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Sense and Cents: How Sustainability Drives Consumer Choice and Revenue
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Consumers aren’t just talking about sustainability — they’re using their purchasing power to reflect their values. That shift is showing up in revenue, growth, and competitive advantage. Companies that get it right are not just doing good; they’re doing well, turning purpose into profit.
This evening conversation looks at how changing consumer behavior is making sustainable business a smart commercial strategy. Across the U.S. and Germany, brands that align sustainability with what consumers actually care about — whether health, quality, transparency, or ethics — are growing faster, building stronger loyalty, and outperforming competitors who treat it as a side project. The discussion cuts through the noise to focus on what pays: how sustainability influences purchasing decisions, where credibility and storytelling drive real results, and why authenticity matters more than ever.
With a trans-Atlantic lens, we'll examine how different market dynamics — stricter EU regulations versus U.S. consumer-driven innovation, for instance — lead to the same conclusion: sustainability and profitability are no longer opposites.
Join us to explore what's working, what's hype, and where the real opportunities lie for businesses willing to meet consumers where they are.
Biographies
Tensie Whelan (NYU ‘80), Distinguished Professor of Practice Emerita, was the Founding Director of the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business. She now serves as Senior Advisor to CSB, where she is bringing her 35 years of experience working on local, national and international sustainability issues to engage businesses and investors in proactive and innovative mainstreaming of sustainability.
As President of the Rainforest Alliance, she built the organization from a $4.5 million to $50 million budget, transforming the engagement of business with sustainability, recruiting 5,000 companies in more than 60 countries to work with Rainforest Alliance. Her previous work included serving as Executive Director of the New York League of Conservation Voters, Vice President of the National Audubon Society, Managing Editor of Ambio, a journal of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, and a journalist in Latin America.
Tensie has served on numerous nonprofit boards and currently serves on the advisory boards of Domtar, Edelman, Giant Ventures, and Nespresso and is an Advisor to MIT Sloan Management Review. Tensie holds a B.A. from New York University, an M.A. from American University, and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Owner President Management (OPM) Program. She was awarded the Stern Faculty Excellence Award in 2020 and made Distinguished Professor of Practice in 2023 in recognition of her contributions to Stern.
Professor Jannine Lasaleta’s research investigates how nostalgia shapes consumer attitudes, behaviors, and decision-making across diverse domains, including politics, health, and marketplace choices. Her work also explores the psychology of money, product preference formation, and patterns of hedonic consumption.
Her empirical findings have been published in top peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Nature, and Appetite. Her research has received widespread media attention in outlets including BBC, CNN, Fortune, Huffington Post, NBC’s Today Show, Harper’s Bazaar, Fast Company, Los Angeles Times, and Forbes.
Before entering academia, Professor Lasaleta was a hip-hop music director at a radio station, where she developed, DJed, and co-hosted an underground hip-hop show. She also was a music journalist and competitive powerlifter. These varied experiences inform her interdisciplinary approach to understanding consumer behavior and human motivation.
Consumers aren’t just talking about sustainability — they’re using their purchasing power to reflect their values. That shift is showing up in revenue, growth, and competitive advantage. Companies that get it right are not just doing good; they’re doing well, turning purpose into profit.
This evening conversation looks at how changing consumer behavior is making sustainable business a smart commercial strategy. Across the U.S. and Germany, brands that align sustainability with what consumers actually care about — whether health, quality, transparency, or ethics — are growing faster, building stronger loyalty, and outperforming competitors who treat it as a side project. The discussion cuts through the noise to focus on what pays: how sustainability influences purchasing decisions, where credibility and storytelling drive real results, and why authenticity matters more than ever.
With a trans-Atlantic lens, we'll examine how different market dynamics — stricter EU regulations versus U.S. consumer-driven innovation, for instance — lead to the same conclusion: sustainability and profitability are no longer opposites.
Join us to explore what's working, what's hype, and where the real opportunities lie for businesses willing to meet consumers where they are.
Biographies
Tensie Whelan (NYU ‘80), Distinguished Professor of Practice Emerita, was the Founding Director of the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business. She now serves as Senior Advisor to CSB, where she is bringing her 35 years of experience working on local, national and international sustainability issues to engage businesses and investors in proactive and innovative mainstreaming of sustainability.
