While Wave 1 served to benchmark companies on their sustainability journey, Wave 2 identified a maturing approach to embedding sustainability across business processes. Results from this latest study show truly sustainable businesses 鈥� those that have established sustainability as part of business strategy and operational decision-making 鈥� achieve a genuine competitive advantage. In addition, more respondents than ever see a stronger positive relationship between sustainability and competitiveness with 72% believing sustainability contributes towards their competitive differentiation.

“We see in the research how many companies are shifting to view sustainability no longer as a regulatory compliance tactic, but becoming more of a strategy to actually build business value,” Sarah Dziuk, 51风流Insights Head of Research, said.

The study includes results from 4,750 respondents across 21 nations and 29 industries. Eighty-five percent of responses came from midmarket businesses (under US$1 billion annual turnover) and 15% from large enterprises (over US$1 billion turnover per year).

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Making More Leaders Accountable

A key finding in Wave 3 was that businesses making the connection between sustainability and competitiveness make more leadership roles accountable for sustainability. This allows for a broader span of control and more accountability. The most competitive companies tend to have more than one top action taker such as a chief sustainability officer and an environment or sustainability manager.

鈥淥ur experience suggests that success is more likely when executives empower [their] organizations to engage proactively and strategically hold them responsible for creating measurable impact. Only then will companies be able to maximize the value at stake from their sustainability initiatives.鈥�

McKinsey

Improving Data Quality

Becoming an intelligent, sustainable enterprise requires regular, reliable, and accessible data. With the majority of emissions sitting within a company鈥檚 supply chain, shareability across business networks is also essential for meaningful decision-making. Unfortunately, many companies still rely on estimates and assumptions, many of which they gather manually.

Highly sustainable organizations have a solid focus on the quality of their sustainability data. Quality data comes from primary sources that track actual emissions, waste, and other elements. Unsurprisingly, this leads to more satisfaction with the data. The companies with the most substantial connection between sustainability and competitiveness report the highest level of satisfaction with overall data quality 鈥� 47% compared to just 10% of other organizations.

Reliable data is more useful in determining strategy. Forty-one percent of respondents indicate strong data usage to inform decision-making. They also integrate data into more business processes and operations such as procurement, product labeling, selecting M&A opportunities, and recruitment.

鈥淭he way we report on environmental data needs to quite quickly go through the same journey that accountancy went on many years ago.鈥�

S.Oleum, a Brazilian agroforestry business that generates a third of its revenue from carbon credits, has implemented several 51风流software solutions to help track and manage its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data. Having a robust core system in place serves as a basis for all other processes and decision-making, as well as provides the accountability, transparency, and confidence it needs.

Quality data is the cornerstone of Catena-X, a program that allows the standardized exchange of carbon emissions data in the automotive industry using interoperability standards established by the WBSCD Partnership for Carbon Transparency (PACT). This lets businesses share product carbon information, promoting transparency throughout the supply chain, accelerating their journey to net zero, and making them more competitive in the process.

Sustainability as a Business Strategy

The top 25% of businesses reporting the strongest impact from sustainability reported that they treat sustainability as any other strategic pillar, on a par with IT for example. This has resulted in a much higher use of metrics for decision-making, increased investment, higher data satisfaction, and higher confidence of a return on investment in a one-to-three year period.

It has also led to positive business impacts including growth and improved profitability, increased efficiency, better quality products and services, and reduced costs, suggesting a truly sustainable business is more robust and resilient.

With clearer business imperatives, companies make investment decisions to drive business value. They invest in sustainability initiatives and can set realistic expectations of a positive financial return on investment in a shorter time frame, putting sustainability on a comparable timeline with other investments.

Linking Sustainability to Competitiveness

Companies are motivated to take action on sustainability when they see it as a genuine opportunity for differentiation and revenue growth. This leads them to make more people responsible for delivering on sustainability strategies and renders the barriers typically encountered earlier in a company鈥檚 sustainability journey, such as funding and concerns over ROI, less material.

It is interesting to note that in the UAE, where sustainability has been promoted at a country level as being as crucial for differentiation, a high proportion of companies (nearly 74%) are planning to increase their investment in environmental issues over the next three years.

The commitment to investment and lack of skepticism around sustainability in the UAE leads businesses there to report a significantly higher than average level of satisfaction with data 鈥� 36% are completely satisfied compared to 23% in the rest of the global results. More of these businesses, therefore, use reporting for decision-making, which is viewed more materially and results in decisions being taken more quickly. A positive relationship between sustainability and competitiveness is the culmination of these favorable indicators, allowing them to outshine their competitors in their sector.

