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Fuelling impactful growth
Strategic role of the commercial teams in scaling sustainable fuels across Energy and Transport sectors
Summary
In the complex world of decarbonization of the Energy and Transport sectors, sustainable fuels are emerging as a cornerstone of the future-oriented growth strategies. Companies that play a strategic role in scaling sustainable fuels are however navigating multiple challenges to unlock market leadership. Their commercial and sales teams play a pivotal role in unlocking and capturing such growth by commercializing these fuels, aligning their revenue generation with net-zero goals.
Strategic mandate of the commercial leadership
Future-oriented organizations in the Energy and Transport sectors are tasking their commercial leadership teams both to drive top sales performance and to be the chief sustainability growth strategists, from forming partnerships to positioning their company ahead of the competition. To do so, these teams need to identify and activate new revenue opportunities, lead cross-functional commercial execution, and develop ecosystems that support long-term market leadership.
In the energy sector, this means that in order to build new sustainable fuel infrastructure, the commercial teams need to tap into the growing customer demand for clean, distributed, or decarbonised energy.
On the other side of the table, in the transportation sector, commercial teams face regulatory and market pressure to decarbonise hard-to-abate sectors such as aviation, shipping, public and heavy-duty transport.
In multiple markets for energy and transportation services, sustainable fuels offer both short-term compliance-related revenue and long-term strategic positioning in a carbon-constrained world. Well enabled and incentivised commercial teams are uniquely positioned to implement their businesses’ transitions around these fuels and showing the lead to their peers in the global industry.
The Green-Strategy-to-Sell™ framework
Based on the combined two decades of diverse recent commercial leadership experience in decarbonisation, at Theia Hub we have developed a Green Strategy-to-Sell™ framework that helps organisations translate climate-aligned strategies into frontline commercial execution. Both for the frontline sales and business development but also marketing and product teams, it provides a structured path to:
- Identifying revenue opportunities in the green transition.
Packaging value propositions around decarbonisation outcomes.
- Building markets and scale customer demand.
- Closing execution gaps between strategy and frontline sales.
Sustainable fuels landscape: options, maturity and growth challenges
Sustainable fuel
Maturity (2025)
Key challenges
Growth opportunities
Electric (battery)
Scaling
High production cost, limited fast charging infrastructure supply for heavy-duty roll-outs.
Light and heavy-duty transport, short-distance maritime sector, public transport.
Green hydrogen
Emerging
High production cost, lack of infrastructure.
Feedstock for Sustainable Aviation Fuels, maritime sector.
Blue hydrogen
Pilot to early commercial
Carbon capture reliability, public perception
Bridge solution for green transportation clusters
Advanced biofuels (2nd/3rd gen)
Scaling
Limited feedstock availability, processing complexity
Sustainable Aviation Fuels, marine fuels, heavy-duty transport
eFuels (synthetic fuels)
Pilot to early-commercial
Cost, energy intensity, scalability
Shipping and other ammonia or methanol-capable combustion engine use
Renewable Natural Gas / Compressed Biogas
Scaling
Feedstock limits, grid integration
Heavy-duty transport, public transport
Key commercialisation challenges and the role of leadership in overcoming them
Most of the sustainable fuel types are gaining momentum within their target markets and segments. There are however a number of barriers to growth that can be overcome through the commercialisation strategies and leadership action. Some of the key ones are as follows.
- Cost competitiveness: the likely solutions to this challenge entail premium low-carbon value propositions and offtake agreements to guarantee volume.
- Lack of demand signals: most effective strategies in the market include shaping demand through customer education and partnerships.
- Infrastructure lag: engaging with the ecosystem plays (e.g. fueling infrastructure, joint ventures with OEMs and/or developers) are among the likely winners as the new value chains are not built in isolation.
- Customer hesitation: there are many ways to convince customers in the attractiveness of the sustainable fuels, among them are performance guarantees, long-term contracts and data-driven decision support.
Strategic growth levers for commercial teams
Energy sector:
- Consider monetising fuel switching: e.g. by combining sustainable fuels with advisory and carbon tracking tools.
- Expand customer segments e.g. serve logistics firms, municipalities and off-grid industrial operators.
- Cross-sector partnerships to co-develop with utilities, tech firms, OEMs and infrasructure operators.
- Build offerings aligned with clean fuel standards e.g. renewable transport fuel obligation and other market-specific instruments available in a given market.
Transportation sector:
Differentiate offerings: e.g., carbon-negative logistics or SAF-powered flights.
- Secure offtake contracts: whether for aviation, shipping or heavy-duty road transport.
- Certify impact: use digital tools and platforms for emissions tracking.
- Use clever financial incentives: offer fuel-as-a-service or bundled green deals.
Commercial leadership playbook: implementing the Green Strategy-to-Sell™ for sustainable fuels
Step
Action
1. Opportunity mapping
Align fuel options with customer net-zero targets and sector pathways.
2. Market creation
Launch demand-building campaigns and early adopter programs.
3. Ecosystem development
Partner across supply chains to co-develop sustainable fuels infrastructure and access.
4. Sales enablement
Train teams on sustainable fuels storytelling, ROI, and regulatory drivers.
5. Metrics and feedback
Measure revenue alongside avoided emissions and broader ESG impact.
Conclusion
Sustainable fuels are evolving to be the commercial growth lever to enable both compliance, differentiation and future-proof position in the market. The Green Strategy-to-Sell™ enables commercial leadership to integrate sustainability and revenue, transforming compliance into competitive advantage. Businesses and their commercial teams who lead in this space will build both market and climate stewardship for their businesses and their own future careers.
Get in touch with us if your commercial organisation needs support in successfully transforming sustainable fuels from a strategy to a sales performance.
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