Amidst shifting economic and political landscapes, sustainability has moved from the margins to the mainstream. It is shaping consumer choices, investor expectations, and corporate strategies across industries. Yet the story is no longer just about ambitious goals, it's about navigating a complex landscape of regulations, cost pressures, and shifting market realities. Companies are learning that proving sustainability creates measurable value, not just compliance. And as consumer pressure rises, regulatory demands are multiplying.
Consumers, Compliance, and the CVO: The New Era of Sustainability
Consumers are still driving change
Despite economic uncertainty, consumer values remain remarkably consistent. A 2025 survey from GlobeScan found that half of Americans view climate change as a “very serious” issue, and 31% say they are “greatly affected” by it–a sharp rise since 2020.
This concern translates directly into purchasing behavior.
- Willingness to pay: According to the same GlobeScan research, 52% of Americans would accept higher prices or taxes to help limit climate change. PwC research finds consumers are willing to pay a 9.7% premium for sustainable products.
- Shifting loyalty: Deloitte reports that 30% of consumers have stopped buying from brands that fail to meet ethical or environmental standards.
- Growing demand: Nearly half of Americans bought a sustainable product in the past month, and another 36% wanted to but couldn’t–showing both strong uptake and unmet demand.
For companies, these numbers are more than a statistic. It is a market reality that directly shapes growth, competitiveness, and brand trust. Businesses that fail to respond risk losing both revenue and relevance. This growing consumer pressure is one reason the role of sustainability leadership is evolving. Companies need more than compliance officers or report writers–they need executives who can translate consumer expectations into business value.
Enter the Chief Value Officer (CVO)–the next evolution of the Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO). This role is emerging as a bridge between sustainability, finance, and operations. Today’s sustainability leaders are no longer only tasked with reducing carbon footprints or publishing ESG reports. They are expected to drive transformation, align sustainability with business KPIs, and unlock profit opportunities hidden in everyday operations.
From reporting to enterprise transformation
Historically, CSOs were measured on how well they could track emissions, publish disclosures, and ensure regulatory compliance. That’s still essential–especially with a flood of incoming regulations like the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) in the EU. But the role has since expanded to now encompass the entire value chain.
The modern CSO, or CVO, now tackles:
- Integrating ESG with financial performance so that sustainability goals directly impact profitability.
- Leading digital transformation by using data to uncover inefficiencies, reduce waste, and optimize operations.
- Aligning real-time sustainability insights with operational KPIs, to ensure progress is not siloed but tied to enterprise-wide performance.
- Enabling new business models like circular economy initiatives and green products that create revenue streams while meeting compliance demands.
This evolution explains why sustainability is no longer just a reporting function. It is becoming a value creation function for companies to better position themselves for long-term growth and resilience.
Measuring what matters
Sustainability initiatives can’t survive on good intentions alone. To secure investment and board-level support, they must demonstrate measurable business value. Boards and CFOs are asking a simple but critical question: how does sustainability contribute to growth, efficiency, and resilience?
That’s why CVOs are building frameworks to quantify the financial impact of sustainability initiatives in clear, comparable terms. These frameworks allow companies to evaluate projects not only by their environmental benefit but also by their return on investment and contribution to long-term competitiveness.
Key priorities include:
- Defining KPIs that directly link emissions reductions to cost savings.
- Demonstrating ROI from efficiencies and innovations driven by sustainability initiatives.
- Tracking market signals from consumers, regulators, and investors to anticipate future demands.
Leaders can speak the language of the C-suite when grounding sustainability in financial metrics. This ensures initiatives aren’t sidelined when budgets tighten. Instead, sustainability becomes embedded in corporate strategy–not as a cost, but as a critical driver of performance and long-term success.
Unlocking value with Process Intelligence
For CVOs, the challenge is not simply setting sustainability goals but delivering measurable results. The cost of reporting also continues to rise, even as many companies face budget cuts that threaten to deprioritize sustainability innovation. But with the right tools, compliance can also drive transformation. Increasingly, they are turning to Process Intelligence (PI) to make that happen.
PI acts as the connective tissue of a company’s operations. It extracts and standardizes sustainability data and KPIs from a business’ systems, creating a living digital twin of its operations. This continuous flow of data allows companies to accurately track, report, and reduce emissions while also keeping sustainability aligned with profitability and adapting to evolving demands. PI enables companies to automate reporting for frameworks like CSRD and SEC disclosures, reducing manual effort and error risk. They also help link real-time data to operational KPIs, ensuring sustainability progress is measured not just in carbon reduction, but in financial impact
CVOs can leverage PI to:
- Automate reporting to meet complex regulatory requirements.
- Use real-time data to connect sustainability goals with financial KPIs.
- Leverage digital twins to test sustainability strategies before implementation.
- Apply AI insights to prevent inefficiencies and identify new value drivers.
By reframing compliance as an enabler rather than a cost, companies are transforming these obligations into a foundation for business growth.
Evolve from intention to results
Real impact comes when sustainability moves from intention to measurable results. Celonis believes that lasting change happens when organizations and individuals are empowered with the right knowledge and tools. With Celonis Academy, free educational courses about sustainability are available to learners around the world, including the Sustainability Base Camp among other tutorials to help guide you along your sustainability journey.
Want to go deeper? Read how Celonis officially reached its validated near-term science-based emissions reduction targets or connect with one of our sustainability experts.
Because when processes work, sustainability works.