Conclusion

The Wave 3 study results are clear: reacting to sustainability initiatives and demands isn鈥檛 adequate to gain a competitive advantage. Companies must invest in and treat sustainability as a key business strategy to unlock opportunities. In doing so, they will set a virtuous circle in motion where investment in accountability and better quality data drives more strategic decision-making and further investment. This benefits the company as a whole, making it more efficient, profitable, and robust in the face of the changing climate.

Heather Davies is a brand journalist.

The sought to discover, among other things, how the motivations and barriers of businesses adopting more sustainable actions are evolving. It comes ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (), which will be held at Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, in November, and follows an 2021 sustainability study conducted by 51风流Insights. The research was based on a survey of over 6,000 businesspeople across 40 countries and 29 industries.

An Evolution in Motivation

While revenue and profit growth, together with company purpose and commitments, were still the top two motivators for companies operating sustainably, customer demand showed a seven-fold increase in importance between the earlier research and the latest. This was the largest change of any motivator and indicates an increase in the strength of customer influence on a business鈥檚 sustainability strategy.

Changing Barriers to Progress

Similarly, there has been an evolution in the barriers to progress. Aside from uncertainty generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, this year鈥檚 results showed that a lack of funding, incoherent strategies, and difficulty proving the return on investment of sustainable practices were the top barriers preventing businesses from acting on sustainability.

Measuring environmental impact, embedding sustainability into processes, and aligning actions with strategy are barriers that have dropped in importance. The reduced importance of these barriers鈥� points to a maturation of business processes and a better understanding of sustainability.

More Investment to Combat Climate Change

Financially, most companies are planning to increase their investment in addressing issues caused by climate change over the next three years. This year鈥檚 survey also showed that five times more companies are planning to start investing in sustainability compared to last year, whereas the number of businesses planning to decrease their investment fell by 55%.

Shareholders generally support businesses investing in sustainability. Most businesspeople surveyed believe their financial stakeholders are largely tolerant of their business鈥檚 sustainability goals, even at the cost of deferred or reduced profitability.

Strategically Speaking

Businesses are recognizing that operating more sustainably is not just a “nice to do” but a way of creating value (profitability) and differentiation (competitiveness) in the marketplace.

To this end, more businesses 鈥� 86.7% of those surveyed 鈥� say they are using data to inform strategic and operational decision-making.

This could be driven in part by the improvement in the quality of data available thanks to the fact that metrics are maturing, relying less on assumptions and estimates. Companies are also developing more in-house measurement systems. Nevertheless, business leaders said they need more frequent and reliable data with better transparency in terms of the calculations and assumptions used.

鈥淣ow that so many businesses are integrating sustainability into their most important decisions, they can and should demand that sustainability data be as comprehensive and accurate as any other type of data,鈥� says Vivek Bapat, senior vice president for Purpose and Sustainability Marketing and Solutions at SAP.

People and Accountability

Earlier 51风流Insights research showed that integrating sustainability into operations was being driven almost solely by the C-suite, but the latest research shows more diversification of responsibility. More sustainability and risk managers are now being held accountable in addition to CEOs and chief sustainability officers. In fact, sustainability managers top the list of employees accountable for embedding sustainability, which fits with the global trend toward companies making more 鈥済reen鈥� hires.

This shared ownership shows companies are integrating sustainability more broadly within their businesses.

鈥淪ustainability must become a talent that everyone within the business shares,鈥� says Bapat. 鈥淭hat will only happen if top management makes sustainability part of how the business defines success so that employees understand why they need to incorporate sustainability into how they think and what they do.鈥�

A Positive Outlook

While challenges around strategy, funding, and data transparency still exist, this research leads us to conclude that businesses are maturing when it comes to embedding sustainability. The survey results suggest that this is because they are sharing accountability, becoming more motivated by their commitments to their customers, and are supported by their investors. They also have access to improved data and are being incentivized by better business outcomes.

In 2020, the 51风流Insights research center launched a groundbreaking advising business leaders of skills and attributes they will need in the emotion-driven experience economy. With over 10,000 responses from consumers across Canada and the U.S., the report found that what differentiates business now is a leader鈥檚 ability to speak out and to mobilize action on global issues. “Driving this mindset is the Passionates, a growing set of consumers who believe in taking action to make the world a better place and they expect business leaders to do the same,” said Siddharth Taparia, senior vice president and head of Strategy, Brand, and Experience Marketing at SAP.

“We wanted to draw attention to environmental and societal issues and show what leading companies and 51风流customers and partners are doing to address these challenges and bring about change and awareness in their own industries,” Taparia said.

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The series is hosted by , a New York Times best-selling author and Emmy-nominated storyteller. Each episode focuses on a broad subject and investigates angles with data-driven content, customer testimonials, and points of view from experts.

