In the beverage industry, sustainability is often treated as a reporting requirement – managed, mitigated, and audited rather than embraced as a powerful lever for innovation and growth.
Despite headline-grabbing climate pledges, the prevailing approach remains overly cautious: incremental changes to packaging; minor recipe tweaks; and a dependence on supply chains or startups to deliver results.
But if that’s your mindset as a business leader, you’re missing the main chance. As regulatory pressures mount – particularly around removing harmful chemicals – and consumers grow more discerning, ambitious players must move beyond marginal gains. Seeing these trends as an opportunity for creating business value, rather than making efficiency savings, will help brands not just stay relevant, but thrive.
There are four strategic sustainability accelerators to consider: the benefit of bold innovation; the repurposing of sustainability teams; the smart way to consumers’ hearts and minds; and the importance of being a leader not a lagger. All are key components for positive change if you want to use sustainability to drive business value in a changing world.
Why innovation is non-negotiable
Sustainability innovation in the drinks sector is still too often reduced to superficial fixes: lighter bottles; biodegradable straws; or ‘natural’ flavourings. But these changes won’t deliver the systemic shift demanded by both regulators and consumers.
Product tweaks to meet one of many regulatory hurdles could have unintended consequences somewhere else – instead of playing whack-a-mole and compromising product quality, what’s needed is a bold reimagining at a system level including product, delivery and disposal, with sustainability at the core.
At Cambridge Consultants, the ethos is to be transformative – to apply a bold, deep tech mindset that harnesses radical science and engineering to help clients achieve things no-one else can.
The real opportunity in the beverage industry is in radically rethinking the whole consumer proposition. This includes what the product is, how it’s made, how it’s delivered, and how it fits into people’s lives.
Emerging deep tech approaches and techniques – from synthetic biology and molecular flavor engineering to smart dispensing systems and zero-packaging solutions – offer the chance to reinvent the beverage experience. These aren’t gimmicks, they’re tools to cut environmental impact and unlock new business value.
Reinventing the role of sustainability teams
Sustainability teams within beverage companies are often tasked with compliance – carbon accounting, disclosures, and risk management. While these are vital, they should be the beginning, not the end, of their remit. Such professionals, equipped with insights into science, policy, and global trends, are ideally positioned to drive cross-functional innovation.
Working alongside R&D, marketing, and operations, and backed by partnerships with external innovation experts delivering fresh ideas, sustainability teams can help shape truly novel product formats and systems – ones that pre-empt regulation, deliver consumer value, and strengthen commercial resilience.
The key to consumer value
There’s a persistent belief that sustainability is a cost centre – that consumers expect it but won’t pay for it. But when sustainability leads to better health outcomes, greater convenience, or enhanced user experience, consumer hearts and minds follow, and uptake improves.
The key is not just swapping ingredients, it’s reimagining the proposition entirely. Advances could involve nutritional beverages customized through an AI-enabled dispenser, or zero-waste subscription models using reusable containers that are tracked, cleaned, and refilled. These innovations don’t just meet climate goals, they create richer brand experiences and new revenue streams.
It’s time to lead, not lag
The tendency among established brands is to view sustainability innovation as the domain of startups – to be observed, perhaps acquired, but rarely emulated. This must change. While collaboration with emerging players is crucial, established beverage companies have the understanding, scale, and infrastructure to lead. Innovation should be a strategic priority centred on value creation, not a peripheral experiment.
That means building in-house capability, co-developing new solutions, and actively shaping the innovation landscape rather than waiting for others to do it first. Taking the lead on innovation can ensure brands that are loved today remain relevant and loved in the future.
The beverage industry is at a crossroads. Minimal compliance and surface-level tweaks won’t even ensure long-term survival, let alone growth. The future belongs to you when you see sustainability not just as risk management, but as a route to reinvention.
By embracing technology and repositioning sustainability as a driver of product and service innovation, brands can do more than comply – brands can compete, lead, and thrive. Those who act now won’t just stay ahead of regulation, they’ll earn consumer trust, enter new markets, and build resilience in a changing world.
Find out how radical science and engineering can solve your toughest challenges. And learn how Cambridge Consultants can help turn sustainability pressure points into commercial advantage.
Author: Isobel Ashbey, Sustainable Technologies Consultant at Cambridge Consultants