The Five Stacks isn't a one-time assessment. It's an operating system — a way of seeing your business and making decisions that compounds over time.
This guide explains how it works.
Start with Fundamentals
Before you optimize anything, you need to know what's true.
Stack 0: Fundamentals establishes your context:
What business are you in? Not the industry — the actual game you're playing. Growth? Stability? Exit? Legacy?
What environment are you operating in? Market conditions, competitive landscape, regulatory pressure, customer expectations.
What are your constraints? Budget, team capacity, time horizon, risk tolerance.
What does winning look like? Not vague success — specific outcomes you'd recognize if you achieved them.
This isn't a one-time exercise. You'll revisit Fundamentals during planning cycles, after major changes, or when something feels off and you can't articulate why.
Don't skip this. Everything else builds on it.
The three lenses
Every stack examines your operation through three lenses:
Lens
Question
Why it matters
Your operation
What's happening inside?
Your processes, costs, capabilities, gaps — the things you control
Your environment
What's happening outside?
Market shifts, competitors, regulations, expectations — the things you respond to
Your budget
What can you afford? What's the return?
Because sustainability that doesn't pay for itself doesn't survive the next budget cycle
These aren't separate analyses. They're perspectives on the same reality. A complete picture requires all three.
The stacks
You can't improve what you can't see. Stack 1 builds visibility — what you're doing, what's happening around you, what resources you have to work with.
The three lenses
Your operationWhat are we actually doing? Inputs, outputs, costs, flows.
Your environmentWhat game are we playing? Market position, competitive dynamics, regulatory landscape.
Your budgetWhat's our financial reality? Cash position, investment capacity, constraints.
The milestone
You've completed Stack 1 when you have a baseline. You know your numbers. You can answer basic questions about your operation without guessing.
What this unlocks
Respond to buyer sustainability questionnaires with confidence
Answer Scope 3 data requests from customers
Complete the data foundation for VSME or CSRD reporting
Know where your money actually goes before making investment decisions
The systemic impact: The data you build here is the same data you need for emissions tracking, resource reporting, and regulatory disclosure. One effort, two outcomes.
With visibility established, Stack 2 finds the leaks. Where are you spending more than you need to? Where is effort producing less than it could?
The three lenses
Your operationWhere are we bleeding margin? Waste, overuse, redundancy, friction.
Your environmentWhere is the market leaking? Opportunities others are missing.
Your budgetWhat's the ROI on fixing each leak? Where do we start?
The milestone
You've completed Stack 2 when you've identified your major leaks, prioritized them, and closed the high-impact ones.
What this unlocks
Margin improvement you can show investors or lenders
Cost reduction that funds further sustainability investment
Operational improvements that satisfy bank due diligence
Evidence for grant applications requiring demonstrated efficiency gains
The systemic impact: Every efficiency gain is also a resource reduction — less energy, less waste, fewer inputs. The cost savings and the emissions reductions are the same action.
Every output can be an input. Stack 3 identifies what's leaving your system without being monetized — physical waste, idle assets, data you're not using. The shift is from disposal to deployment.
The three lenses
Your operationWhat's leaving the system uncaptured? Waste streams, by-products, underused assets.
Your environmentWho needs what you're throwing away? Where are the symbiosis opportunities?
Your budgetWhat's the dollar value of the leakage — revenue potential vs. cost avoidance?
The milestone
You've completed Stack 3 when you've mapped your value leakage and have active initiatives reclaiming that margin.
What this unlocks
New revenue from former waste streams
Reduced disposal costs
Closed-loop credentials for tenders and partnerships
Verified data for sustainability-linked loans and green financing
The systemic impact: Circularity is the engine of environmental sustainability — closing loops, reducing extraction, keeping materials in use. Your margin improvement is the environmental metric.
Efficiency without resilience is fragile. Stack 4 builds the capacity to flex — not just survive disruptions, but adapt to shifts before they become crises.
The three lenses
Your operationWhat could break us? Single points of failure, concentration risk, brittle systems.
Your environmentWhat's shifting around us? Trends, disruptions, emerging risks.
Your budgetWhat's the cost of fragility vs. the cost of redundancy?
This is where prediction becomes possible.
With your baseline from Stacks 1-3, you can model scenarios:
Plan A: Business as usual — current trajectory
Plan B: Moderate disruption — supply chain shock, price spike, key customer loss
Plan C: Major shift — regulatory change, market transformation, climate event
Plan D: Opportunity scenario — what if that emerging trend accelerates in your favor?
You're not guessing anymore. You're running scenarios against real data.
The milestone
You've completed Stack 4 when you've mapped vulnerabilities, built appropriate redundancy, have sensing mechanisms for external shifts, and can run scenarios with confidence.
What this unlocks
Risk assessment that satisfies investor due diligence
Supply chain resilience documentation for enterprise customers
Scenario planning that informs capital allocation
Insurance and lending applications with demonstrated risk management
Board-ready contingency plans
The systemic impact: Climate adaptation is resilience. Supply chain robustness is resilience. The same capabilities that protect your business also prepare you for climate-related disclosure requirements.
With operational capability built, Stack 5 turns it into market position. Premium pricing, preferred partnerships, competitive differentiation — based on proof, not claims.
The three lenses
Your operationHow do we position? Story, proof points, differentiation.
Your environmentWhere is the landscape going? Future premium opportunities.
Your budgetWhat premium can we capture? What's the payback on positioning investment?
The milestone
You've completed Stack 5 when your operational capabilities translate into market advantage — premium pricing, certifications, or preferred partnerships you couldn't access before.