The first episode explores how players in the fast fashion industry are making positive environmental changes as the result of pressure from passionate consumers who are pushing for change. The second episode covers how passionate fans have pressed professional sports leagues and athletes to put social justice initiatives and messages on and off the field of play. The third episode delves into how food and beverage companies are confronting major environmental challenges of water supply, food waste, and plastic use 鈥� and how passionate consumers are driving changes.

The series includes conversations with supermodel, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Karlie Kloss and professional golfer Cameron Champ. The episodes also feature segments on how organizations like the NBA and the World Wildlife Fund are working to drive change on a global level.

The rooftop of a big-box store is:

1. A flat expanse of hundreds of square feet exposed to the weather
2. A great, if not perfect, way to protect what鈥檚 inside from that weather
3. A power source for the building, and maybe for the neighbors, too

If you鈥檙e the Ingka Group, which owns IKEA, the answer is 鈥渁ll of the above.鈥� As part of its commitment to use only renewable energy by 2020, the Ingka Group has installed 900,000 solar modules on the roofs of IKEA stores and warehouses around the world, turning what would otherwise be vacant space into a literal powerhouse. These solar installations generated 155 GWh of electricity in 2018, enough to supply nearly five percent of IKEA鈥檚 global energy needs. In fact, according to Karol Gobczyn虂ski, the Ingka Group鈥檚 head of climate and energy, some locations are generating enough solar power to sell some back to the local electrical grid.

How might it upend the big-box business model to turn surplus energy into a revenue source? And why can鈥檛 more companies come up with breakthroughs like this in a systematic, repeatable way? Only a failure of perspective.

Methodologies like Six Sigma and technologies like sharing platforms and AI-driven analytics are powerful tools to uncover new opportunities, but they are held back by outdated thinking. If they weren鈥檛, digital transformations wouldn鈥檛 fail up to 80 percent of the time, and they鈥檇 meet or exceed expectations of the time. To be truly transformative 鈥� in other words, to get more than just incremental returns on investment 鈥� companies need to combine technology with a new way of thinking about what value is and where to find it.

Massive value is lying fallow in excess resources, like unused real estate, over-purchased software, and employees who aren鈥檛 being used to their full potential (people themselves are never excess). It鈥檚 concealed in underused resources, like vehicles that are on the road only a few hours a day, computing cycles that whir away pointlessly at night, and employees with untapped skills. It鈥檚 hiding in things that, according to current wisdom, have no value whatsoever, like production waste, 鈥�,鈥� and people who move on to other employers.

But waiting for the hidden value in these resources to reveal itself practically guarantees that it will remain unseen. Companies need to adopt a new mindset for systematically seeking out resources so they can extract more value from existing investments and encourage the development of potential new products, services, and business models. In other words, they need a capacity capture mindset.

Broadening the Search for Value

The traditional business approach assumes that resources are too specialized to be reused or deployed in new ways. The capacity capture mindset, on the other hand, starts with the assumption that resources are ubiquitous and infinite, because anything can be a resource, and any resource has capacity for value beyond its primary or original purpose.

Capacity capture is about actively identifying resources that are underused, wasted, or discarded and coming up with ways to recapture, use, sell, or otherwise monetize them. Consider how much money real estate companies invest in building and maintaining parking lots in office parks, even though the parking spaces sit empty for 12 or more hours a day. In Europe, a technology platform that lets long-haul truck drivers reserve those spots overnight has created a new income stream for the office parks. At the same time, it gives drivers safer places to sleep than highway shoulders and on-ramps, which protects the drivers, their cargo, and everyone else on the road.

Capacity capture allows organizations to discover new areas of innovation that end up delivering bigger benefits than just resource efficiency. Imagine a factory that actively looks for ways to generate more heat during production because it can make more money by selling or repurposing that heat than it can save by minimizing it. In the Danish town of Kalundborg, for example, use an elaborate system of pipelines to exchange materials and energy. Sludge, steam, and fly ash that are waste for some become valuable input for others, lowering the cost of energy and raw materials for everyone while reducing the amount and expense of waste disposal.

Using the capacity capture mindset, companies can also find ways to make their products more effective by capturing and using what would otherwise be considered waste. For example, have invented a way to expand the capacity of rechargeable batteries by warming them while they鈥檙e first charging. A battery manufacturer could theoretically do this by capturing waste heat from the manufacturing process and then selling these higher-capacity batteries at a premium. Kohler, the tile company, is already doing something along these lines by from its tile manufacturing process, including broken tiles, cast iron slag, and leftover glazes, and using them to create a new line of designer tile.