As President of the Rainforest Alliance, she built the organization from a $4.5 million to $50 million budget, transforming the engagement of business with sustainability, recruiting 5,000 companies in more than 60 countries to work with Rainforest Alliance. Her previous work included serving as Executive Director of the New York League of Conservation Voters, Vice President of the National Audubon Society, Managing Editor of Ambio, a journal of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, and a journalist in Latin America.
Tensie has served on numerous nonprofit boards and currently serves on the advisory boards of Domtar, Edelman, Giant Ventures, and Nespresso and is an Advisor to MIT Sloan Management Review. Tensie holds a B.A. from New York University, an M.A. from American University, and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Owner President Management (OPM) Program. She was awarded the Stern Faculty Excellence Award in 2020 and made Distinguished Professor of Practice in 2023 in recognition of her contributions to Stern.
Professor Jannine Lasaleta’s research investigates how nostalgia shapes consumer attitudes, behaviors, and decision-making across diverse domains, including politics, health, and marketplace choices. Her work also explores the psychology of money, product preference formation, and patterns of hedonic consumption.
Her empirical findings have been published in top peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Nature, and Appetite. Her research has received widespread media attention in outlets including BBC, CNN, Fortune, Huffington Post, NBC’s Today Show, Harper’s Bazaar, Fast Company, Los Angeles Times, and Forbes.
Before entering academia, Professor Lasaleta was a hip-hop music director at a radio station, where she developed, DJed, and co-hosted an underground hip-hop show. She also was a music journalist and competitive powerlifter. These varied experiences inform her interdisciplinary approach to understanding consumer behavior and human motivation.
Consumers aren’t just talking about sustainability — they’re using their purchasing power to reflect their values. That shift is showing up in revenue, growth, and competitive advantage. Companies that get it right are not just doing good; they’re doing well, turning purpose into profit.
This evening conversation looks at how changing consumer behavior is making sustainable business a smart commercial strategy. Across the U.S. and Germany, brands that align sustainability with what consumers actually care about — whether health, quality, transparency, or ethics — are growing faster, building stronger loyalty, and outperforming competitors who treat it as a side project. The discussion cuts through the noise to focus on what pays: how sustainability influences purchasing decisions, where credibility and storytelling drive real results, and why authenticity matters more than ever.
With a trans-Atlantic lens, we'll examine how different market dynamics — stricter EU regulations versus U.S. consumer-driven innovation, for instance — lead to the same conclusion: sustainability and profitability are no longer opposites.
Join us to explore what's working, what's hype, and where the real opportunities lie for businesses willing to meet consumers where they are.
Biographies
Tensie Whelan (NYU ‘80), Distinguished Professor of Practice Emerita, was the Founding Director of the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business. She now serves as Senior Advisor to CSB, where she is bringing her 35 years of experience working on local, national and international sustainability issues to engage businesses and investors in proactive and innovative mainstreaming of sustainability.
As President of the Rainforest Alliance, she built the organization from a $4.5 million to $50 million budget, transforming the engagement of business with sustainability, recruiting 5,000 companies in more than 60 countries to work with Rainforest Alliance. Her previous work included serving as Executive Director of the New York League of Conservation Voters, Vice President of the National Audubon Society, Managing Editor of Ambio, a journal of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, and a journalist in Latin America.
Tensie has served on numerous nonprofit boards and currently serves on the advisory boards of Domtar, Edelman, Giant Ventures, and Nespresso and is an Advisor to MIT Sloan Management Review. Tensie holds a B.A. from New York University, an M.A. from American University, and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Owner President Management (OPM) Program. She was awarded the Stern Faculty Excellence Award in 2020 and made Distinguished Professor of Practice in 2023 in recognition of her contributions to Stern.
Professor Jannine Lasaleta’s research investigates how nostalgia shapes consumer attitudes, behaviors, and decision-making across diverse domains, including politics, health, and marketplace choices. Her work also explores the psychology of money, product preference formation, and patterns of hedonic consumption.
Her empirical findings have been published in top peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Nature, and Appetite. Her research has received widespread media attention in outlets including BBC, CNN, Fortune, Huffington Post, NBC’s Today Show, Harper’s Bazaar, Fast Company, Los Angeles Times, and Forbes.
Before entering academia, Professor Lasaleta was a hip-hop music director at a radio station, where she developed, DJed, and co-hosted an underground hip-hop show. She also was a music journalist and competitive powerlifter. These varied experiences inform her interdisciplinary approach to understanding consumer behavior and human motivation.