Are companies competing their way out of a climate crisis they cannot solve alone?

Co-opetition on shared environmental objectives can deliver both socio-environmental value and firm-level economic gains. Unlike traditional sustainability approaches, co-opetition changes the scale and structure of what is possible

Prof Jako Volschenk

Traditional sustainability strategies such as green differentiation, eco-efficiency, cost savings, often deliver incremental progress. Many of the environmental challenges businesses now face cannot be solved at scale by any single firm. Climate change, waste and biodiversity loss are collective problems embedded in the structure of entire industries. Solving them requires competitors to act together.

In 2023, Unilever handed its competitors the formula for its ice cream. The patents it released allowed freezer temperatures to be raised from −18°C to −12°C, cutting cold-chain energy use by up to 30%. On the surface it looked like corporate generosity. In reality, Unilever had no choice: unless rivals adopted the same standard, retailers could not raise their freezer temperatures — and Unilever’s own emissions and cost savings would never materialise. What looked like altruism was actually competitive logic. It is called co-opetition.

Co-opetition on shared environmental objectives can deliver both socio-environmental value and firm-level economic gains. Unlike traditional sustainability approaches, co-opetition changes the scale and structure of what is possible. It allows firms to pool resources, share risk and coordinate action in ways that individual companies cannot achieve alone, while still retaining competitive advantage.