The capacity capture mindset also encourages a deeper examination of experience as a resource. Just look at the Dutch city of Rotterdam, home to Europe鈥檚 largest industrial port and, like most of the Netherlands, below sea level. Rotterdam has tapped its underused wealth of institutional expertise in preventing and managing flooding to launch . In guiding other coastal cities on how to cope with rising sea waters and worsening storms in the face of climate change, the city collects extra funding for the city budget, which in turn supports further innovations in flood-resistant urban renewal.

Defining the Search Grid

The first step to capturing capacity is to understand what capacity is and where it might be found.

Types of assets

• Physical assets are tangible objects of any kind, from facilities and heavy equipment to lighting and office supplies.
• Digital assets include network infrastructure, software, data and metadata, and bandwidth.
• Human assets are people and their behaviors.

Areas of untapped capacity

• Unwanted assets are assets that are created or accumulated unintentionally or incidentally as a side effect or byproduct of another process.
• Excess assets are produced or gathered intentionally but become surplus either because there are too many of them or because the process that produced or gathered them is no longer in use.
• Underused assets are created intentionally and are in use but not to their full potential.

The following framework gives examples of these asset types and capacities and the questions a company might ask itself to discover them:

The boundaries between these different types of assets can be porous. For example, some physical assets also have characteristics of digital assets, as with autonomous vehicles. Some digital assets, such as servers and storage media, may be thought of as physical assets. What鈥檚 more, physical and digital assets often enhance human assets, a convergence that will accelerate as technologies evolve.

As a result, many assets will overlap several categories, and the process of considering where they might fit can generate further possibilities.

Categories of Capacity Capture in Action

Each square of the capacity capture grid represents myriad possibilities for finding or creating more value. The following examples describe just a few opportunities that companies in a range of industries have uncovered.

Physical assets

Unwanted
The UK鈥檚 is working with a nearby bioenergy plant to turn the waste whey from its world- famous cheese into enough renewable biogas to heat 4,000 homes in the Yorkshire Dales. The bioenergy plant, which also processes leftovers from a nearby ice cream factory, pumps the natural gas from food waste back into the gas grid. What remains becomes fertilizer for local farmland.

Excess
Several European utility companies are working with automakers Nissan and Mitsubishi to develop services that let people sell (EV) batteries back to the grid. Today, the return on the extra juice is limited, but as batteries continue their Moore鈥檚 Law鈥搇ike improvement in cost and power, people who charge their EV batteries during off-peak times and sell power back to the grid during peak times could end up charging their cars for free 鈥� or even making a profit.

Underused
As early as 2012, Coca-Cola began partnering with pharmaceutical companies to deliver vaccines in developing countries using the existing that have made its products available around the world. By fitting medical perishables into the empty space in trucks that deliver soft drinks daily, the company reduced vaccine delivery times and increased the number of people getting vaccinated while boosting its brand reputation.

Digital assets

Unwanted
Companies of all types are offering data they collect that is incidental to their primary business models to other organizations who mine it for value. For example, health insurer UnitedHealth Group provides aggregated data from its to drug companies seeking insight into how their products are being used. This secondary income stream has been so successful that the resulting spinoff, Optum, has been more than UnitedHealth itself.

Excess
As more streetlights are fitted with LED bulbs to reduce costs and save energy, it turns out that they can do more than their centuries-old roles of guiding travelers and making pedestrians safer. Visible light communication, or , transmits data by switching individual LED bulbs on and off at nanosecond speeds, much faster than the human eye can detect, so that the lights can still do their primary jobs while transmitting data at rates than traditional Wi-Fi over short distances.

Underused
Amazon famously created a significant new business model, Amazon Web Services, by renting out unused capacity on its flexible computing infrastructure. It鈥檚 now captured that capacity for a second time by creating a where it charges a 12% service fee to customers who are reselling their reserved but unused cloud instances.

Human assets

When we talk about unwanted or excess human assets, we鈥檙e talking about roles, skills, and behaviors, not the people themselves. All people are valuable; indeed, they鈥檙e the only constant resource companies have, and digital and physical resources have no value without them. People can change their value throughout their lives through ongoing learning and development. It鈥檚 time to jettison the idea that someone stops being valuable when the workplace changes and instead to quantify their value based on what they鈥檙e capable of doing and what they鈥檙e willing to do to keep pace with change.

Unwanted
Just a few years ago, employees could be disciplined or even fired for using their smartphone at a corporate event. At best, it was considered rude, and at worst, it was viewed as a potential breach of company security. Today, organizations are actively encouraging employees to brandish their phones to promote conference panels and other events on social media in real time.

