Activating Net Zero: Driving Sustainability in Business

A guidebook for leaders to create value from sustainability and organisational performance.

The Adventure of Sustainable Performance seeks out bold pioneers or forgotten pioneers who need reinvigorating and to be inspired with renewed purpose. Leaders who want more than just modest incremental efficiency gains, who want to create value, to deliver positive impact and meaningful change, should welcome this book. In a time of disruption like never before, boundaries will need revisiting, systems need reimagining, and assets need repurposing through wise stewardship.

The authors share their many years of experience serving clients and driving performance as the world transitions to a net zero carbon future. A future that uses resources sustainably and that seeks social justice. Through storytelling and interviews from many international leaders in business and sustainability, and by anchoring practical advice with evidence and truth, you will find:

• The avalanche of new regulations and changes to the compliance landscape
• The opportunity for value creation beyond compliance box ticking
• Inspirational stories on how ambitions can be reset
• A destination that supports ongoing prosperity for humanity from sustainable performance models
• How purpose driven brands generate superior value
• The role of ‘Total Value Systems’ as we move from shareholder to stakeholder capitalism models.
• The relationship between sustainability, talent and customer attraction
• How digital will play an increasingly important role as the world pivots in response to the climate crisis

Be in no doubt, The Adventure of Sustainable Performance describes an adventurous journey, uncomfortable at times, where a new and cold reality is dawning. But, in a period when the world will continue to play at denial or talk more of ruins, this book helps leaders to instead see foundations. Foundations upon which the new era will be built, and new systems of value will be realised.

Perfect for executives, managers, directors, and other business leaders, The Adventure of Sustainable Performance is an actionable guidebook for the implementation of value-add sustainability programmes.

STUART MCLACHLAN is a proven business leader with over 30 years experience in the ESG and sustainability space. He is a founder and CEO of Anthesis Group, one of the fastest growing companies in Europe. Prior to this, Stuart was a Director on the Board of WSP Group PLC. Passionate about moving from talk to action he has dedicated his career to proving how business can be a force for good, and how superior financial returns are available as a result of authentic purpose.

DEAN SANDERS is Chief Enterprise Officer at Anthesis. He started his career at Jacobs Suchard in brand marketing before setting up GoodBrand in 1997. He has 25 years of experience in building sustainable performance strategies for some of the world’s leading multinational consumer brand companies. Dean serves as an Honorary Fellow at Durham University Business School.

In 1997 Dean Sanders gave up his job leading the marketing team of a multinational food company to launch himself into a new adventure as the founder of one of the earliest advisory firms in sustainability, GoodBrand. In 2013, Stuart McLachlan, with his co-founders, took the step to move from his 17-year career in a large UK based PLC, to start a company designed to move the market from talk to action in sustainability, ESG and climate transition. In 2019, these two entrepreneurs and pioneers merged their enterprises. In The Adventure of Sustainable Performance, the authors share their insights and visions of the future for business, drawing on interviews with leaders working out how to take their organisations beyond the compliance agenda and on to the journey towards impact and performance.