Integration Unpacked:
Talk the talk

The more companies claim integration, the better investors are getting at checking the math. One question they’re asking: Does the story hold up or ring hollow when looking beyond the first pages of a report?

This maps to our own research on integrated business and sustainability strategies, in which we’ve identified three hallmarks of highly integrated companies. Let’s dive into hallmark #1: the ability to talk the talk. In other words, an effective communications strategy.

To assess this, we reviewed how companies described the relationship between sustainability and business strategy across their full disclosure footprint: sustainability reports, annual reports, 10-K filings and other earnings materials. While doing so, we asked two questions:

• Does the language the company uses actually reflect integration?
• Is sustainability treated as a genuine element of business strategy, appearing in the same discussions and with the same specificity as other strategic priorities, or does it read as a siloed topic?

Across the 122 companies in our highly integrated cohort, three distinct patterns emerged.

Key communications trends:

1. Sustainability is framed as offense, not defense.

   Over three-quarters of the cohort (76%) communicate through framing that is centered on revenue, customer value and capital allocation. This enables them to demonstrate sustainability as a competitive advantage or growth driver, rather than simply an exercise in risk mitigation and compliance.

   PepsiCo offers one version of this method, positioning its sustainability framework as the operating philosophy that shapes its approach across business areas from agriculture to packaging to product portfolios. Philip Morris tells a more dramatic — and boldly transparent — version of the same story: The company’s core sustainability challenge is the harm its own products have posed to consumer health; therefore, transitioning customers to smoke-free alternatives is both its sustainability mission and growth strategy.

   The numbers back up Philip Morris’ argument: Smoke-free products now generate over 40% of the company's net revenue, and parts of its financing are tied directly to progress on that transformation. In both cases, these companies aren’t asking stakeholders to value sustainability for its own sake; they’re explaining how sustainability is driving growth.

2. The language is specific, rather than aspirational.

   Highly integrated companies don’t talk about sustainability in the abstract. Instead, they tie it to business elements such as products, business units, programs or financing mechanisms.

   Take Walmart. Rather than just aspiring to reduce supply chain emissions, the company gets specific by outlining Project Gigaton. Walmart has enrolled nearly 6,000 suppliers in the program, with targets across six emissions categories: energy, waste, packaging, transportation, nature and product design. It’s a clear story with a strong payoff: The company hit its one-gigaton reduction goal six years ahead of schedule.

   Similarly, rather than issuing green bonds with broad environmental commitments, Apple makes the strategy concrete. It maps its $4.7 billion in issuances to named project categories, such as utility-scale renewable energy for facilities and suppliers, recycled materials R&D, supplier energy-efficiency programs and more. It also annually reports projected lifetime emissions impacts against each category.

3. The sustainability story shows up where the financial story does.

   Here’s where the bar gets even higher. Even among highly integrated companies, only 24% embedded sustainability across both 10-K risk factors and proxy statements. By carrying the story beyond standalone disclosures into earnings calls, annual reports and financial filings, companies can truly differentiate their strategies. When the same audiences hear the same story across financial and sustainability channels, sustainability reads as part of the business strategy, rather than an adjacent set of commitments.

   Here, we can look to Intel, which embeds its strategic corporate responsibility framework — along with ESG metrics and TCFD-aligned climate disclosures — directly into its Form 10-K and Proxy filings. Another example is Johnson & Johnson, which anchors sustainability management in its proxy statement under “Our Credo,” where long-term business growth and employee management practices are linked as a core social sustainability commitment.

Together, these tactics speak to credibility.

Those with a background in communications know the power of “claiming the narrative.” How integration works within your company is one thing, but how others perceive it may be another. The power of the communications strategies we’ve outlined is that they help close the gap.

That matters because when investors cross-reference disclosures against financial statements and earnings materials, they are looking for a coherent story that demonstrates whether sustainability is embedded in business practices. A quantified disclosure that connects sustainability to financial outcomes signals to investors that leadership has genuinely worked through the risks, not just described them. Research supports what companies in our cohort demonstrate: linking sustainability to financial reporting tightens the quality of both, producing more precise claims and less “cheap talk.”

Communicating integration well is one thing, but it’s only as credible as the work under the hood. In our analysis:

• Strong communications never appeared without underlying proof points of integration.
• 36% of the cohort are doing the structural and data gathering work, but their communications are still catching up. Coherent external disclosure is downstream of mature internal processes, so this gap suggests that these firms are still developing integrated practices.
• Only 21% performed strongly across all three hallmarks of integration: communications, governance and data maturity.

In the next post, we’ll look at the practices and programs that do a good job of “walking the walk” through strong governance structures, strategic planning and capital allocation that make integration credible.