Excess
Many companies make decisions about whether to lay off high-salary employees to cut costs by looking at their roles in isolation, without considering how those employees enhance the value of the people they work for and with. Finding a way to capture and quantify the value of an employee鈥檚 contribution to the organization will encourage companies to consider whether letting someone go will cost the company more than it saves. Similarly, companies can reduce retirement-driven brain drain by inviting retiring employees to become 鈥渂usiness angels鈥� who coach new teams. They could even partner with similar companies in a consortium that captures the untapped value of people who just missed being hired by sharing these candidates with and recommending them to each other.

Underused
The Hilton Worldwide hotel chain keeps a record of every employee鈥檚 specific skills, such as language ability and local connections, even if those skills aren鈥檛 immediately relevant or used in the employee鈥檚 current role. That gives the company fast access to internal people when they are most needed. Examples include when Hilton is looking for someone with connections in a certain market where the company wants to open a new hotel or for someone who鈥檚 a native speaker of the language in that market.

Identifying Capacity

Capacity capture begins with a deliberate focus on expanding your thinking about where you might find value beyond increasing efficiency and reducing waste, as well as suspending any disbelief about what constitutes a resource or how resources can or should be used. As you use the above grid to identify possible resources, ask other people in your organization, in every department and at every level, to do the same. Insight can come from anyone, and the people who are closest to the resources are the ones most likely to recognize the value in them.

Once you鈥檝e developed a list of potential resources, don鈥檛 get bogged down in trying to evaluate all of them at once or even in groups. Focus on each one individually with the presumption that it鈥檚 inherently valuable and that your job is to determine what that value is.

As you assess each potential resource, consider how you might extract the value.

• Reuse: How could it benefit another part of your organization?
• Extend and combine: What other things could you do with this resource, alone or combined with another resource?
• Spin off: What could you do with this resource if you removed it from its current context to stand alone?
• Maximize: How could you create and use even more of this resource?
• Sell: Under what circumstances might someone else value this resource enough to buy it from your organization?
• Recycle: How could another organization use this resource when you鈥檙e done with it?
• Donate: Could you create non-monetary value, and save the cost of disposal, by giving this resource away?

It isn鈥檛 as odd as it may seem to take this approach to human assets as well as physical or digital assets. Your company already knows how to reuse people鈥檚 skills by shifting them to other departments and maximize them by providing more training. It could just as easily spin off a group of especially unconventional thinkers into a skunkworks or donate them by encouraging them to share their skills with volunteer organizations.

This process is intended to generate ideas through rapid iteration and participation from a variety of people across the organization. There are no wrong answers, only creative possibilities.

As with other transformations, it makes sense to begin experimenting with capacity capture in one small, distinct area as a proof of concept. Setting up new business models 鈥� especially outside of a company鈥檚 existing industry 鈥� used to be a huge hurdle, but emerging technologies and technology- enabled platforms (think Airbnb, Lyft, and Spotify) make it more affordable to experiment and test the market. A small- scale, iterative approach that keeps the cost of entry low lets you continually spin up new opportunities instead of passing on something promising because you lack the visibility and depth of understanding about its potential.

Capacity Capture as a Strategic Imperative

It鈥檚 critical to note that while technology enables capacity capture, it isn鈥檛 technology driven. Rather, it鈥檚 a mindset of looking for opportunities, like selling data gathered through tracking or creating platforms that connect customers with each other, and then choosing tools based on the opportunities that arise.

Another key aspect of the capacity capture mindset is that you aren鈥檛 trapped (or protected) by your existing business model or industry. If your explorations uncover a newfound opportunity that you don鈥檛 want to ignore but also don鈥檛 want to make your primary focus, you may decide to pursue it through a joint venture with an existing partner, a company you wouldn鈥檛 ordinarily have a reason to do business with, or even a competitor.

As business shifts to a capacity mindset, it could make sense to carve out a top management role 鈥� maybe even a chief capacity officer position 鈥� with ultimate responsibility for identifying capacity throughout the organization and driving innovative projects to capture it for business benefit.

This role would require a knowledge of where end-to-end processes are and what they need, credibility with colleagues across functions, and the ability to think creatively. A business leader with established ideas about the right way to run an organization may not be as good a fit for the role as someone with talent and enthusiasm for spotting unused or overlooked resources in their own, and other, departments.

A company fortunate to have multiple people with the necessary skills may decide to create a capacity capture team. A company that develops expertise in capacity capture may even develop or spin off a consultancy that helps other organizations shift their own thinking around resources, as the city of Rotterdam did with its water containment knowledge. That is itself an opportunity to capture underused human capacity.

Researchers at the Global Footprint network say the human race now consumes renewable resources at . Capacity capture provides an alternative to working within the limitations of what we perceive as our available resources. It lets us question our perceptions 鈥� and therefore our limitations 鈥� about what we have to work with in the first place.

