The pressure is not a lack of data. It is a lack of agreement on what data means. Information is abundant, but credibility is scarce. Consumers transact daily without understanding who they are buying from. At the same time, trust in institutions is fragmenting, and attention is narrowing into smaller circles.

Into this environment steps a proposition that assumes more information will change behaviour. The question is whether visibility alone can shift choices when cost, habit and convenience dominate.

Raja Darbari did not begin in payments. After university, he worked with farmers in South America, trading quinoa and cacao. The experience exposed a disconnect between products on shelves and the people behind them.

“You then quickly realize that most of the products you see… have a really complex supply chain… impacting real people and… our planet.”

He later worked across consulting and banking, including roles at HSBC and Barclays. The pattern he observed was scale without proximity. Capital moved efficiently, but impact remained distant.

The formation of Ample reflects that tension. Payments, he argues, are one of the few systems people engage with daily at scale.

Raja describes them as “a shared touchpoint people interact with every day.”

The turning point is less a moment than a constraint. Direct-to-consumer sustainability tools struggle to reach users. “Direct to consumers is really hard,” he says.

The decision was to embed data where behaviour already exists. Not before purchase, but during and after. This is a reversal of typical influence models. It assumes feedback can reshape future decisions.

There is also an admission of limits. Even informed consumers do not always act.

“Cost, convenience are important considerations,” he notes.

Ample’s work is operational rather than advisory. It aggregates “unstructured sustainability data” from brands and third parties, verifies it across sources, and converts it into labels.

These labels appear within banking apps alongside transactions. A purchase may show tags such as “family owned” or “paying a living wage.” The aim is not to rate the consumer, but to describe the merchant.

The model relies on integration with banks and payment networks to achieve reach. It also extends upstream. Raja references “Green City Maps” as a way to surface the same data earlier in the journey.

The core claim is modest. Provide information. Let behaviour follow.

“It’s to give people the right information so they can make informed decisions.”

The tension sits in the gap between information and trust.

Raja frames trust as “the most valuable currency that we have.”

Yet the same environment that creates demand for transparency also undermines it. He points to “a flood of AI generated content” and “no shortage of greenwashing.”

Verification becomes central, but also contested. Multiple data sources do not guarantee consensus. Labels simplify complexity, but also compress nuance.

There is a second tension in behaviour. Most consumers do not have time to research. Ample’s premise is that reducing friction will increase alignment. But the system still competes with price and habit.

Raja does not resolve this. He shifts the frame from enforcement to encouragement.

“People every day are making positive impact with their spending,” he says.

The focus is incremental change across a large base. One better choice by many people.

The broader system constraint is temporal. Corporate incentives remain short term.

“The commercial world today is largely driven by short-term incentives,” he says.

This affects both sustainability investment and communication. Firms either overstate progress or withdraw from disclosure. Raja’s position is procedural. Be explicit about current state, define direction, and report progress, even when targets are missed.

Trust, in this framing, is cumulative. It depends on “small, consistent actions.”

The model assumes that if information becomes ambient, values will follow. That remains unproven at scale. Payments can reveal patterns, but they do not change constraints.

The system is moving toward greater visibility. Whether that produces alignment or further fragmentation is still open.

Short-term earnings cycles leave long-term risk unpriced

Public companies allocate capital against short-term financial signals. Annual accounts look backward. Market expectations reset every quarter.

Sustainability operates on a different timeline. Climate exposure, supply chain fragility, and resource constraints develop over decades. Returns on mitigation are delayed and uncertain.

This creates a structural conflict. Investment decisions prioritise near-term cash generation. Sustainability initiatives compete for capital without comparable payback profiles. In periods of volatility, they are deprioritised. Businesses “are just bunkered down short term in a survival mode.”

The issue is not awareness. It is how risk is priced and when value is recognised.

From contaminated land to board-level capital decisions

Amelia began her career in environmental remediation, working on contaminated land and complex infrastructure programmes, including the London 2012 Olympic Park.

These roles required translating environmental constraints into operational delivery. Regulatory approval, cost control, and timelines were immediate constraints.

Over two decades, Amelia moved into executive roles across infrastructure, transport, and listed companies. Her work focused on embedding sustainability into business models, governance, and commercial strategy.

