Overview

Climate change, biodiversity loss, and inequality are no longer distant concerns for future generations. They are already reshaping supply chains, increasing operational risk, and forcing businesses to rethink how they plan for the future. For many organisations, the question is no longer whether these issues matter, but how to respond in a way that is practical, commercially sound, and built for long-term resilience.

In this episode of The Energy Canvas, host Dylan Walsh, CEO of Celtic Dynamics, is joined by Zoe Le Grand, Managing Director UK and Europe at Forum for the Future. With fifteen years’ experience advising global brands on sustainability transformation, Zoe shares how mainstream multinationals are responding to climate, biodiversity, and inequality challenges, where progress is stalling, and why ambitious action is increasingly becoming a source of competitive advantage.

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What We Cover

• Why climate impacts are already affecting businesses today, not tomorrow
• How companies are responding to climate change, biodiversity loss, and inequality
• Why the business case often matters more than the moral argument
• The risks of assuming business conditions will remain stable
• Why regenerative agriculture is gaining momentum in mainstream multinationals
• How green hushing is reducing transparency across industry
• Why carbon-only thinking can lead businesses to miss wider risks and opportunities
• What a just and regenerative economy actually means in practice
• How leaders can move beyond incremental change toward system-level action

Key Takeaways

Climate risk is already business risk

Extreme weather, supply chain disruption, changing regulation, and shifting customer expectations are no longer hypothetical. Businesses are already seeing the impact in real time.

Stability can no longer be assumed

One of the biggest mistakes organisations make is planning as if the wider operating environment will stay the same. Zoe argues that businesses now need to plan for uncertainty, disruption, and multiple future scenarios.

The business case is now mainstream

Sustainability is no longer a niche issue for specialist teams. It is increasingly tied to resilience, profitability, recruitment, brand trust, and long-term competitive position.

Carbon alone is not enough

A narrow focus on emissions can cause businesses to miss how climate, water, nature, and social issues interact. Real progress comes from tackling these issues together rather than in isolation.

System change requires influence, not just control

Incremental improvements inside an organisation still matter, but meaningful change often happens when businesses work beyond their own walls, through supply chains, trade bodies, policy engagement, and wider partnerships.

Why This Matters for Business

A major theme in the conversation is that sustainability is no longer something businesses can treat as separate from core strategy. Zoe explains that many mainstream brands are now dealing with very direct risks to their value chains, whether through climate impacts, pressure from customers, or changing expectations from regulators and investors.

She also makes the point that action is not only about protection. Businesses that respond well can unlock efficiencies, strengthen supply chains, attract talent, and enter new markets. In that sense, sustainability is not just about avoiding downside risk. It is increasingly a driver of commercial value.

For business leaders, this means shifting the conversation away from whether sustainability is worth doing and towards what kind of action makes the most sense in a rapidly changing context.

Moving Beyond Carbon Tunnel Vision

One of the strongest ideas in the episode is the danger of treating sustainability issues as separate boxes. Zoe highlights how businesses can fall into “carbon tunnel vision”, focusing only on emissions while overlooking connected issues like water scarcity, biodiversity loss, livelihoods, and community impact.

The conversation stresses that these pressures are deeply interconnected. Climate change affects water. Water affects nature. Nature affects supply chains, communities, and resilience. Looking at one issue in isolation can mean missing both the root problem and the biggest opportunity.

For organisations starting out, Zoe recommends focusing first on what is most material: where the business depends on these systems, where it has the biggest impacts, and where action can create the greatest value.

Just and Regenerative: What It Means

Zoe also explains Forum for the Future’s idea of a just and regenerative economy. In simple terms, this means an economy that works within planetary boundaries while also delivering social fairness, resilience, and long-term value.

Rather than aiming only to reduce harm, this approach asks businesses to restore what has been damaged, distribute value more fairly, and recognise that people and nature are not separate. It also recognises that no single organisation can deliver this on its own. Progress depends on wider system change, including new policies, new business models, and stronger collaboration across sectors.

Guest: Zoe Le Grand

Zoe Le Grand leads UK and Europe operations at Forum for the Future while also holding strategic and operational responsibility as part of the organisation’s Senior Leadership Team. Over the past fifteen years, she has advised more than forty organisations, including Unilever, Kingfisher, and Nestlé, on ambitious sustainability approaches.

She co-founded the Net Positive Project with BSR, SHINE, AT&T, Target, and Dell, helping develop practical tools and thought leadership to support businesses in delivering net positive strategies. Her career began in housing policy and sustainable buildings within the built environment sector.

Memorable Quotes

“It doesn’t feel like it’s a niche eco brand kind of issue anymore. I work with multinationals, really mainstream brands. They’re talking about risks to their value chains.”

“What businesses get wrong is they’ll assume that the context will remain stable, and what they’re planning for is what their response should be. Whereas actually what we’re seeing is the context is likely to be wildly different and moving at a really fast pace.”

“I would always advise companies to look at the issues which are most material to them.”