How a CMO-CSO Alliance Can be Marketing's Next Growth Engine

A new playbook from the Institute for Real Growth reframes sustainability as a core growth driver and positions the CMO-CSO partnership as the catalyst.

Developed with Ipsos, Ad Net Zero and Google, the guidance is grounded in how overperforming companies operate: they build strategic, ongoing collaboration between marketing and sustainability to deliver both near-term results and long-term value for customers, employees and investors.

Marketing at the forefront of the sustainability narrative

Marketing’s role is becoming increasingly pivotal. Leaders in overperforming organisations tend to view sustainability as a growth opportunity rather than a cost, and the reputational and talent implications are clear.

KPMG’s 2023 findings that one third of Gen Z candidates have declined offers from companies with weak ESG credentials underlines the stakes for employer brand and corporate trust.

CMOs bring the capability to translate complex operational progress into relevance without exaggeration, while CSOs provide the rigor to anchor claims in materiality.

Together, they can move beyond token gestures – like spotlighting reusable cutlery – to focus on the issues that matter to customers, regulators and capital markets, mitigating greenwashing risk and strengthening long-term trust.

Collaboration within the C-suite

Patterns are emerging among higher-growth companies. The IRG reports that CMOs in these organizations are more likely to work effectively with their CSOs, with one in four describing strong collaboration.

They also display superior stakeholder fluency, with 76% saying they understand stakeholder needs compared with 17% in underperforming firms.

Their planning horizons are longer as well, with investment in foresight running at roughly twice the level of short-term insight. This combination aligns brand strategy with where regulation, consumer expectations and category dynamics are heading, not just where they stand today.

In many leadership teams, marketing and sustainability are moving from parallel tracks to a genuine co-pilot model.

Shared objectives that bridge commercial and sustainability outcomes are becoming more common, often supported by quarterly reviews that bring Finance, Product, Legal and Investor Relations into the conversation.

To safeguard credibility, many organisations are introducing green-claims review processes and building substantiated narrative systems with third-party verification.

Innovation portfolios are being co-evaluated to prioritise concepts where sustainability enables new consumer benefits and pricing power.

Go-to-market activity increasingly integrates material sustainability attributes across packaging, retail, CRM and performance creative, while measurement links these attributes to brand equity, trust, conversion and lifetime value.

Organisations report recurring pitfalls: overclaiming or promoting ahead of delivery, fragmented pilots without a plan to scale and treating sustainability as a compliance exercise rather than a value-creation strategy. Each erodes credibility and leaves growth on the table.

Hanne Sondergaard, CSO of Arla, says in the IRG report: "At Arla, we always seek to drive new consumer benefits and more sustainable growth. 

“Having worked on both sides of the CMO-CSO fence, I work closely with our CMO to review the innovation portfolio for opportunities to partner and achieve both benefits.”

For CMOs, the direction of travel is clear. As sustainability shifts from add-on to business imperative, marketing’s ability to connect operational substance with customer value, talent appeal and investor confidence becomes a defining advantage. Where CMOs and CSOs act as true co-pilots, companies are finding that credibility and growth can compound together.