Her position is explicit. Businesses exist to generate profit. “They’re not on a philanthropic journey.”

The constraint is not profit itself. It is whether that profit model remains viable under changing environmental and social conditions.

Where sustainability loses: inside financial planning cycles

The friction becomes visible in financial planning.

Transition plans require projecting performance over 10 to 15 years. Financial systems are built around 12-month reporting cycles. This creates resistance. Forecasts are uncertain. Once disclosed, they create accountability.

At the same time, sustainability proposals often fail to align with financial metrics used in capital allocation. This reinforces internal scepticism.

Amelia describes the perception directly. “They’re perceived as being kind of moral highwaymen.”

At this point, sustainability is not rejected on principle. It is rejected because it cannot be priced.

Rewiring sustainability into revenue, cost, and risk

Amelia’s approach focuses on embedding sustainability into core financial drivers.

This means linking ESG strategy directly to commercial outcomes. Execution is structured across three areas.

• Revenue generation. 
• Cost efficiency. 
• Risk management.

Prioritisation is selective. “Don’t worry about the other things. For now. Just fix that problem.”

This aligns sustainability with existing decision-making logic rather than competing against it.

An expanding mandate inside unchanged financial systems

The CSO role sits in a narrow space.

Sustainability is expected to be embedded across the organisation. At the same time, regulatory pressure, disclosure requirements, and systemic risks are increasing.

Full integration has not occurred. Most organisations remain fragmented. Central coordination is still required.

The deeper issue is structural.

• Capital allocation prioritises short-term return
• Sustainability requires long-term investment
• Disclosure frameworks impose long-term accountability

This creates exposure. Companies must commit to outcomes they cannot model with precision.

At the same time, risk categories are expanding. Climate volatility, supply chain disruption, and emerging technologies introduce new financial exposure.

The CSO is expected to manage this within systems that were not designed for it.

Bridging timelines without resolving the mismatch

The role is shifting from advocacy to financial translation.

Sustainability leaders must express long-term systemic risk in terms that fit short-term capital allocation. This requires trade-offs. Some initiatives are delayed. Others are reframed to deliver immediate value.

Amelia’s approach is incremental. Establish short-term wins. Build credibility. Extend planning horizons over time.

The underlying tension remains unresolved. Financial systems reward immediacy. Sustainability depends on duration.

The CSO operates between the two, without control over either.

A system under pressure

Food systems face growing scrutiny. Health concerns are rising. Environmental costs are becoming clearer. Waste remains persistent.

The tension sits inside daily operations. Food must be affordable. Retailers require scale. Consumers expect convenience.

At the same time, public awareness has shifted. Ultra-processed food has entered public debate. Food waste has become a policy priority.

Globally, roughly one billion tonnes of food are wasted each year. The value is estimated at around one trillion dollars. Food waste contributes around ten percent of global emissions.

For businesses inside the system, the choices are practical. Ingredients can be cheaper. Packaging can be cheaper. Waste can be ignored.

Those decisions accumulate over time.

Charlie Bigham runs a business that has had to make those decisions repeatedly.​

A kitchen table start

Charlie Bigham began his career as a consultant at Andersen Consulting.

He left after several years.

“I quite quickly worked out I wasn’t very good at working for other people.”

In 1996 he started a food business from his kitchen table.

The ambition was not modest.

Today the company employs about 750 people and produces prepared meals sold across UK supermarkets. Revenue is around £150 million.

Production takes place in two kitchens, one in London and one in Somerset.

Charlie attributes part of the early timing to circumstance.

“Every business needs to be lucky.”

In the mid-1990s British food culture was shifting. Newspapers introduced food sections. Television chefs became widely visible. Supermarkets began stocking more international ingredients.

Consumer curiosity around food was increasing.

The company grew steadily.

Charlie still describes the journey cautiously.

“We’re still in the foothills even after thirty years.”

Rejecting the purpose-first model

Many modern companies start with an explicit social purpose.

Charlie does not.

“I think you’re much better off saying, let’s focus on your product or your service and make that extraordinary.”

Responsibility follows competence. It cannot replace it.

The company’s first obligation remains the product.

