From Paris to profit: sustainability evolves into an economic strategy

How should investors think about sustainability in 2026?

LOIM’s sixth-annual Transition Investment Summit (TIS) in London focused on the economic engines reshaping global energy, materials and social systems. These bring both challenges and tangible opportunities for returns. 

This year’s varied speakers included former US Secretary of State John Kerry, now the Co-Executive Chair of the global asset manager Galvanize; and Mathieu Flamini, Co-founder and CEO of GFBiochemicals¹ and a former Arsenal football player. 

Across the discussions, a palpable shift in perspective emerged: a decade on from the Paris Agreement, sustainability is no longer being framed as something driven by policy or values. Rather, it is a structural transformation powered by cost-competitiveness, technological innovation and capital allocation.

Spurred by economics, not sentiment

The pace of change has become impossible to ignore, LOIM Co-Head Bettina Ducat said in her opening remarks. Energy inflation, supply chain disruption and shifting geopolitical dynamics have exposed deep structural fragilities in the global economy.

“This is not just an energy crisis. It is a stress test for an entire system – a call for a transition not in the future, but starting right now,” she said.

Sustainable investing provides a framework for navigating systemic disruption. That is why it remains a core conviction at LOIM, and why the firm’s sustainability strategies have continued to evolve in response to change, Ducat said. 

Read also: Why the sustainable economy keeps advancing: our 2026 outlook

The market proves its power

Across the sessions, speakers returned to the theme of systemic stress and adaptation. Energy security emerged as a central issue, with the Iran conflict reinforcing the economic rationale for the sustainability transition. The narrative has shifted from away from purely environmental concerns to cost, efficiency and energy independence.

The market is proving its power. This transition is not driven by politics. It is driven by economic competition

John Kerry
Co-Executive Chair, Galvanize, and 68th US Secretary of State
 

Kerry highlighted how the dramatic decline in the cost of renewables, and clean energy investment now exceeding fossil fuels, reflects how investors are responding to economic signals. Capital is flowing to solutions that are cheaper, more efficient and more scalable.

“The market is proving its power,” Kerry said. “This transition is not driven by politics. It is driven by economic competition.”

Kerry highlighted small modular nuclear reactors and other examples of emerging technologies positioned to close the gap between accelerating energy demand and constrained supply.

Affordability concerns, policy gaps and the need for reliable supply mean that traditional energy investment will continue alongside transition solutions, said Alex Grant, Senior Vice President, UK Country Manager at Equinor², another TIS speaker.

“The goal is not simply to reduce energy use at any cost, but to provide the energy society needs in increasingly decarbonised ways,” Grant said.

A system-wide transformation

Sustainability is fundamentally about economic outperformance, where more efficient, productive and scalable solutions displace legacy systems, according to Dr Thomas Hohne-Sparborth, Head of Sustainable Investing at LOIM. For portfolios, this calls for a cross-sector approach to the transition, rather than siloed thematic allocations. 

“We go into every portion of the market and we ask ourselves, where do the pain points sit?” Hohne-Sparborth said. “We look for growing challenges that are solvable because they create an opportunity and a demand for disruption in addressable markets”.

He stressed the need to capture opportunities that align with better outcomes across the wider economy, at superior cost and efficiency. The sustainability agenda narrowed in recent years, neglecting the broader social dimensions originally embedded in frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), he said. This calls for a renewed appreciation of critical areas such as healthcare and financial inclusion.  

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Proving the business case

Jennifer Devine, Head of Wiltshire Pension Fund, spoke of how sustainability-related investing needs to be treated like any other investment – justified by clear financial returns and risk analysis.  A successful transition creates better long-term financial outcomes, she said. 

“We’re not here as philanthropists – we are here to make sure we’ve got the money to pay pensions in the future,” she said.

Greg Jackson, founder and CEO of Octopus Energy³, noted how the transition faces a critical inflection point. The challenge now is to deliver tangible economic benefits quickly enough to sustain public and political support. 

Jackson pointed to Jeff Bezos’s philosophy at Amazon⁴ to underscore how the transition will ultimately succeed by lowering costs and improving outcomes for consumers, with the most successful business models focused on affordability and efficiency.

Read also: A petroleum alternative: investing in Bloom Biorenewables

Making the transition relatable 

Flamini also emphasised how accelerating the transition requires making it relevant to consumers on a personal level. He highlighted how fossil-based chemicals remain deeply embedded across daily life – from personal care to food production – often with harmful effects. GFBiochemicals has developed technologies to convert agricultural waste into bio-based ingredients, enabling companies to shift away from fossil-based formulations, while reducing toxicity and improving sustainability. 
 
Mathieu Flamini, Co-founder and CEO of GFBiochemicals and former Premier League football player, speaking at TIS 2026

Flamini framed this shift as part of a broader industrial evolution, drawing parallels with solar energy and electric vehicles, where cost and performance improvements have driven widespread adoption. 

Ultimately, raising awareness is key: by making the transition personal and demonstrating its benefits for health and quality of life, consumer behaviour can shift, helping to accelerate adoption across industries.

“People may not care about sustainability – but everyone cares about their health”, Flamini said.

An economic and industrial phenomenon

TIS 2026 underscored how this transition is complex, system-wide, and shaped by market forces, technological innovation and geopolitical realities. Emerging demand drivers show how it is being propelled not only by decarbonisation goals, but by the infrastructure requirements of the digital economy itself.

For investors, the message is clear: sustainability is no longer a niche allocation or a values-based choice. It is a core lens for understanding how returns will be created in the decades ahead. 

A decade after the Paris Agreement, the sustainability transition has matured into a fundamentally economic and industrial phenomenon. 

“Reality is not disproving the transition – it is confirming it”, Ducat said.