What this unlocks
Premium pricing backed by documented practices
Certification readiness (B Corp, industry ecolabels, regenerative standards)
Preferred supplier status with sustainability-conscious buyers
Talent attraction — people want to work for companies that mean it
Brand differentiation that competitors can't fake
The systemic impact: This is where environmental sustainability becomes visible and verifiable. Ecolabels, certifications, verified claims — all built on the operational proof from Stacks 1-4.
The sequence matters. Each stack creates conditions that make the next one possible:
1
Metrics
→Without visibility, you can't find leaks you can't see
2
Efficiency
→Circular systems on a leaky operation just leak faster
3
Circularity
→Resilience without value capture is just cost
4
Resilience
→Positioning claims without operational proof is greenwashing
5
Regeneration
→Compounding advantage — proof becomes premium, premium funds further improvement
You can work on adjacent stacks simultaneously. You might implement efficiency improvements while still building metrics. But you can't skip ahead. Stack 5 without Stacks 1-4 is just narrative without substance.
The rhythm
The Five Stacks isn't a project with an end date. It's an operating rhythm.
Assess current state across all 5 stacks (surface level)
Identify starting point — which stack needs most attention?
Deep dive on priority stack
Establish baseline metrics
Ongoing operation
Continuous: System tracks metrics, surfaces drift
Weekly/Monthly: Check dashboard, note changes, minor adjustments
Quarterly: Review progress, update priorities, deep dive one stack
Annually: Full Fundamentals review, landscape update, strategy alignment
Triggered: Major change? Relevant stack review.
The system complements your existing tools. OKRs tell you what you're trying to achieve. EOS gives you meeting rhythms. Annual planning sets direction. The Five Stacks provides the operational visibility that those systems assume you already have.
What winning looks like
For the 15-person manufacturer
You started because a major customer asked for Scope 3 data. Six months in, you've got the data foundation (Stack 1), identified €47K in energy waste (Stack 2), and discovered a by-product stream you're now selling instead of paying to dispose of (Stack 3). The Scope 3 request? Answered in two days. The customer relationship? Stronger than ever.
For the family-owned food business
You needed financing for expansion. Banks wanted to see sustainability credentials. Twelve months of Five Stacks work gave you: documented operational improvements, clear risk management, and a resilience plan with three scenarios modeled. Loan approved. Interest rate better than expected because you demonstrated lower risk.
For the ag operation preparing for succession
You're planning to hand over in five years. The Five Stacks baseline gave you — and your successor — clear visibility into what's working, what's fragile, and what the operation actually looks like beyond "how we've always done it." The farm is now documentable, transferable, and positioned for premium markets the next generation can build on.
For the retail brand tired of competitors' empty claims
Your competitors make claims they can't back up. You spent 18 months building operational proof — from metrics through resilience. Now you have certifications they can't get, supplier relationships they can't match, and a story that's actually true. Premium pricing follows.
Success by timeframe
3-6 months
Foundation
Clear baseline metrics established
Major leaks identified and prioritized
First efficiency improvements showing ROI
External landscape mapped
Ready to answer basic sustainability questionnaires
6-18 months
Momentum
Efficiency gains funding further investment
Circular value capture initiatives active
Resilience gaps identified and addressed
VSME or CSRD data requirements achievable
Scenario planning operational
Financing and insurance conversations easier
18+ months
Compounding
Compounding advantage visible in margins and positioning
Environmental sustainability provable, not just claimed
System running as ongoing operating rhythm
Adaptive capacity built — ready for whatever shifts come
Certifications and premium positioning earned
The win state isn't "finished." It's operational capability that compounds — and proof that sustainability is, in fact, good business.
What the system does
Function
Example
Illuminates
"Your energy costs are 40% above industry benchmark"
Reflects
"You set margin improvement as a goal. Stack 2 hasn't moved in 6 months."
Surfaces gaps
"Strong internal metrics, but external landscape not updated since Q1"
Provides context
"Companies in your vertical are facing X regulatory shift"
Shares patterns
"Organizations with similar profiles often prioritize Y"
Prompts questions
"Have you considered...?" / "What would happen if...?"
What the system does not do
Function
Why not
Prescribe actions
"You should do X" — You decide, not us
Promise outcomes
"This will increase profit by Y%" — We don't control your execution
Replace judgment
The system informs. You lead.
Take responsibility
Your business, your outcomes
The system is a mirror, not a consultant. A navigator, not a driver.
We illuminate. You decide.
Common mistakes
Starting with Stack 5
The most common mistake. You want premium positioning, certifications, market differentiation — so you start there. But without Stacks 1-4, there's nothing to position. Claims without proof is greenwashing.
Fix: Build the foundation first. Stack 5 is where you end up, not where you start.
Skipping Fundamentals
Jumping straight into metrics and efficiency without establishing context. You end up optimizing for the wrong goals or missing constraints that matter.
Fix: Take the time upfront. Revisit when things feel off.
Treating it as a one-time assessment
Running through the stacks once, producing a report, filing it away. The value comes from the ongoing rhythm, not the initial snapshot.
Fix: Build it into your operating cadence. Quarterly reviews minimum.
Ignoring the external dimension
Focusing only on internal operations without tracking what's changing around you. You optimize for a world that no longer exists.
Fix: External landscape review is not optional. Build it in.
Perfectionism in early stacks
Waiting until Stack 1 metrics are perfect before moving to Stack 2. You don't need perfect data to start finding leaks.