Redefining the Game. Reclaiming Ability.
Sustainability is at a crossroads. This isn’t just rhetoric, but a stark reality we are choosing to confront with clarity, conviction and vision.
This year’s main event of our Forum “Connecting the dots”, hosted in collaboration with Corriere della Sera, was designed as a two-part journey: the morning opened up the world of sports as a platform for social impact and innovation; the afternoon challenged companies to rethink sustainability as a business driver and not as a burden.
Two distinct moments, one shared ambition: to reconnect sustainability to value.
Redefining the Game
Sport as a driver of impact, legitimacy and long-term value
The time is ripe to redefine the game and we’re writing the new playbook.
At the Corriere della Sera headquarters in Milan, we brought together voices from across the sports ecosystem: clubs, corporates, athletes, and academics, to explore how sport can be a powerful lever for sustainability and purpose. Not through slogans, but through strategy, partnerships and people.
Today, even the world of sports is feeling the ESG pushback: growing scepticism, lack of buy-in from leadership, and fatigue in the face of limited evidence of value. But we believe there’s a way forward by reframing sustainability not as an external demand, but as a strategic enabler of business resilience, reputation and innovation.
The new playbook: three strategic pillars
- The Strategic Dimension
Our CEO Joakim Lundquist set the tone: sustainability must return to the core of strategy. It’s not enough to comply: we need to commit. Our speakers followed next: James Osborne, Sasja Beslik, Federico Smanio, Stefano De Amici, and Martin Carlsson Wall shared insights into how to avoid the most common pitfalls and instead design impactful, measurable and credible sustainability strategies in the sport sector.
They emphasized the importance of innovation bringing their stories to the table, the need for C-suite leadership, and the necessity of anchoring sustainability efforts in long-term business objectives not side initiatives.
- From Sponsorship to Partnership
Staffan Holmberg and Filip Lundberg Verendel showcased a best-practice case from Djurgårdens IF Fotboll: a collaboration with local schools to promote physical activity, enhance community engagement and reinforce the club’s social value.
From the corporate side, Paolo Ceccherini from Signify offered a compelling perspective: companies can create shared value through authentic partnerships with sports organisations, addressing mutual challenges and amplifying their impact beyond the stadium.
- The Human Dimension
One of the most powerful moments of the morning was the focus on athletes as change-makers. Morten Thorsby spoke of the athlete’s role in the green transition—as ambassadors of a more sustainable future.
In the emotionally charged roundtable “Surviving the Race”, moderated by Luca Ferrari, former athletes Giulia Candiago, Simone Battistella and Oliver Bierhoff opened up about their personal journeys: from peak performance to life after the spotlight, and the mental health challenges too often overlooked in professional sport.
Boosting Your Ability
Turning the page: from ESG fatigue to strategic renewal
If the morning was a call to redefine the role of sport, the afternoon set the stage for a broader provocation: what if sustainability has failed or at least as we know it?
In a business environment where compliance is necessary but insufficient, it’s time to rewrite the script. At Lundquist, we’re calling this new phase “Ability”: the ability to deliver value, lead transformation, and communicate impact in a way that resonates across functions and audiences.
A new vision built around the Sustainability Value Proposition (SVP)
The Sustainability Value Proposition (SVP) is our answer to the current impasse: a method to identify, articulate and communicate the environmental and social benefits of a company’s products, services or operations in a business-relevant way.
Joakim Lundquist introduced this as a strategic leap from performative ESG to purposeful action.
James Osborne unpacked the “quitting zone” in which many companies find themselves today: trapped between regulatory overload and a lack of internal enthusiasm. Only by reframing sustainability as a commercial opportunity can we reignite its relevance.
Sasja Beslik stressed the market implications of this shift: investors and customers alike need a compelling business case for sustainability—and SVPs can provide that.
Real-world insights from leading companies
Throughout the afternoon, we heard from forward-looking organisations actively redefining their sustainability approach:
- Andrea Minotto (Bracco Imaging) explained how sustainability can become embedded in product innovation and customer value in the healthcare sector.
- Michela Raco (Poste Italiane) described how the company is moving beyond regulatory frameworks like CSRD to build a narrative around impact that connects with citizens and clients.
- Annika Ramsköld (Vattenfall) shared how a renewed sense of purpose is influencing the company’s strategic investments and partnerships.
New perspectives: technology, culture and communications
- Eric Francia (Uniplay) showed how AI and gamification are transforming corporate learning and employee engagement.
- Oskar Yasar (Broome Yasar Partnership) presented insights from his new book The Global Investor Relations Revolution, highlighting the evolution of the IR function in a post-ESG world.
- Massimo Guarnieri (Eni) offered a glimpse into how artificial intelligence is being applied to optimise internal knowledge and decision-making.
Why “Ability” matters now
At the heart of the day’s discussions was a clear message: sustainability is not dead it’s overdue for reinvention.
We believe the next phase is about cultivating the abilities companies need to turn sustainability from an obligation into an opportunity:
- The ability to align environmental and social efforts with core business value.
- The ability to speak to customers, investors and partners with credibility and clarity.
- The ability to differentiate, lead and deliver impact that lasts.
We’re not talking about abandoning ESG but about moving beyond it. About shifting from abstract indicators to real-world outcomes. From performative compliance to authentic transformation.
This is the turning point
The Forum 2025 wasn’t about adding to the noise.
Whether in sport or business, the next chapter of sustainability will depend on how we choose to act, think and lead on our ability to move forward with purpose.
Because what matters now is not just doing sustainability.
It’s proving that sustainability works.
