New York University
IN-27: Innovation D

The NYU Leonard N. Stern School of Business's Center for Sustainable Business in 2019 established two innovations in the areas of sustainable business and corporate social responsibility: the Sustainable Market Share Index™ and Return on Sustainable Investment (ROSI™) Methodology.

The Sustainable Market Share Index, is an analysis of the consumer purchases of products that are marketed for their sustainable attributes. This type of analysis is critical in understanding the growth and demand for sustainable products and consumer purchasing patterns. With the Sustainable Market Share Index, the Center for Sustainable Business has been able to understand how sustainable product growth has fueled overall market growth and found that sustainable product purchasing are a critical driver in total market growth. Some of the key takeaways of the study are:

Sustainability-marketed products delivered 50.1% of market growth from 2013-2018 while representing 16.6% of the CPG market in dollar sales in 2018.
Across all categories, sustainability-marketed products delivered $113.9B in sales in 2018; +29% vs. 2013 and are expected to grow to $140.5B by 2023, based on an extrapolation of the analysis.
Products marketed as sustainable grew 5.6x faster than conventionally-marketed products, and 3.3x faster than the CPG market.
In over 90% of individual product categories examined, the growth of sustainability-marketed products outpaced total category growth.
Sustainability-marketed products account for 16.6% share of market ($) in 2018, up from 14.3% in 2013.
Sustainable products have more than 20% category share in many food categories, including natural cheese, salty snacks, and coffee.

The Center for Sustainable Business’s ROSI Methodology provides a way for companies to monetize the costs and benefits of sustainable practices. The methodology involves identifying material sustainability benefits to business practices and quantifying their benefit monetarily. This approach to ROI will aid the growth of ESG by accelerating its incorporation into regular decisionmaking and enables CFOs and investors to better integrate, measure, and report on corporate financial performance resulting from embedded ESG.

Both of these initiatives have been highlighted as innovative advancements in the realms of sustainable business and corporate social responsibility. In October 2019, a panel of expert judges organized by the Financial Times selected these initiatives as best practices that may inspire students, academics, schools, and employers. The Center for Sustainable Business was selected out of many global business school submissions.