Explore this subject further: Suppliers need a practical path from expectations to delivery.
Customers influence enterprise value through the products and services they buy, the prices they accept and the relationships they maintain. Climate-related expectations can affect these decisions in different ways. Individual consumers may want reliable information about product life, running costs and environmental performance. Business and government customers may translate their expectations into supplier qualifications, tender criteria and contractual obligations. Your brand and customer promise communicate what customers can expect from your business. Where environmental responsibility forms part of that promise, customers need to see it reflected in the products, services and performance you deliver. For business leaders, the challenge is to distinguish expressed preferences from purchasing requirements, and understand which changes could affect revenue, margins, customer retention and competitive advantage.
The question for leaders is which customer expectations will influence the commercial value of their business, and what responses are worth pursuing.
Consumers
Research by the Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC) and Energy Consumers Australia provides an Australian perspective on the information consumers seek when purchasing large appliances. The 2025 Misused and Confused research examined information about product lifespan, repairability and environmental claims. Its findings point to opportunities to improve the quality and usefulness of information available at the point of purchase.
Consumers want more useful information at the point of purchase
“[Customers need] clear details on how long a product will last and whether it can be easily repaired”
These findings describe reported consumer information needs, not demonstrated purchasing behaviour across all product categories.
For businesses, they suggest an opportunity to make product value more tangible through information about expected life, operating costs, maintenance, repairability and substantiated environmental attributes.
Whether this information changes sales, pricing or customer retention needs to be tested through the business's own customer feedback and transaction records.
Your environmental promise must be supported by evidence
Environmental claims can strengthen customer trust and differentiate a business when they are specific, meaningful and supported by evidence. They can also create legal and reputational risks when the impression given to customers is misleading.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) warns against greenwashing, including broad or unqualified environmental claims, omissions of important information and claims about future performance without reasonable grounds. Businesses should ensure that their environmental promises are consistent with what they can demonstrate and deliver.
The ACCC provides practical guidance in its Guide to making environmental claims for business and its guidance on emissions claims and consumer impression.
Business and government customers
Business and government customers can translate environmental expectations into commercial requirements. These may appear in supplier qualification processes, tender specifications, performance assessments, contract clauses and renewal negotiations.
Telstra reported that 168 supplier contracts included climate clauses at the end of FY2025, associated with more than A$3.4 billion in annual spend. These clauses require suppliers to disclose and reduce absolute emissions.
This illustrates one major Australian company's procurement practice. It does not establish how many suppliers have won or lost contracts because of climate performance, or whether the requirements have improved Telstra's commercial outcomes.
For suppliers, however, such requirements can influence the cost of qualifying for work, the capabilities needed to deliver, and the conditions under which existing customer relationships can be maintained.
The commercial significance depends on the customer relationship. A requirement affecting a small prospective contract may warrant a different response from one affecting a major customer whose renewal underpins future revenue and asset utilisation.
Leaders need to investigate the actual requirements of their customers, their likely timing and the value of the business potentially affected.
The value of responding to customer expectations becomes clearer when a business considers how those requirements could affect an important contract renewal.
Junction Freight Services
This fictional Australian transport, warehousing and distribution business depends on reliable service, profitable customer contracts and efficient use of its depots and vehicles. One of its major customers is preparing to renew a three-year distribution agreement. Alongside price, delivery performance and service coverage, the customer has introduced new requirements for emissions information and a credible plan to reduce transport emissions.
Priya Bennett — Managing Director
Priya wants to retain the contract and remain competitive in future tenders. The customer has indicated that emissions performance will form part of its supplier assessment, but has not specified how much weight it will carry in the final purchasing decision.
Leadership question: What do customer discussions, tender requirements and contract records tell us about whether improving our emissions performance will strengthen our position in this contract renewal and future tenders?
Daniel Tran — Chief Financial Officer
Daniel wants to understand the cost of emissions measurement, changes to fleet and subcontractor arrangements, and whether these investments will improve margins, protect existing revenue or enable profitable growth.
Leadership question: Which investments are justified by the value of the contracts we could retain or win, and what other commercial benefits might they deliver?
Priya and Daniel are assessing the same customer requirement from different perspectives. One is considering competitive position and customer retention; the other is examining the costs, returns and financial flexibility needed to respond. Together, their questions help establish whether the proposed response is commercially justified. The business's promise of reliable, efficient delivery must now be supported by evidence of its environmental performance as well as its established service standards.
Which customer expectations are worth investing in?
Customer expectations become strategically important when they could change commercial outcomes. Five questions help leaders establish which requirements warrant a response.
- Customer behaviour: What have customers actually specified in tenders, contracts, purchasing decisions and renewal discussions?
- Commercial exposure: How much existing or prospective revenue could be affected, and over what period?
- Competitive advantage: Could responding improve customer retention, pricing, differentiation or access to new markets?
- Delivery requirements: What investment, operating changes, supplier capabilities and performance information will be needed?
- Enterprise value: Will the expected benefits justify the costs, risks and timing of the response?
The aim is to understand which behaviours and requirements could materially influence enterprise performance and identify the responses most likely to create and protect value.
At Sightlines Advisory, we use the Climate Value Framework to investigate how changing customer expectations affect enterprise value. Beginning with the business's customer relationships, revenue drivers and competitive position, the approach connects customer and commercial information with climate-related risks and opportunities, potential financial consequences and possible responses. This helps leaders distinguish customer requirements that warrant investment from those that require monitoring, further engagement or better customer intelligence.
For your next commercial leadership discussion, identify one significant customer contract approaching renewal, or an important market you want to enter.
Examine the environmental requirements that could influence the customer's decision, the records and information available to support your response, and the commercial consequences of meeting or not meeting those requirements.
Leaders create value by understanding which customer expectations matter to commercial performance and making informed decisions about where to invest.
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