Why Organized, Digitized Sustainability Data is the Real Unlock to Business Value

A preview of our Conversations with Friends webinar on making sustainability data decision-ready.

Setting sustainability goals is no longer the hardest part.

Across the built environment, sustainability ambition is high. But ambition doesn’t automatically translate into action.

What still breaks down—on real projects, under real deadlines—is follow-through. Sustainability data is meant to inform product selection, shape design decisions, and influence budget conversations. Too often, it gets sidelined as “too complex,” “too fragmented,” or “not usable yet.”

That gap between intent and implementation is exactly what today’s decision-making environment demands we close.

From Intent to Implementation: Where the Disconnect Shows Up

“Too much data, not enough clarity” has become a familiar refrain. But the issue isn’t just whether sustainability data is digitized—it’s whether it’s designed for implementation.

Teams collect sustainability information with good intentions, often without a clear plan for how it will be used, shared, or trusted when real project decisions are being made. The result is a growing disconnect between sustainability goals and the day-to-day choices meant to support them.

A Conversation About Making Data Actually Useful

That’s the focus of our upcoming Conversations with Friends webinar, “The Future of Sustainability Is Connected,” on Tuesday, January 27, 2026, at 2 p.m. ET.

We’ll tackle one of the biggest challenges facing manufacturers, architects, designers, and owners today: how to make sustainability data decision-ready. Not just to reduce impact, but to support better decisions that drive real business value.

We’ll explore how connected, digitized data across the value chain helps teams move past information overload—and into workflows where sustainability insights actually shape outcomes.

Panelists:

• Jack Dinning, Technical Lead, Brightworks Sustainability

• Brent Trenga, Director of Sustainability, North America, Kingspan

• Nadav Malin, President, Green Commons

Moderator:

• Annie Bevan, CEO, Parallel Sustainability

Save Your Seat

Aligning the Value Chain: Manufacturers, Designers, Owners

Sustainability decisions don’t happen in isolation. They move across a value chain that includes manufacturers, designers, consultants, and owners—each with different priorities, tools, and timelines.

Breakdowns often occur at the handoffs. Data changes format, loses context, or no longer aligns with the decisions the next team is responsible for making. Shared frameworks and aligned standards help reduce this friction by giving teams a common structure for evaluating information, even when they rely on different tools.

Making Sustainability Data Usable (Not Just Available)

Availability isn’t the same as usability.

Usable sustainability data is credible, comparable, and timely. It connects directly to the decisions teams make every day—helping them understand tradeoffs, focus on what matters, and move forward with confidence.

Frameworks like the Common Materials Framework (CMF), paired with manufacturer-focused digitization approaches, are helping translate ecolabel and standards investments into structured data that can move through real workflows and support real decisions.

The Reality of Workflows: What Still Breaks

Technology gaps, staffing constraints, unclear ownership, and misaligned incentives all contribute to sustainability data missing the moments when decisions are made.

Fixing this isn’t just about adding new tools. It requires designing workflows where sustainability information travels with a project, rather than lagging behind it—showing up when decisions matter most.

When Connected Data Delivers Business Value

As sustainability data becomes cleaner, more credible, and more connected, the business case shifts.

What was once viewed primarily as a cost or compliance exercise increasingly supports faster decision-making, clearer risk management, and stronger market positioning. Connected data doesn’t just reduce impact—it enables smarter choices that save time, money, and resources.

These are conversations sustainability leaders are now having with CFOs, COOs, and executive teams. They’re reshaping how sustainability investments are evaluated and valued.

Looking Ahead: What Comes After Alignment

If we get this right, sustainability data becomes an invisible but essential part of materials decisions—embedded in tools, trusted across teams, and aligned with the environments where impact and performance are determined.

This webinar is a chance to step back, reflect on what’s working, and explore what comes next—together.

If you’re grappling with how to move from sustainability goals to daily decisions, this conversation is for you.