5 Sustainability Myths Every Leader Must Stop Believing

For many business leaders, sustainability has become a confusing, overloaded concept. Is it ESG? Is it climate? Is it a cost, a risk, or a competitive advantage?

In a recent episode of the Sustainability Forward podcast, we spoke with Julia Binder, Professor of Sustainable Innovation and Business Transformation at IMD, to unpack the most common myths holding organisations back.

What emerged was not a critique of sustainability—but a much-needed reset in how leaders think about it.

Below, we break down the five sustainability myths every leader must stop believing, and what to focus on instead.

Myth 1: ESG and Sustainability Are the Same Thing

One of the most widespread misconceptions in corporate sustainability is the idea that ESG is simply sustainability in practice.

It isn’t.

Sustainability and ESG serve very different purposes:

• Sustainability is a people- and planet-centric framework. It looks outward—at how a company’s operations, products, and supply chains affect ecosystems, communities, and long-term societal wellbeing.

• ESG, by contrast, is a risk management and investment framework. It looks inward—at how environmental, social, and governance factors might impact a company’s financial performance.

This distinction explains why companies with large environmental footprints can still score highly on ESG ratings. The framework measures how well risks are managed—not the absolute scale of impact.

For leaders, the takeaway is simple but critical: ESG is not a sustainability strategy. Treating it as one often leads to misplaced priorities and superficial progress.

SEO keywords: ESG vs sustainability, ESG framework, corporate sustainability strategy

Myth 2: Sustainability Is Just About Climate Change

Climate change dominates sustainability conversations—and for good reason. But focusing on carbon alone creates what Julia Binder calls “climate myopia.”

Climate is only one part of a much bigger picture.

Using the Planetary Boundaries framework, scientists have identified nine critical Earth system boundaries. Today, seven of those nine boundaries— including biodiversity, freshwater use, and land systems—are already beyond safe limits.

Climate change acts like fuel on the fire, accelerating damage across these interconnected systems:

• Soil degradation affects food security

• Biodiversity loss weakens ecosystems

• Water stress disrupts supply chains

When companies reduce sustainability to emissions targets alone, they miss the broader operational and environmental risks building around them.

True sustainability leadership means understanding systems, not silos.

SEO keywords: sustainability beyond climate, planetary boundaries, biodiversity and business, water risk

Myth 3: Sustainability Is Too Expensive

Few myths are as persistent—or as damaging—as the belief that sustainability is a cost burden.

This mindset usually emerges when sustainability is treated as a side activity: CSR projects, offsets, or isolated initiatives disconnected from core operations.

But when sustainability is integrated into how a business actually runs, the economics change completely.

Interestingly, companies often label AI as an “investment” despite high failure rates, while labelling sustainability a “cost.” Yet the reality is that the cost of inaction is far higher than the cost of action.

Examples are already playing out:

• Companies that invested early in regenerative agriculture are now more resilient to climate-driven price volatility.

• Businesses that optimised energy and water use years ago are better insulated from today’s resource shocks.

Sustainability delivers returns—but often over a mid-term horizon, not the next quarter.

SEO keywords: cost of sustainability, sustainability investment, business case for sustainability

Myth 4: Sustainable Products Don’t Sell

When companies claim sustainable products fail in the market, the issue is rarely sustainability itself.

Instead, failures usually stem from one of three avoidable trade-offs:

1. Performance trade-offs
   Assuming customers will accept lower quality simply because a product is “green.”

2. Price trade-offs
   Expecting consumers to absorb large price premiums that reflect internal inefficiencies.

3. Sales trade-offs
   Sales teams lacking the training or incentives to confidently sell sustainable alternatives.

In many cases, sustainable products struggle not because customers don’t want them—but because companies don’t know how to position, price, or sell them effectively.

Sustainability is a commercial capability, not just a design choice.

SEO keywords: sustainable products, green consumer behavior, sustainability and sales

Myth 5: It’s “Game Over” for Sustainability

With political backlash, regulatory uncertainty, and sustainability fatigue setting in, some leaders believe the sustainability agenda is losing momentum.

Julia Binder sees something else entirely.

This is not the end of sustainability—it’s the end of the “feel-good” era.

The era of glossy reports, symbolic gestures, and vague commitments is giving way to something more serious:
strategy, accountability, and execution.

Reframing sustainability around resilience and future-readiness changes the conversation:

• Can your supply chain withstand climate shocks?

• Are your assets future-proof?

• Is your business model viable in a resource-constrained world?

The solutions already exist. The real challenge now is willingness to scale and implement them.

SEO keywords: sustainability resilience, future-ready business, sustainability strategy

Sustainability Is Core Business, Not a Side Project

A useful way to think about sustainability is this:

Treating it as a side cost is like cutting engine maintenance during a storm. It saves money in the short term—until the engine fails and the ship sinks.

When sustainability is embedded into core operations, it becomes a source of resilience, efficiency, and long-term value.

That shift in mindset is what separates companies that survive the transition from those that struggle through it.

🎧 Listen to the full episode of Sustainability Forward with Julia Binder to hear the full conversation and practical insights for leaders navigating sustainability today.