Sustainability is one of those topics that most businesses know they should be thinking about, but it can easily become framed as a cost, a compliance exercise, or a set of reporting obligations. 

That was one of the most interesting aspects of the Amazon Innovation Accelerator session on using sustainability to drive commercial growth. The discussion encouraged us to look at sustainability differently – not as a separate initiative, but as a way to identify customer problems, create new value, improve operations and potentially develop stronger commercial propositions. 

For me, that shift in mindset was the most useful part of the session. 

Rather than asking, “What do we need to do to be more sustainable?” the better question should be, “Where could more sustainable choices also create better commercial outcomes?” 

That is a much more energising starting point and one that is more likely to engage the full leadership team. 

Moving Sustainability Out of the Compliance Box 

In recent years, sustainability has sometimes felt like it has moved up and down the client agenda. At certain points, it has been a significant topic in procurement, tenders and strategic conversations. At other times, particularly when budgets are under pressure, it can become more of a box-ticking exercise. 

The challenge is that sustainability can feel difficult to prioritise, especially for smaller businesses. It often involves upfront cost, additional effort, or changes to existing processes. Larger procurement teams may express strong sustainability ambitions, but still often make decisions based on price, speed or convenience. 

That tension came through clearly in the discussion during the workshop. 

It is not enough to talk about sustainability as a standalone virtue. If we want it to become part of everyday business decision-making, we need to connect it to commercial benefit, operational efficiency and customer value. 

That does not mean reducing sustainability to a purely financial argument. It means making it easier for teams and clients to see how better environmental decisions can also support stronger business outcomes. 

What This Means for Loyalty 

Working in loyalty, the obvious avenue for using sustainability to drive commercial growth was in the reward and engagement mechanics. 

Loyalty programmes are designed to influence behaviour. They encourage customers, members or partners to take certain actions, repeat valuable behaviours, engage with content, complete activities or choose one action over another. 

That makes them an interesting mechanism for supporting sustainability goals. For example, a programme could reward lower-carbon purchasing behaviours when members redeem rewards. It could highlight more sustainable reward options, provide additional points for selecting consolidated delivery, or encourage members to choose digital rewards where appropriate. 

There may also be opportunities to create campaigns around repair, reuse or recycling. For businesses selling products into trade, manufacturing, construction or distribution environments, this could be particularly powerful. A loyalty programme could reward customers for returning items for recycling, choosing refurbished options, extending the life of products, or engaging with services that support repair rather than replacement. 

The important point is that sustainability does not need to sit outside the loyalty strategy. It can become part of the behaviour change strategy. 

Supplier Choices and Fulfilment Impact 

Another area that stood out for me was fulfilment. Reward catalogues can involve a large number of suppliers, products and deliveries. If every item is shipped individually, the environmental impact can quickly increase. We will look to work with suppliers to investigate the viability of consolidated deliveries, more efficient packaging, or clearer sustainability information at product level. 

This is not always simple. Reward fulfilment depends on supplier capability, member expectations, cost, stock availability and delivery speed. However, it is an area where small improvements could make a meaningful difference over time. 

It could also become part of the programme proposition. For example, members could be encouraged to group redemptions, choose slower delivery where appropriate, or select reward options with a lower estimated environmental impact. Clients could be given clearer reporting on reward category mix, delivery behaviour and areas for improvement. 

That would turn sustainability from aspiration into something measurable and actionable. 

Embedding Sustainability Into Every Team 

One of the strongest themes from the session was that sustainability should not sit in one role, one department or one annual report. It needs to be embedded into how teams think. 

That really resonated with me. If sustainability is only discussed once a year at board level, it will always feel separate from the real work of the business and will be a key reason why it fails to gain any significant traction. If each team has a practical sustainability lens, it becomes much easier to spot opportunities. 

• Product teams can ask whether features could encourage better behaviours 
• Operations teams can look at efficiency, waste and supplier processes 
• Client success teams can help clients identify campaigns that align with sustainability goals 
• Commercial teams can explore how sustainability strengthens the proposition and supports procurement conversations 
• Leadership teams can make sure it remains part of strategic planning, rather than something that only appears in response to tender questions 

For Stream, this is probably where the biggest opportunity sits. We can look at where sustainability naturally connects with our product, our suppliers, our client conversations and our own internal processes. 

The Commercial Opportunity 

The session helped reinforce that sustainability can be a route into innovation. 

It can prompt new product ideas, new campaign mechanics, new reporting models and new ways of helping clients create value from their loyalty programmes. 

For B2B organisations in particular, this feels highly relevant. Many businesses are under pressure to demonstrate progress on sustainability, but they also need practical, commercially sensible ways to do it. 

A loyalty programme could help bridge that gap. 

It can turn a broader ambition into specific behaviours, measurable actions and targeted incentives. It can help clients test what works, learn from the data and build campaigns that support both customer engagement and wider business goals. 

Final Thoughts 

I felt re-energised about the opportunities that sustainability could bring when thought about differently. 

For us, the opportunity is to keep asking practical questions: 

• How can loyalty encourage better choices? 
• How can reward fulfilment become more efficient? 
• How can campaigns support repair, reuse or recycling? 
• How can sustainability strengthen the commercial case for loyalty? 
• How can we help clients measure the impact of these behaviours? 

There is now work for us to do to start bringing these ideas to our clients and suppliers, which is the exciting part.  

Probably most importantly, it was a reminder that sustainability doesn’t have to be positioned as a trade-off against growth. Done well, it can become part of the growth strategy itself.