Brands must deliver sustainability through actions, not words

Like a coin, the word ‘sustainability’ has two sides. The well-known face considers the ecological impact of our day-to-day lives and the products and services we consume. It’s about finding ways to live sensitively within our planet’s boundaries. The second meaning links to longevity. Not just for individuals, but communities and businesses as well.  

In Africa, sustainability is deeply intertwined with both social and environmental challenges. Not only that, says Ndeye Diagne, Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer: Middle East, Africa & Türkiye at market intelligence firm Kantar, the impact of climate change on jobs, food security and daily life adds further depth which influences how the concept is interpreted across the continent.  

For many businesses, it’s easier to focus on the ecological side and the potential costs associated with net-zero and resource management, rather than all the messy, interconnected issues. In doing so, these organisations forget that their growth and success in Africa is intrinsically linked to enabling the people who use their products and services to progress through life.  

It is for this reason that Kantar decided to ‘retire’ the word sustainability. A least as the headline act of the firm’s recent whitepaper, ‘Progress – The new rules of growth in Africa’. 

For Diagne and co-author Astrid Ricketts, Kantar’s Sustainable Transformation Practice Lead, the word sustainability has “stopped moving decisions”.  

Instead, they chose to focus on the chasm that exists between how people want to live their lives and the choices they can reasonably access to help them do so. It’s within in this ‘gap’, they explain, that brand possibility exists in Africa.  

A space of growth and of possibility 

By embracing what they call “the progress principles for brand growth”, the Kantar team believes this value-action gap can be closed by brands that adopt a progress outlook as part of their growth strategy.  

In practice this means developing a willingness to transform existing categories, design products and services with affordability in mind, and actively removing the friction that gets in the way of people living according to their values.  

This shift, it seems, may help unlock access to bigger markets, while also generating greater brand affinity.   

The numbers bear this out. At a headline level, Diagne explains, “African consumers still care deeply about sustainability. Across Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa, around 86-87% say people like them need to act on climate change and social inequality.  

But at the same time, there’s a significant gap between intention and action: 93% say they want to live sustainably, yet only 37% are actively changing their behaviour.” 

Find out more about how brands can best deliver sustainability to African audiences in Issue 2 2026 of Strategic Marketing for Africa, the thought-leadership magazine of the African Marketing Confederation.  

Read the Digital Edition online or download it here. The Print Edition will be available shortly.