
Sustainability is increasingly seen as a business opportunity that drives growth, efficiency, capital access and risk management. Organisations achieve maximum value by integrating sustainability into procurement, products, operations and finance, lowering costs, strengthening supplychain resilience, protecting resources and supporting growth.
Q. HOW OFTEN DO YOU SEE SUSTAINABILITY TEAMS STRUGGLE BECAUSE CFOS EVALUATE RISK- PREVENTION INVESTMENTS USING THE EXACT SAME SHORT-TERM ROI METRICS AS EFFICIENCY PROJECTS?
» This is a widespread and intensifying tension, not simply CFOs applying one blunt ROI test to every project. The core problem is one of translation, not obstruction. Sustainability, finance and operations teams work to different time horizons: sustainability leaders emphasise long-term environmental and resilience outcomes, while finance and operations are held to short-term performance and cost control.
Risk-prevention investments – covering exposures such as non-compliance penalties, transition costs, stranded assets and physical climate risk – rarely deliver an immediate saving; their value shows up as costs avoided, sometimes years later. Efficiency projects, by contrast, produce a clean, near-term number. What tends to close that gap is not a different accounting rule but a better business case: one that pairs quantified risk mitigation with credible short- and medium-term
100 October 2026