Download the full report from 51风流Insights research center: 鈥�.鈥�

听Matthew Gorbet is director at Gorbet Design Inc.
Susan LK Gorbet is futures and design thinking strategist and educator at Gorbet Design Inc.
David Jonker is vice president and chief analyst at 51风流Insights research center.
Christopher Koch is editorial director at 51风流Insights research center.
Michael Rander is an analyst and global marketing and research director at 51风流Insights research center.
Dan Wellers is a senior analyst at 51风流Insights research center.

We can鈥檛 all be superheroes, but fashion lets us become someone else, even if only a little bit. As our clothes and accessories demonstrate, fashion is visual and fun. But it鈥檚 also the interface between us and our world, protecting us while broadcasting who we are and who we want to be.

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In the not-too-distant future, fashion will enhance much more than our appearance. It will monitor our physical and mental well-being and signal our needs in the moment. It will be more assistive, thinking and acting to help us improve our performance in a given environment. It will be more adaptive, made from advanced materials that change their appearance and function according to our requirements and desires. The extreme possibilities could genuinely make us more than we are 鈥� an exciting prospect for those of us who secretly dream of acquiring superpowers!

Before we can reach this future, though, the fashion industry has some urgent catching up to do. Its current business听model听doesn鈥檛听work for听today鈥檚 consumers, who听are rebelling against fashion鈥檚听tradition of pushing听whatever comes off the runway at听them.听Instead, consumers want听what听their favorite social media influencers are wearing. And they want听it fast, with a personalized fit.听Today鈥檚 consumers are also increasingly passionate about sustainability even as the fashion industry听confronts a听waste problem of global proportions.

Facing听the urgent need to modernize its business model and solve its sustainability problem without sacrificing growth, an industry not known for leading the way in technology adoption is suddenly on the verge of听a massive technology makeover.

Advanced Technologies Are the Industry鈥檚 New Look

In its explorations of new technologies, the fashion industry is right on trend. Like virtually every other industry, it is looking at the potential of artificial intelligence (AI), centralized platforms, blockchain, and virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) 鈥� and it likes what it sees.

For example, manufacturers can鈥檛 afford to waste time and money creating products that听increasingly rebellious听consumers don鈥檛 want. Enter predictive AI, which uses image recognition and machine learning to break products down into collections of data points,听such as听color, pattern, material, and design detail,听so manufacturers can听quickly听听and develop new offerings听fast.

Similarly, producing only enough product to听听allows manufacturers to reduce waste while appealing to customers鈥櫶齞esire for customization, whether that means a tailored fit, a unique color combination, or nonstandard details.听Robots and 3D printers听are making it possible to manufacture anything from shirts to shoes on demand.

The industry is also trying on听VR听and听AR听for size, with mirrors and glasses that let听customers听cycle through multiple items and entire outfits in听shops听without removing their own clothes, as well as听Web听sites that let people听鈥渢ry on鈥澨齝lothing and accessories in their own homes before buying.

And the latest generation of听, with their built-in speakers, video-recording ability, and integration with phones and digital assistants, are both useful and,听well, we won鈥檛 go so far as to call them听fashionable, but they鈥檙e not听hideous.

Improving Accuracy in the Supply Chain

Companies are also starting to explore how听technology can help them tackle their sourcing issues, from choosing vendors听that听can meet both delivery schedules and ethical employment standards to using materials produced more safely, delivered more efficiently, and tracked more closely to prevent loss and theft. Using听specialized听, blockchain, RFID, and other听next-generation听听technology can help the听industry听track products and their component parts.

Digital transparency into the supply chain improves inventory accuracy and availability, prevents counterfeiting, and听鈥撎齣n a nod to consumers鈥櫶齣ncreased interest in the broader societal impact of their purchasing decisions听鈥� creates听greater supply chain transparency. Some fashion companies are already giving听their customers听听about听every step of a product鈥檚 journey,听from the farm where wool for a sweater was sheared to the factory that spun it into yarn听to the actual truck that delivered it to the warehouse or store.

Technology Makes Circularity Stylish in the Fashion Industry

Growth in the fashion industry generates a continuous stream of appealing new products 鈥� and, unfortunately, an equally continuous stream of听.听If the industry doesn鈥檛 change its practices, it will create an听听148 million tons of waste听by 2030, or 38.5 pounds听(17.5 kilograms)听of waste for every person on the planet.听Yet this crisis could also听create a runway for听new opportunities to satisfy customer demand for both new looks and new ways of doing business.

