We Don’t Need New Goals, We Need New Leaders
- Jan 2
- 4 min read
Written by Jagroop Sahi, Founder & CEO
Founder of KIDDYKIND, a curated marketplace for sustainable baby and kids brands, Jagroop Sahi writes on sustainability, conscious capitalism, and why supporting small businesses is essential to building ethical, future-ready economies.
Sustainability doesn’t have a problem with ideas. It has a leadership crisis. Everywhere you look, conferences, reports, taskforces, and “thought leadership” panels, the organisations setting the sustainability agenda are often the same ones driving the crisis. Companies built on overproduction, waste, and extractive supply chains are still defining what “responsible” looks like. And until we change who leads the conversation, real progress will remain out of reach.
The wrong voices are dominating
It isn’t that sustainability lacks innovation or commitment. The issue is structural. Many of the companies shaping today’s sustainability narrative have everything to gain from keeping its definition shallow. For them, sustainability is a compliance exercise or a marketing strategy, not a transformation of business. They promote circularity while increasing production, publish glossy ESG reports while hiding critical data, and redefine “responsible growth” in ways that never threaten their bottom line. Follow the incentives, and a pattern emerges. The loudest voices in sustainability are often the least qualified to define it.
Circularity isn’t enough
Circularity has become the industry’s favourite word, yet for many companies it is little more than a checkbox. Recycling, resale, and repair programs are celebrated as transformation, while overproduction, the real problem, continues unabated. In some cases, the implicit message seems to be, “Why should independent businesses benefit from circularity when we can control it ourselves?” It is smart business, but it calls into question who really has moral authority to lead the “responsible” conversation.
Overproduction, the elephant in the room
The numbers are staggering. The global fashion industry produces between 80 and 150 billion garments every year, and up to 40 percent remain unsold, often heading straight to landfill or incineration. Only a tiny fraction of brands actively work to reduce production, yet overproduction costs retailers more than US$64 billion in wasted inventory annually. Even more alarming, just over 10 percent of major brands disclose their production volumes publicly.
So why is the conversation dominated by circularity, resale, and recycling? Because these solutions don’t challenge the foundation of overproduction. They allow big companies to appear responsible while keeping business as usual intact.
Seeing it firsthand
I experienced this at a recent retail sustainability event. I expected radical thinking, conversations about production caps, regenerative materials, and supply chain ethics. Instead, I heard the familiar chorus, large corporations dominating the stage, repeating circular slogans as if they were substitutes for real responsibility. Circularity was presented not as a system redesign but as a revenue stream and branding exercise.
One of the loudest voices was a company with a long history of supply chain controversies. Another was celebrated for circular initiatives that, in reality, accounted for just a tiny fraction of their sales. The message was clear. The least credible organisations are still defining sustainability.
Why leadership matters
When the wrong companies dominate, sustainability becomes weaker, transparency evaporates, and real innovation gets sidelined. Greenwashing thrives. Smaller responsible brands struggle to be heard. Incrementalism becomes the default, and the industry’s most pressing challenges are ignored. Circular revenue is prioritised over systemic change.
The future of sustainability will be determined by who is leading. Not the companies with the biggest marketing budgets or the most sales, but the ones whose entire business is built on responsibility, where ethics guide every decision and sustainability is embedded in the DNA.
Building responsibility from the ground up
The organisations that should lead are those that make material responsibility fundamental, designing products to last and to be repaired before circularity even enters the conversation. They challenge overproduction, choosing “less, better” rather than “more, faster.” Transparency is not optional. They know every step of their supply chain, and ethical practices guide every partnership. Waste reduction is designed in from the start, and the communities and ecosystems they depend on are actively supported and reinvested in. Their measure of success is not applause or awards, it is tangible impact.
A call for change
To shift the trajectory of sustainability, we must elevate these authentic leaders. Industry platforms need to prioritise credibility over scale. Transparency around production must be non-negotiable. And most importantly, the conversation must start with production, not circularity.
Until we change who is leading, the industry will continue celebrating the wrong wins, proposing the wrong solutions, and having the wrong conversations. Sustainability is not failing because the problems are too big. It is failing because the wrong people are in charge. If we want different outcomes, we need different leaders.
Read more from Jagroop Sahi
Jagroop Sahi, Founder & CEO
Jagroop Sahi is the founder of KIDDYKIND, a curated marketplace championing sustainable and ethical baby and kids brands. She is a sustainability entrepreneur and contributing journalist writing on conscious capitalism, corporate responsibility, and the role of small business in building future-ready economies. Known for bridging values-driven purpose with commercial reality, she offers practical insights for leaders navigating impact, scale, and consumer trust. Through her work, she challenges businesses to move beyond performative sustainability toward meaningful, measurable change.
