The ROI of ESG for Businesses

In today’s market, value creation extends beyond mainstream financial metrics.

Investors demand credible ESG performance, regulators mandate sustainability disclosures, and public stakeholders demand transparency. As a result, ESG is no longer a siloed, perception-driven exercise but is now strategically embedded in business planning, delivering measurable value under financial, regulatory, and competitive pressures.

Following ‘The Cost of Silence’, we now turn to its counterpart: what do companies gain when actively integrating ESG principles into value creation strategies?

ESG action does not replace traditional strategic growth and value creation strategies —it enhances them.

It’s not about sacrificing profits for purpose or inventing new sources of value; ESG principles help reveal value that has always existed. They force firms to rethink value creation as a dynamic, systemic process linked to broader ESG topics, rather than a series of isolated levers. Environmental considerations uncover operational inefficiencies, social factors align with talent and culture strategies, and governance underpins execution across all areas.

This article explores how recognising and measuring these connections can translate into practical value creation and solidify the synergy between sustainability and financial performance.

Traditional vs ESG-aligned value creation approaches

Unlocking long-term value by tackling hidden operational inefficiencies

Traditional operational value creation seeks maximum efficiency from existing assets and processes, often by cutting discretionary expenses, renegotiating supplier contracts, consolidating facilities or automating manual processes. While effective for short-term margin improvement, they risk creating a “race to the bottom,” undermining long-term value.  

 An ESG-aligned approach broadens the lens by examining how resources like energy, water, and labour are sourced, consumed, and wasted across the value chain. This exposes hidden costs — from energy loss and emissions hotspots to supply chain vulnerabilities — that may be absent from financial statements but have a material impact on future performance.

By addressing systemic inefficiencies through energy audits, waste assessments, and supply chain analysis, companies can reduce costs while also building resilience to climate and resource risks. A recent study by the UNDP, for example, found that organisations that actively mitigate climate-related supply chain risks realise measurable improvements in economic performance alongside reduced emissions. This shift reframes efficiency as both a financial and sustainability imperative.

Anthesis helps companies design, implement, and scale operational ESG initiatives. Examples of our support include unlocking £1.8m in energy-related savings for JLL; reducing 17,550 kg of food waste per year for Righteous Gelato without major capital investment; and helping over 3,500 suppliers cut production costs and reduce waste through a circular supply chain platform with Tesco Exchange.

From efficiency to engagement – how purpose transforms performance

There are multiple value-creation levers that align with social priorities such as health and safety (H&S) and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Traditional talent & culture value creation relies on extrinsic motivators – KPIs, performance reviews, and financial incentives – to drive employee productivity. While these mechanisms can improve efficiency, they often reduce employees to resources, overlooking how culture and purpose drive long-term engagement and innovation.

An ESG-aligned approach builds on these levers by also activating intrinsic motivation. A purpose-driven culture creates performance advantages that profit-only structures cannot match. When employees see their work tied to meaningful goals, such as reducing environmental impact or creating positive social outcomes, they bring deeper commitment, creativity, and collaboration. Research from Great Place to Work shows that organisations with clear purpose and values achieve stronger outcomes in revenue growth, innovation, and employee engagement.

Rather than asking only what people deliver, companies should also focus on why they choose to contribute, unlocking lasting organisational value. This requires a clear organisational purpose and create engagement programs that connect daily work to meaningful impact.

Anthesis supports organisations by designing tailored sustainability strategies that embed behavioural and cultural change from the outset. Our work with the Billington Group purpose platform engaged 2,000+ employees, with over 90% purpose-driven within six months, and Yorkshire Valley Farms’ purpose-driven strategy achieved 3.4x higher social media engagement.

Technological enablement

Among the many governance value creation levers, technology enablement stands out as it rarely operates in isolation. Traditionally, the focus is either operational efficiency, through automation, or commercial growth, through new digital services and markets.

An ESG-aligned approach applies these same capabilities into sustainability. Internally, digital ESG tools help companies systematically capture complex non-financial data and simplify reporting Externally, ESG systems originally developed for internal compliance, are increasingly becoming marketable assets, transforming ESG technology from a cost of doing business into new sources of revenue and competitive advantage.

Technology has evolved from an external disruptor to a core value creation lever and ESG is following a similar trajectory. Companies that embed ESG into digital strategy from the outset position themselves to monetise sustainability data and capabilities as market demand accelerates.

Anthesis helps organisations achieve this by designing and implementing digital solutions,  including  ESG data collection with Anthesis Mero across 300+ Grupo Éxito stores, implementing Anthesis RouteZero to track and document emissions, supporting Belu Water in demonstrating carbon neutrality in line with PAS060, and developing Reckitt’s Sustainable Innovation Calculator, completing life cycle assessments in under 30 minutes and 700 product analyses.

Redefining market growth

Traditional growth strategies target market expansion through new geographies, products or acquisitions to capture market share and increase revenue. Yet this assumes a narrow definition of markets, where value is determined only by buyers, sellers, regulators, and intermediaries.

An ESG-aligned approach reframes markets as living ecosystems, shaped by a broader set of stakeholders. Regulators impose evolving compliance requirements; communities influence brand reputation; employees drive innovation; and institutional investors reward sustainable performance with higher exit multiples. Strong ESG performance not only reduces risk but also enables access to new customer segments, premium pricing, and entry into markets with stricter sustainability standards, with recent research showing, for example that consumers are willing to pay more for products and services that demonstrate clear sustainability credentials.

In today’s environment, markets reward authenticity, sustainability, and responsibility, not just scale. Companies that analyse their strategic landscape through this enhanced ESG lens uncover growth opportunities that traditional approaches miss.

Anthesis has supported clients in this shift, such as supporting Energy Capital Partners (ECP) by delivering UK Plastic Waste Market Assessments, evaluating UK ESG regulations, infrastructure capacity, market pricing and key players to pinpoint growth opportunities and regulatory risks. This informed a market expansion strategy aligned with sustainability trends and long-term value creation.

Realising the ROI of ESG

It is clear that companies that identify where ESG can amplify existing levers, set targets, and design initiatives are best positioned to deliver both financial and meaningful impact.

An ESG strategy translates principles into measurable initiatives, aligns them with business priorities, and embeds sustainability into decision-making rather than treating it as a silo. We partner with organisations to model the financial ROI of ESG initiatives, build business cases, and implement programs that deliver measurable performance outcomes.

For organisations unsure where to start, Anthesis provides the expertise and tools to develop and implement ESG strategies that are actionable, scalable, and measurable, ensuring sustainability drives real value creation.