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Case Study

Sustainability transformation at SITA

By Salvatore Cantale and Martin Králik

13 pages

December 2023

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Reference: IMD-7-2452

Aiming to blaze the trail that would lead the air travel industry out of the pandemic, SITA decided to reshuffle and renew its credit facilities. In the process, it established that sustainability – particularly ESG factors – would play an increasingly critical role in the financing of the struggling aviation sector. Negotiating a sustainability-linked revolving credit facility (RCF) that connected specific ESG targets to potential pricing benefits proved to be an opportunity for SITA’s executives to (1) draw on and gauge the impact of SITA’s established credentials and experience in areas that included carbon-neutral certification and accessing alternative sources of funding such as Schuldschein; (2) alleviate financial risk for airlines (as SITA members); and (3) kickstart a broader, organization-wide change process led by Finance and Treasury, of ESG learning, data collection (encompassing scope 2 and 3) and building a culture of sustainability. Although the purely economic gains of ESG compliance for SITA might be modest overall, several positive links emerged. They include those between meeting ESG targets and obtaining priority access to funding, better compliance with regulatory requirements, increased customer loyalty and employee productivity, and improved firm value and financial performance.

Learning Objective

Examine the relationship between an organization’s financial strategy and sustainability strategy.
Discuss the role of the Finance function in leading the sustainability agenda in a company and fostering the adoption of the necessary metrics, knowledge-sharing mechanisms and KPIs.
Explore, in the context of finance, avenues to making an organization’s ESG targets sufficiently ambitious and transformative.

Keywords

Finance, Sustainability, Environmental Social and Governance, Learning, Climate Action, Goal Partnerships

Settings

World/global, Switzerland
SITA, Information Technology, Services, Telecommunications, Travel and Leisure, Airlines and Aviation
2020-2023

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

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Case reference: IMD-2661 ©2025

Summary

Shenzhen Power-Solution (SPS), founded in 2009 in China as an entrepreneurial venture, disrupted traditional lighting markets in African villages with its flagship product, Candles Killer. This solar lamp, priced under $5, replaces hazardous kerosene lamps and has an optimized design (9 components, water-bottle stands). The candles killer solar lamp addresses the critical need for affordable, safe and sustainable lighting for people at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP), a huge market that multinationals struggle to reach. By achieving both low cost and differentiation, SPS created a blue ocean market. The company has made remarkable progress in its mission to provide solar lighting to underserved communities: by 2023, it illuminated over 55 million people across 7.8 million households in 66 countries. Beyond social impact, SPS achieved environmental sustainability at scale, reducing cumulative carbon emissions by 6.7 million tons, the equivalent of planting 368 million evergreen trees. Candles Killer's success led SPS to expand its product line into a solar home system for phone charging and multi-bulb lighting. SPS also introduced Solar Media, a platform with pre-loaded content (medical tips, farming methods, education) to share vital knowledge in remote regions.

Reference IMD-2661

Organization Shenzhen Power-Solution

Industry Energy;Utilities, Electricity Supply;Consumer Goods, Consumer Electronics

Available Languages English

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