“We are here first and foremost to make delicious food.”

Broader responsibilities appear alongside that work.

Some issues were not widely discussed when the company started. Climate change gained prominence years later. Regenerative agriculture has appeared more recently.

Ultra-processed food is another example.

The company’s ingredient discipline predates the debate.

“We will only ever put ingredients into our food that I have in my kitchen cupboard or my fridge at home.”

The rule originally supported taste and quality. It later aligned with emerging health concerns.

Inside the kitchens

Operational detail defines the company’s approach.

Meals are assembled from separate components. A dish such as chicken tikka masala includes cooked chicken, sauce and rice prepared independently.

Perfect alignment between components is difficult.

If one element runs out before the others, the remaining ingredients become surplus.

The company began measuring this problem carefully.

Food waste was first divided into two categories: edible and non-edible. Ingredients were then tracked by type and stage of production.

Measurement changed behaviour.

Over three years the company worked to eliminate edible food waste. Surplus food is now redistributed through charity partners including City Harvest and FareShare.

More than half a million meals have been redistributed.

Measurement also revealed smaller inefficiencies.

At one point the company discovered roughly 800 kilograms of food were being dropped on the floor each week.

Relative to total production it was small. In absolute terms it represented thousands of meals.

The next operational challenge became preventing that loss.

The commercial tension

Responsible decisions often cost more.

Packaging illustrates the trade-off.

The company packages its meals in wooden trays made from poplar grown in southwest France. The trays are produced by a family business that also manufactures traditional cheese boxes.

Plastic would be cheaper.

It would also work more easily with automated packing systems.

Natural materials vary slightly in size. Machines prefer precision.

Yet the company chose wood largely to avoid single-use plastic.

Similar decisions appear across procurement. The company purchases around a thousand ingredients and packaging components.

Cheaper options usually exist.

Short-term margins improve when they are chosen.

Resisting them requires discipline.

Responsibility without resolution

Charlie rejects the idea that business exists purely for extraction.

He also rejects the idea that purpose can replace commercial competence.

Responsibility appears through operational decisions rather than slogans.

Structural tensions remain. Incentives across supply chains often prioritise cost and speed. Regulation can sometimes move in contradictory directions.

Charlie believes the long-term answer must eventually involve governance.

“Business cannot exist purely for profit. It has to do more than that.”

For now, responsibility continues to emerge through the daily decisions made inside operating businesses.

A Shift That Is Quiet but Serious

The conversation with sustainability strategist Jonathan Wragg takes place inside Bramall Lane in Sheffield. It is a calm setting for a discussion that affects thousands of small businesses. Jonathan has worked in sustainability roles across multiple industries for almost two decades, and he sees a pattern forming. Large organisations are asking harder questions about the suppliers they rely on, and they expect real answers.

He puts it plainly.

“By your business not being more sustainable, you are seen as a high risk supplier.”

For SMEs, this change arrives quickly. Many work with short planning cycles and tight margins. They see sustainability as something to improve when time allows. Their biggest customers see it as a decision point today.

A Career Built on Work, Chance and Values

Jonathan describes his route into sustainability as accidental. He joined the Royal Navy at sixteen and learned discipline, teamwork and a sense of duty.
“They give you a sense of doing the right thing when nobody is looking,” he says.

After leaving the Navy, he moved through plastics, packaging, manufacturing and global supply chains. His LinkedIn record shows senior roles in governance, supply-chain oversight and ESG development across more than forty countries.

Throughout this journey, he developed a skill that shapes his work today. He learned how to translate complex sustainability language into something people can understand.

“One of the things that I do best is the translation of sustainability,” he says.

This is the basis of his work with Ltt Group, the consultancy he co-founded to support SMEs.

The Turning Point That Changes Everything

Jonathan believes the era of vague sustainability claims is over. Small businesses once relied on broad statements in tenders and sales meetings. They are now challenged directly.

“If somebody tells me something, my response is prove it,” he says. “If you cannot, I am not going to buy off you.”

Corporate sustainability teams are now involved in procurement. They review carbon data. They check policies. They assess risk. They can see when language is used as decoration rather than substance.

