The case is developed primarily through a series of in-depth interviews and primary data collection with Mr. Swapnil Madhukar, representing the Sustainability and Design leadership at Infosys. These first-hand insights were supplemented by internal documents provided exclusively by the company to the authors, ensuring a detailed understanding of Infosys’s internal operational shifts and its Smart Spaces strategic roadmap.The authors also extensively used publicly available secondary sources, including Infosys’s annual environmental, social and governance (ESG) reports, carbon neutrality declarations and corporate vision statements.
In April 2025, the senior leadership team of Sustainability and Design at Infosys, Pune, stood at a strategic inflection point. Having achieved carbon neutrality in 2020, three decades ahead of the Paris Agreement timeline, the organization had established a formidable internal track record through its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Platinum-certified campuses and innovative technologies, such as artificial intelligence-powered energy optimization and patented radiant cooling systems. With the Pune campus serving as a global benchmark for sustainable infrastructure and net-zero operations, the firm had successfully monetized internal efficiencies to secure top-management commitment for a broader ESG vision reaching toward 2040.However, translating these internal operational successes into a credible external service offering presented a complex strategic challenge. As global demand for ESG services surged, the leadership faced a critical dilemma: whether to deepen its sustainability impact by embedding these capabilities within its core IT and digital transformation engagements or to aggressively expand into the competitive ESG consulting arena currently dominated by the Big Four. Navigating this transition required the team to weigh the operational hurdles of building a dedicated consulting unit and the difficulty of aligning client value systems against the opportunity to redefine the sustainability landscape.
This case is well-suited for undergraduate, graduate and executive education courses, especially those addressing ESG, strategy, innovation and organizational transformation. It offers students a practical lens into how a large, technology-driven company navigates the shift from operational sustainability to external consulting services.The case is designed to facilitate engaging discussion in a class of 20 to 50 students. The instructor may choose to adopt interactive online tools to administer the case via an online mode of delivery. For better discussions, during online class discussions, the instructor may use the breakout sessions functionality of the online meeting platforms.
