Editor’s note: This sponsored article is published on behalf of Georgia State University’s Robinson College of Business and Institute of International Business, which created the annual GROW Symposium with GSU-CIBER, a Global Atlanta partner, in 2022 to foster cutting-edge conversations among academics and industry leaders on responsible global business.
For years, sustainability has been relegated to the periphery of corporate strategy, treated as a compliance function or a vehicle for goodwill.
But at a recent panel discussion hosted in Atlanta, experts urged global companies to rethink this view and instead treat sustainability as a long-term value driver that can be woven into the core fabric of the business.
“We do it because it supports the health of our business,” said Anu Piduru, senior director of sustainability at Carter’s, Inc., the Atlanta-based children’s apparel giant, during Georgia State University’s annual Globally Responsible Organization and Work (GROW) Symposium panel discussion in March 2025.
“We have to comply with regulation … but we also do it because it’s important to our stakeholders—our customers, our investors and others. There are a lot of eyes on this work,” she said.
Ms. Piduru, who previously worked at Delta Air Lines in sustainability and environmental compliance before joining Carter’s, shared the stage with Professor Jordan Siegel of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, an expert in how global companies create sustainable competitive advantage.
Together, they made the case that environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations are not tangential—they are strategic.
From Compliance to Competitive Advantage
Ms. Piduru described how Carter’s integrates sustainability across departments as a business imperative.
“Day to day, it means collaborating with my peers in different divisions within the company so we are not siloed,” she said.
Her sustainability role sits within the company’s legal department, reporting directly to the General Counsel. “It’s actually a great fit,” she noted, “because of all the rising legislation that we’re seeing in this space.”
That legislation, she warned, is coming quickly—especially at the state level, as federal rollbacks give way to more localized regulation.
“If you ask me what keeps me up at night, it is the speed at which regulation is coming,” she said. “You’re seeing each state create and adopt regulations in their own way, which can be a challenge for companies like us that operate across the U.S. and globally.”
But for Carter’s, compliance is only part of the equation. As Piduru explained, ESG also presents opportunity—particularly when it comes to meeting the expectations of modern consumers and investors.
“Some risk can turn into opportunities and vice versa,” she said. “It’s absolutely both.”
Governance and Global Standards
Dr. Siegel, whose research spans corporate governance, international labor markets and cross-border strategy, underscored the importance of viewing sustainability through a global lens.
“It turns out, [companies] can immediately be global by tapping into institutions from other countries,” he said, noting how companies adopt or adapt governance practices, social norms or environmental frameworks from more advanced regulatory environments to gain legitimacy and strategic advantage.
He pointed to the electric vehicle industry as a cautionary example. While praised for innovation on the environmental (“E”) dimension of ESG, many EV companies still rely on cobalt sourced from the Democratic Republic of Congo—a country associated with serious human rights violations.
“We need to think about how to make progress concurrently on all dimensions, rather than saying it’s okay to focus on just one at a time,” Dr. Siegel said.
His takeaway was that companies must avoid treating ESG as a checklist. Real strategic leadership, he said, means navigating contradictions and aligning all three ESG pillars in a coherent, credible way.
Sustaining long-term sustainability, however, is a challenge. Dr. Spiegel pointed out that there are many effective short-term environmental initiatives companies can undertake that “don’t cost very much.”
But he said there is also a need for long-term R&D to look at “really difficult solutions to problems.” And those difficult solutions require long-term commitment and large investments up front.
“Part of the issue is we have to convince companies to not fall to the temptation of only doing short-term NPV [net present value]-positive activities, but also thinking about investing in long-term NPV-positive activities because they’re the source of truly sustainable competitive advantage,” Dr. Spiegel noted.
He added that companies should embrace sustainability as part of their business strategy.
“If you want to be smart as a company and think about long-term competitive advantage, you have to … create value,” he said. “We know a lot of these environmental initiatives are the source of long-term value creation.”
The Language May Change, but the Stakes Don’t
The panel also addressed the politicization of ESG in the United States, which has led some companies to rebrand their efforts under terms like “impact” or “responsibility.” But the work continues regardless of what it’s called.
“There’s an adoption and that kind of flexibility that you have to have in this field,” Ms. Piduru said. “So we’re calling it responsibility, or we’re calling it impact—whatever it is, it remains the same under all of that.”
Both panelists agreed that the sustainability conversation is evolving—but it isn’t going away.
For companies that want to build long-term resilience and global relevance, now is the time to move ESG from the margins to the center of corporate strategy.
“Governance,” Dr. Siegel reminded the audience, “will always be important to how companies build value and make value-creative decisions.”
In other words, sustainability isn’t just about doing the right thing. Increasingly, it’s about doing the smart thing—and doing it now.
Suggest topics and apply to participate or be a speaker for the next GROW Symposium by contacting Cuneyt Evirgen, faculty director of GSU Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), at tevirgen@gsu.edu.
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