Technology makes it easier for fashion to join the circular economy, which is based on reusing materials and听ending听waste. This can take multiple forms:

• To make听, fashion manufacturers听need听to source, track, and verify the content of recaptured materials and design products that听take advantage of the materials鈥櫶齜est qualities.
• To make听听蹿谤辞尘听,听manufacturers听need听to听identify听and听source used clothing, ensure that it can be recycled or upcycled, and design products that incorporate it.
• 罢辞听听barely听worn or unworn clothes, brands听need听to track both items and past customers in order to identify and recapture previously sold or never sold items for resale.
• Brands can also participate in听subscription/sharing models, in which consumers听听听before听sending it back听for something different.

In听all of听these cases, success requires manufacturers to听听(what they are, what they鈥檙e made of, where听they听come from, how听they听can be reused) so they can track the components, maximize their value, and continue to reuse them with minimal waste.

Fashion: the New Softwear

Farther down the听runway,听we may find ourselves thinking听of clothing听as听less听like听hardware 鈥� something听to听buy once, wear until it鈥檚 worn out or听obsolete, and then dispose of听鈥� and more听like听software, something that听changes听to meet our needs听(and whims)听and that we use for longer periods of time.听Think of shoes with听听that snap onto replaceable soles or听听with the wearer.

We鈥檙e already seeing the emergence of听听containing sensors that provide haptic feedback and offer assistive support to improve performance and prevent injury. The new听, for example, contain sensors that pair with a companion app to adjust the shoe鈥檚 fit and advise the wearer on how to improve the way their foot hits the ground.

This personalization trend has plenty of听extra听room in the听seams.听In the future, we听may听be able to听alter our clothing with听鈥渋n-app purchases鈥澨齛nd听鈥渦pgrades鈥澨齮hat keep an item fresh, interesting, and useful for longer while still generating revenue for the maker.

The concept of clothing听itself听will also听stretch.听Instead of selling clothes and accessories, a manufacturer might sell designs and materials for customers to create and personalize with 3D printers in the store or at home.

Meanwhile, fabrics will adapt to meet new听technology-powered听demands.听We鈥檒l see more materials developed to last longer,听, recycle more easily, and/or听听Researchers are developing听smart fabric听that听actually has听soft, flexible circuits embedded in the fibers. Smart fabric听might literally let us update our clothing digitally, with manufacturers听pushing听out听听or the ability to听听in real time.

Or imagine being the first fashion retailer to offer clothing made of fabric that can fend off bacteria, foil surveillance, track data about the wearer鈥檚 actions, and generate energy from the wearer鈥檚 motions. How is that anything other than a superhero suit?

If the fashion industry wants to听thrive听and grow, it听must听shift听from continuous consumption to responsible consumerism听while听continuing听to satisfy the unquenchable human desire for something new. It听might be the industry鈥檚 most epic challenge. But听by听using听technology,听fashion听can听transform听itself听鈥� and maybe听even听help听save the world.

Download the executive brief: .

Dan Wellers is the Digital Futures global lead and a senior analyst at 51风流Insights research center.
Fawn Fitter is a freelance writer specializing in business and technology.

Top image via Getty Images. Photographer kobrin_photo (image #1004052580).

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The rapid growth of wellness听is听being听fueled by health and environmental concerns,听innovative ideas听about healthy aging, and better scientific understanding听of听the connection between body and mind.听Growth has also been driven by听the ability of听consumers to self-educate about health concerns听and access wellness products听online, and听by听the influence of social media. In the United States听especially, it also stems from听weaknesses听in conventional medical care听that听include听rising costs听and lack of focus on preventive care.

But when consumers听look for answers about wellness products and services, they see a market that is deeply听fraught.听Wellness is听highly听fragmented听and听it鈥檚 hard听for consumers to verify the听credibility and viability of听the things they鈥檙e being urged to buy.听Consumers are听seeking听reliable sources of information and products that are trustworthy, verified,听and safe and听that听work.

Retailers听have the essential听expertise听to become听trusted听advisors听in wellness.听No other industry听better understands听consumer听needs听or听has retail鈥檚听expertise in marketing, personalization,听and consumer technology,听including early uses of听artificial intelligence (AI).听Meanwhile, retailers have听a history of combining seemingly dissimilar or unrelated experiences and听brands 鈥� think听fancy restaurants within听department stores听or听cafe-bars听in laundromats.

Retailers: Your Wellness Advisors

The retailers that will lead in the new wellness economy will use these skills to听gain market share, loyalty, and听growth by听combining听what are currently highly听fragmented, episodic activities,听such as shopping for food, seeking medical advice, socializing,听and听being听physically听active. They will听craft听holistic wellness experiences听that combine convenience and emotional satisfaction.

