We are proud to share that our founder, Nathalie Agosti, has been named a Sustainable Shaper 2025 by NZZ Sustainable Switzerland.

This recognition is significant for us because it highlights a dimension of sustainability that is often underestimated: the social. In many ESG conversations, the focus tends to gravitate toward environmental or governance metrics. Yet it is the social aspect of organizations, the way they support mental health, foster inclusion, uphold fair working conditions, and respect human rights across value chains that determines whether sustainability commitments take root in practice.

The winers: Walter Stahel, Nicolas Rochat, Aurélien Demaurex, Albin Kälin, Christian Zeyer, Hans-Dietrich Reckhaus, Julia Carpenter, Mathis Wackernagel, Oliver Brunschwiler, Philipp Furler, Pirmin Jung, Simone Nägeli, Ursula Biemann and Vincent Vida.

Why Social Sustainability Matters

From our work, we know that social sustainability is not an abstract category. It shows up in how leaders communicate, how teams work together, and how companies position themselves in society. When these aspects are neglected, the gap between strategy and culture widens. When they are addressed meaningfully, organizations become more resilient, trusted, and future-ready.

Our Contribution

This perspective has shaped our campaigns in recent years, part of Switzerland Fit for the Future, in collaboration with Claire Garwacki:

• The Cost of Silence addressed mental health in the workplace by inviting Swiss CEOs to speak candidly about a subject still surrounded by stigma. The campaign demonstrated that silence has a cost — for individuals, for culture, and for business performance.
• In Her Chair shone a light on unconscious bias. By asking male CEOs the kinds of questions women leaders often face, we revealed — with humor and honesty — how ingrained patterns still influence careers and leadership opportunities.

Both initiatives grew out of real conversations and personal experiences. They confirmed our belief that sustainable change starts when people feel seen, heard, and understood.

About Sustainable Switzerland and NZZ

The award is part of the Sustainable Switzerland platform, an initiative by NZZ in collaboration with leading partners from business and science. Its network includes BCG, BMW, Die Mobiliar, Google, Swisscom and UBS as Main Partners, Lidl Schweiz as Focus Partner, as well as ETH Zürich and EPFL as Science Partners (sustainableswitzerland.ch).

Behind this stands NZZ, one of Switzerland’s largest private media companies. With its tradition of independent journalism and liberal perspective, NZZ provides orientation and inspiration to a broad readership every day (unternehmen.nzz.ch).

Looking Forward

For us at Outlive, being named a Sustainable Shaper is not a conclusion but a reminder. Social sustainability remains one of the most pressing and sometimes overlooked aspects of sustainable development. It requires leadership, communication, and a willingness to challenge what is often left unsaid.

We look forward to continuing this work: helping organizations put people at the center of their strategies and creating campaigns that spark reflection and dialogue.

At the Kyan Health – Swiss Corporate Wellbeing Summit, Outlive’s founder Nathalie Agosti and the CEO of Elipslife Patricia Mattle, explored a simple idea: mental health should be part of your performance system, not separate from it. Switzerland is estimated to lose about CHF 17 billion each year to sick leave and lower productivity linked to mental health, around 6.5 million directly impacting companies. The question isn’t if this matters, it’s how to build it into day-to-day management.

Below are three questions to locate your starting point, each followed by a few practical actions.

1) Is mental health embedded in your performance system or treated as a perk?

If mental health shows up only as an app or a campaign, it stays optional. When it’s part of planning and review, it becomes how you run the business. You should see it in leadership goals, risk logs, and quarterly reviews, just like cost, quality, and delivery. Example: before a busy season, teams confirm capacity and recovery time, not just deadlines.

Try this

• Add one leadership expectation to manager goals:g., “Run a monthly 30-minute workload check and escalate risks within 48 hours.”
• Put psychosocial risk on your nextquarterly business review agenda: one slide with trends and two actions (e.g., shift staffing; simplify a process).
• Build a capacity check into project kick-offs: confirm scope, people available, and a plan for peak weeks (e.g., support from another team).

2) Do leaders have clarity, tools, and time to act?

Managers need to know what to watch for, what to say, and where to send people—and they need space in the calendar to do it. Example: a team lead notices rising weekend work, opens a short check-in using a script, then uses a clear path to adjust workload or route to support.

Try this

• Ship a two-page “Manager Micro-Kit”: a simple conversation guide (“I’ve noticed X… how is this affecting your work?”) and a one-page escalation map (self-help → coaching → clinical).
• Protect one focus block per day per team: for example, no meetings 13:00–14:00, and no “silent” Sunday deadlines.
• Run a monthly team pulse (5 questions, 10 minutes): ask about workload, clarity, and energy; agree on one adjustment (e.g., pause a low-value report).

3) Can you measure progress in business terms?

What you measure shapes decisions. Balance leading indicators you can influence quickly (psychological safety; workload fit) with lagging indicators you want to reduce over time (absenteeism; regretted turnover). Example: if a team’s workload score drops for two months, you add temporary headcount or cut low-impact tasks.

Try this

• Choose 3–4 simple numbers to watch.
  For example: workload fit (do people have enough time for their tasks?), absence rate, who is using support (by team or location), and follow-up rate (did managers act on flagged issues).
• Review these metrics in the same meeting where you review cost and delivery. Even if “sick leave” isn’t a line on the P&L, its effects show up as missed deadlines, overtime, rework, and lost capacity—which are on the P&L. Treat the health signal like any other operational signal: discuss it, decide, and track the result.

Let’s turn intent into impact. Outlive helps organisations define social sustainability ambitions, translate them into leadership standards and KPIs, and embed them into day-to-day operations—fully aligned with your overall ESG strategy. If you’d like support building or stress-testing your approach, get in touch and we’ll shape a focused plan with you.