After 15 years leading sustainability, impact and social innovation initiatives with corporate partners across European markets, one thing has become clear to me: today’s forward-thinking corporate leaders do not see sustainability and impact as mere compliance issues.
They see these factors as key business enablers and essential components of company governance, decision-making and future business strategy.
This might sound counter-intuitive, but instead of diminishing due to political backlash, in the last couple of years, this trend has intensified. Sustainability and impact are being framed as sources of competitive advantage, as enablers of resilience for companies and their operations, and as much-needed sources of innovation.
That’s not to say the political pressure hasn’t been felt.
But what hits harder is disruption: reinventing supply chains within weeks during the pandemic; grappling with water scarcity as a material risk; or struggling to find the skills and talent to innovate and compete.
For leaders facing these challenges, sustainability and impact are no longer theoretical.
And as Europe faces a crisis of competitiveness, the way forward will be built by those who can utilise their response to disruption as a competitive advantage.
Europe’s current trajectory has been built largely around what we have called the twin transition: the green and digital transitions.
The ambition is clear: reach climate neutrality by 2050 while building a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy, and creating a fairer and more prosperous society.
But this last part of the sentence receives much less attention, but it is a transition in itself: The just transition.
To me, the just transition means ensuring that the shift towards a green, digital and increasingly AI-enabled economy produces decent work, economic opportunity, affordable access to essential goods and services, resilient communities and a credible prospect of shared prosperity.
And I strongly believe that without this third transition, the other two will struggle to hold.
Companies do not operate outside society. They depend on workers, consumers, suppliers, infrastructure, public institutions and political legitimacy.
They need stability and predictability in order to invest (and be invested in) beyond the present. They need strong communities that are not deeply fragmented. And they need people to broadly believe that economic and technological progress also has something in it for them.
Yet, if we look honestly at some of the social and political developments of the past few years across the globe, that cohesion and stability feels fragile.
So what does the just transition actually mean for a company?
A corporate just-transition lens forces us to ask different questions:
- What happens to workers as technologies and business models change?
- Can SMEs and suppliers participate in the transition, or are new requirements simply pushed further down the value chain?
- Are the products and services emerging from the transition genuinely accessible and affordable?
- Are we creating pathways for reskilling, mobility and economic participation?
- And, perhaps most fundamentally, are our decisions strengthening or weakening trust between business and society?
The just transition is therefore not simply the “social side” of sustainability.
It is part of the infrastructure that makes long-term corporate competitiveness possible.
Europe’s 2050 ambition may formally be climate neutrality. But achieving that vision requires much more than carbon reduction.
It requires a Europe that remains industrially competitive, technologically relevant and socially cohesive throughout an extraordinary period of transformation. And an important caveat – Europe does not exist in a bubble, and in pursuing this ambition, can work with like minded communities around the globe to achieve a transformation that works for all.
And there is urgency here.
We no longer have the luxury of discussing these transitions only as ambitions for 2040 or 2050.
European companies are competing today: for investment, for talent, for technological leadership, for resilient supply chains, for access to energy and resources and, ultimately, for their place in a rapidly changing global economy. Already, Europe’s share of global exports has fallen from 16.3 per cent in 2016 to 14.3 per cent in 2023.
There is simply no time to waste.
We need to demonstrate now that the transitions themselves can become sources of competitiveness.
- Reducing environmental impact can create more resilient businesses.
- Inclusion can open markets and strengthen value chains.
- Social entrepreneurs can be the source of the next cycle of innovation
- Broadening the scope of opportunity for communities can expand the realm of possibility for companies
And that impact, rather than sitting alongside business strategy, can become part of the way companies innovate, grow and compete. The literature is making this clear, with a recent European Commission briefing paper surveying the field finding that responsible business conduct can be a “critical driver” for Europe to achieve its goals of being competitive, green and resilient.
But if we cannot make those connections tangible, measurable and commercially relevant, the transitions risk continuing to be perceived primarily as a cost or constraint, precisely at the moment when Europe can least afford that perception.
None of this will be possible for individual companies, governments, entrepreneurs or industries to deliver alone.
Governments can create direction and regulation. Companies create markets, jobs, investment and scale. Entrepreneurs can develop radically different models and reach communities that traditional systems often fail to serve. Investors can provide the capital that allows those solutions to grow.
The question is whether we can connect those capabilities much more effectively.
This is also why I find the work we do at Yunus Social Innovation increasingly relevant, and really fun.
Our role cannot simply be to advocate for impact.
Our job is to help prove that solving societal challenges can make companies more innovative, resilient and competitive.
And we need to prove it now.
At YSI, we try to make the social dimension of these transitions actionable by connecting business transformation with social innovation, inclusive value creation, entrepreneurs and the communities affected by change.
One important part of this is inclusive innovation: helping corporates identify and work with social entrepreneurs whose business models address access, affordability, inclusion and community resilience.
Another is business integration and social procurement: moving entrepreneurs beyond the position of being beneficiaries of an impact programme and into genuine business relationships — as suppliers, distribution partners, innovation partners or customers.
Another is challenging how organisations themselves are designed and governed: exploring alternative models such as stewardship ownership, employee ownership, cooperatives and other forms of shared governance that distribute power and value differently, and that can help companies stay aligned with their purpose over the long term.
We’re now starting to see the fruits of that labour. Since launching as YSI in 2025 and building on our work as YSB Corporate, we’ve connected 300 innovators across 52 countries with opportunities through partnering with large corporations, including directing over €850,000 in critical finance.
At YSI, we are optimists. And through the partnerships we build, we want to help model that different way: a way in which innovation, impact, strategy, resilience and strong communities can reinforce competitiveness and excellence rather than compete with them.
Europe does not have twenty years to discover whether this model works. The competition has already begun.
Our task, as business leaders, policymakers, entrepreneurs, investors and organisations like YSI, is to demonstrate that the transition towards a greener, more digital and more inclusive economy does not weaken European competitiveness.
Done well, it will catalyse it.