Jonathan also points to the influence of investors. “Investment in ESG has gone up to around 19 trillion dollars globally,” he says.

“Politics works in three year cycles. Finance works in longer cycles.”

In other words, the pressure is structural. It will not disappear.

Helping SMEs Take Action Without Guesswork

Ltt Group works with SMEs by starting where the risk is most visible. “The first thing we do is work with the sales team,” Jonathan explains. “We identify the clients you have right now and what risk you have.”

If a single corporate buyer represents sixty percent of revenue, that is a direct vulnerability.

“If they stop using you, they will switch off the tap,” he says.

The support that follows is practical.

• A clear emissions baseline
• Honest policies and data
• Basic governance
• Social value reporting
• Straightforward language
• A timeline that can be tracked

Jonathan encourages SMEs to focus on accuracy rather than perfection. “It is about the journey you are on,” he says. “Be honest about where you are.”

The Moral and Commercial Tension

Jonathan speaks openly about a larger tension that sits behind this shift. Many SMEs feel overwhelmed. They face rising costs, labour shortages and daily operational challenges. Yet their customers are moving ahead with stronger sustainability expectations.

“Everybody just wants to grow,” he says. “The only way business can grow now is by being more sustainable.”

He also worries about the impact on communities if local suppliers fail to keep up.

“If businesses in Sheffield lose their big contracts, the unemployment impact is huge,” he says. “That terrifies me.”

This is the heart of his work. Sustainability is not only about targets. It is about livelihoods.

Why Procurement Will Shape the Future

Jonathan believes the next decade will be shaped more by procurement than by politics. He gives an example of a company that weighted a major tender ninety percent on CSR. Prices fell because suppliers understood the scoring and aligned to it. “It improved everything,” he says.

His own idea for faster progress is simple.

“Minimum sixty percent scoring on CSR with named accreditations,” he says. “Hold people to account.”

Clear expectations allow suppliers to plan, grow and compete on a level field.

The Takeaway

Jonathan’s message to SMEs is practical and direct. Waiting will not protect you. The market has moved, and it rewards those who can show what they are doing.

“By being more sustainable, you lower your risk. You protect your future,” he says.

Closing Reflection

The setting at Bramall Lane makes the conversation feel grounded in a real place and a real community. It is a reminder that responsible business is not a slogan. It shapes jobs, supply chains and the confidence of local regions.

For SMEs, sustainability is becoming a basic part of running a secure and resilient business. Proof has become a form of trust. And trust is now a condition for growth.

Scene-Setter: The World’s Energy Shock

When author and board advisor Gib Hedstrom read the China Energy Transition Review 2025, he was stunned. “I was surprised by the pace and scale of what’s happening,” he said. “China’s clean energy portfolio is right at the steep part of the S-curve. It’s taking off.”

For years, the world saw China as the land of smog and coal. But while Western countries argued over targets, China built the world’s largest renewable infrastructure. It now leads in solar, wind, and electric vehicles. That shift is changing the global energy map.

“China’s clean energy rise isn’t gradual. It’s explosive.”

Origin Story: From Dirty Coal to Clean Ambition

A decade ago, China’s air was choking with pollution. President Xi called it a “war on air pollution,” cutting particulate levels almost in half. The following year, he launched a plan to win what he called the technologies of the future.

“Back in 2015, China set out to win clean energy,” Gib said.

“Most of us in the West didn’t see it. We still thought of them as the dirty coal guys. But they were already working their plan.”

That long view sits at the heart of Gib’s message. While China planned decades ahead, Western companies stuck to short-term cycles. “In the U.S., the median CEO tenure is under five years,” he said. “Boards think in one-to-three-year windows. That’s the dilemma.”

Turning Point: The Power of Planning

After decades of advising Fortune 500 boards, Gib has seen how short-term thinking limits progress. His research found that companies that plan and execute over five to seven years outperform their peers by almost 50 percent.

“China proves the same logic,” he said. “They plan in decades, not in quarters. That’s what leadership looks like.”

“We’re at a fork in the road. For business, for the planet, and for our kids.”

Real-World Action: The Numbers Behind the Shift

The scale of China’s transformation is hard to grasp. It makes 80 percent of the world’s solar panels, 60 percent of wind turbines, and half of all electric vehicles. EV sales jumped from six percent to fifty percent in just four years.

