Podcast Ep 257: An interview with Stephen Wynne Jones, founder of Sustainability Online, about transforming sustainability conversations into practical business opportunities.
Stephen Wynne-Jones is an editorial entrepreneur building a new platform called SustainabilityOnline.net that focuses on sustainability from a practicality perspective.
He explains that while saving the planet is obviously a non-negotiable, he firmly believes that for sustainability to truly gain traction, the financial opportunity needs to be front and centre, prompting the corporate world to drive positive action.
“I think it’s not being contextualised well enough. The word sustainability carries all this emotional weight and non-practical weight in a business context”
Wynne-Jones’ perspective and ambition to form an online sustainability publishing venture aimed at the business landscape was informed by his previous experience as editor of European Supermarket magazine, a position that saw him whisked across Europe to meet senior FMCG professionals.
He points out that for businesses to truly play their part, sustainability needs to be framed as a business opportunity, not just an environmental imperative.
Accentuating the difference between theory and practice
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Wynne-Jones points to a significant knowledge gap between sustainability theory and practical business implementation and says successful sustainability initiatives require focusing on efficiency, revenue generation, and competitive advantage
“Sustainability Online was really established to raise awareness of sustainability in a business context – specifically how sustainability and ESG can be used as a profit driver, as a revenue driver, margin driver,” he explains.
“Obviously, there’s a lot of focus on saving the planet, which is non-negotiable, absolutely, but at the same time, for it to work in a corporate context, it needs to drive revenue. It needs to be a business opportunity. I created the website because I felt that discussion maybe wasn’t being portrayed as effectively or as comprehensively as it could be.”
I put it to Wynne-Jones that businesses are facing a tsunami of regulations like CSRD and there may be some fatigue around sustainability messaging. He is adamant the urgency of climate action outweighs any fatigue.
“I think it’s not being contextualised well enough. The word sustainability carries all this emotional weight and non-practical weight in a business context. But the things that businesses care about – efficiency, value-added opportunities, making small changes to drive revenue streams, making their workforce more efficient – that’s all linked to sustainability. The word itself has baggage, but within that broad church of sustainability, there are ways businesses can be more effective, more efficient, and drive more revenue.”
But what about the regulatory burden from the European Commission?
“I think that’s certainly a headache for business. The European Commission doesn’t understand the realities of how businesses operate on the ground. They’re making broad statements without considering that not everybody is a multinational with the capability of doing these things. With the recent Omnibus announcement, they’re trying to redefine what sustainability should mean for businesses. Some businesses think these regulations are being rolled back entirely and they can sit on their hands again – that’s not the case. It’s more that the powers that be realise maybe they’ve been too stringent.”
A journalist with more than 20 years’ experience in various business-to-business titles aimed at C-suite executives, Wynne Jones says his inspiration to create an online publishing venture focused on sustainability came from talking to corporates about climate change.
“There was a general feeling within retail and consumer goods that you had a few first movers doing proactive things with ESG to unlock new revenue opportunities, and they were success stories. But you had many other companies who looked at what these big companies were doing and tried to do the right thing – they put in place a sustainability director, but they never worked out the methodology of how this could work from a business angle. There was a knowledge gap there.”
The business of publishing is in flux no thanks to social media. This didn’t deter Wynne-Jones from becoming an entrepreneur. “Well, if you never do it, you’ll never know. From talking to people about what I was trying to do – corporate people – there was a need for this sort of platform. The site was soft launched at the end of 2023 while I was still in my previous role, just posting a story a day. It was fully launched in October 2024. As a big push at the start, I decided to go to the COP climate change conference in Azerbaijan just a couple of weeks after launching. I went there to network and talk to as many corporate sustainability people as I could, and the feedback was that there’s a demand for this sort of platform.”
It’s still early days for Wynne-Jones but his first foray in to entrepreneurship has been educational.
“Put your ego to one side – that’s the first lesson. Nothing is guaranteed for a start-up when you’re literally trying to create a new product and put it out there. Your previous experience will carry you a certain way in terms of connections, but this is your proposition, and you’re the person to make it succeed or fail. Absolute commitment and hunger are essential. Seven months in, revenue has been negligible so far, but when you get reinforcement that what you’re doing is of value, it keeps you going.”
Essentially, he is on a mission. “There’s a need for a platform that can nudge people who are apprehensive or lethargic about taking the leap in terms of embedding sustainability. If they read the interviews, case studies, and op-eds and say ‘we’ll give it a go,’ that’s success. The UN Climate Change organisation has changed their dialogue from ‘the planet is in crisis, we all have to panic’ to ‘if you don’t transition to a more sustainable operating model, you’re going to get left behind.’ That’s a much more practical message, and if Sustainability Online could be the trigger for that kind of thinking, that would be meaningful.”
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