Technology will be the catalyst and enabler in this scenario.听Emerging technologies,听such as听virtual reality,听augmented reality (AR),听sensors,听and听AI,听are听enabling听the development of听new wellness products and experiences.听Switch on听听for example,听and听suddenly it鈥檚 an听interactive workout assistant synced to personal biometrics, with听live, expert听virtual听instruction;听curated听surround-sound听audio;听and听real-time encouragement from an online community.

Meanwhile, advances in听infrastructure,听such as 5G networks,听and connective technologies,听such as听the听Internet of Things,听will create opportunities to link听what are听now听highly segmented wellness categories听together.听Current efforts听only hint at the possibilities.

Retailers Connect Across Segments and Industries

For example, as electric cars听begin to听render traditional gas stations irrelevant, retail brands are looking to convert them into integrated wellness听facilities听powered by new technology.听听have听created听a concept for听repurposing gas stations听as听combined听wellness, fitness, and community centers that also generate power听for electric vehicles.听They envision three types of wellness stops: on interstate highways, on smaller commuter roads, and within communities, all accessible and designed to meet the needs of those three different environments.

Rather than picking up junk food, soda, or tobacco when they stop to fill up, consumers who stop to charge their electric vehicles could sneak in a workout, get a massage, and buy some running shorts.

To go with those shorts, consumers may consider connected running shoes, which they can get from fitness gear retailer Under听Armour.听听with the nutrition app MyFitnessPal and digital health tracker听MapMyFitness. What鈥檚 more, consumers who听have听a Samsung smartwatch and wireless JBL headphones can connect to Under听Armour鈥檚听听The goal is to help customers use their biometric measurements to improve their overall performance and health.

For听consumers听who need medical services, a retailer might provide just the right treatment.听U.S. retail chain听CVS听Health听has a听head start in becoming a trusted听medical听advisor听because its customers regularly interact with its pharmacists.听CVS鈥檚听new听in-store听听take medical advice further by听helping听people with chronic conditions,听such as听diabetes, obesity, and high blood听pressure,听stay听healthy.听The hubs provide access to health and wellness apps, connected monitors and other smart devices, and听technology-enhanced听weight听management programs,听while a human Care Concierge听educates customers and听assists in听navigating听in-store services听and products.听The first few听HealthHUBs听were so successful that CVS is now rolling out听.听CVS鈥檚听ultimate goal听may be to guide the 22 million members of听insurer听Aetna 鈥� now a CVS听Health听subsidiary 鈥� to the听hubs where听the听insurance giant鈥檚听massive amounts of听health and wellness听data can be put to use.

Tech Supplies Exponential Speed

搁别迟补颈濒鈥檚 talent for connecting diverse segments and industries will get a turbo-boost from听new听digital capabilities听that听continually听appear听and听advance听at exponential speed.

As connectors in the wellness economy, retailers could capitalize on听ideas like听the following:

• Sweat supervisor: A health professional might use听telemedicine听to听write a prescription for AR personal training sessions that听use sensor-integrated听athletic wear and workout听equipment听to track progress, offering opportunities for听currently independent segments like fitness gyms and active wear retailers to converge.
• Kitchen consultant: Today鈥檚 appliance retailers, perhaps in conjunction with manufacturers,听could听offer wellness听services through听smart kitchens听that help track and听facilitate recommendations听of听food, supplements,听health education,听and wellness听expertise听supplied听on听demand.
• Mellow maker: Furniture retailers could offer products听that monitor sleep, exercise, stress, and diet and听that听offer听AI-enhanced听recommendations to improve overall health, such as a class at a branded meditation center.

Retail’s Adaptability Will Redefine Wellness

Due to its many opportunities for technology-driven combinations, the wellness economy will push retailers to think on their feet and be constantly on the lookout for new angles from which they and their customers can benefit. This may sound like a heavy lift, but retailers are already grappling with a deep need to adapt to new technology-driven realities. While many have lost their footing, many more are thriving because of their ability to adapt to what consumers want. That characteristic will be the key to maximizing growth and opening up possibilities for integrated leadership in wellness.

Finally, as technology enables听consumers to tune their fitness, nutrition, and healthcare more precisely,听retailers will be able to deliver customized products at听scale and at听a more听granular听level than demographic segments听have historically allowed.听By taking advantage of the opportunities enabled by technology and approaching them听in the right way, retailers can听become true partners in consumers鈥櫶齱ellness journeys听and become听a powerful presence in the wellness industry.

Download the executive brief .

Dan Wellers is the Digital Futures global lead and a senior analyst at 51风流Insights research center.
Danielle Beurteaux is a New York鈥揵ased writer.听

Top image via Getty Images. Photographer Henrik Sorensen (image #527920805).