“They’re racing up the S-curve while the rest of us are still building PowerPoints,” Gib said with a smile.

“It’s humbling, and it should be.”

For developing countries, this boom has a ripple effect. China’s mass production has driven prices down, making clean tech the affordable choice. “They’ve built more capacity than needed to meet the Paris targets,” Gib said. “That means others can leapfrog. They can skip the fossil era entirely.”

Conflict: The Clean Energy Paradox

Even with all this progress, China’s story has a shadow side. The country is still building new coal plants, more than six times as many as any other nation.

“It’s the missing half of the story,” Gib said.

“Air quality is better, but coal isn’t gone. They’re closing older plants, but the tension remains.”

This balance between progress and contradiction mirrors the wider sustainability struggle. Every gain carries a cost. Every victory needs more work.

Future Outlook: Lessons for the West

For Gib, the takeaway is simple. Responsibility starts with realism. The West cannot lead without thinking long-term. “Boards don’t usually tell CEOs what to do,” he said. “They lead by asking better questions.”

He hopes China’s progress will wake up Western leaders. “If we don’t change our stripes, we’ll be left in the dust,” he warned.

“Long-term thinking isn’t a luxury. It’s survival.”

Takeaway: Responsibility Through Realism

Gib stays hopeful. He believes change can come from three groups at once: leaders, families, and Gen Z. Each has power to shift how we buy, build, and behave.

“The next five years will define the future,” he said.

“Not just for business, but for our planet. It’s time to plan like we mean it.”

Closing Reflection

Gib’s message is quiet but firm. Responsibility begins with facing facts and having the courage to look beyond the next quarter. China’s clean energy story isn’t only about economics. It’s a test of how seriously we take the future.

Decades later, as founder of TDI Sustainability and The Impact Facility, Assheton still sees leadership through a pragmatic lens.

“You can’t save the angels,” he says.

Real change comes not from working only with ethical darlings like Patagonia, but from engaging with the difficult, the controversial, and the imperfect — coal miners, commodity traders, multinationals operating in fragile states.

Why dialogue isn’t always the answer

The corporate sustainability playbook often extols “engaging with critics” as the gold standard. But Assheton cautions against seeing it as a universal law. In some crises, silence can be the most strategic move. He cites cases where companies facing serious allegations saw the scandal evaporate without public engagement — while others, who entered prolonged dialogue, simply kept the controversy alive.

Instead, his approach is forensic:

• Assess the power of the claimant (Who’s making the accusation?)

• Evaluate legitimacy (Is it true?)

• Gauge urgency (Is the problem imminent or distant?)

Only when the stakes are clear should companies decide whether to engage, go silent, or radically change course.

Alignment, not altruism

At the heart of Assheton’s philosophy is a blunt truth: businesses are designed to make profit, not to act as “development agencies.” Expecting them to operate against their core interest is naïve — the task is to align corporate survival with societal needs.

That alignment, he argues, is achieved through regulation, access to capital, and market signals. Without clear governance, even the most willing companies will struggle to act.

“We need leaders bold enough to set the rules — and companies will respond,” he insists.

Why governance is the real battleground

Asked for his magic-wand wish for the business world, Assheton’s answer is swift: stronger governance. In an era where AI, climate change, and resource scarcity pose existential threats, leaving action to corporate goodwill is a risk too great.

His second wish? Greater employee ownership and participation. Companies that are closer to their communities, he believes, will naturally be more attuned to what society needs.

It’s a worldview rooted in systems thinking: change the underlying governance and participation structures, and the rest will follow. Standards and metrics — the default tools of corporate responsibility — are, in his words, “the weakest levers” for change.

Leading responsibly in an imperfect world

The Responsible Edge asks: Is it really possible to lead responsibly?

Assheton’s answer is cautious but hopeful. Yes — but only if we accept the world as it is, not as we wish it to be. That means working with the imperfect, recognising limits, and relentlessly seeking alignment between profit and progress.

Because in his experience, lasting change comes not from purity, but from the hard, often messy work of building bridges — and knowing exactly when to hold the line.