What does a shower have to do with the future of innovation?
More than you might think.
Speaking live from the Vusion Podcast Studio at the Global DIY-Summit 2026 in Amsterdam, Steffen shared why he believes sustainability shouldn’t be viewed as a separate business objective or compliance exercise. Instead, it should become a starting point for innovation itself.
And in doing so, he challenged many of the assumptions retailers, manufacturers, and technology leaders often make about how innovation happens.
Innovation Needs A New Starting Point
For decades, most innovation has followed a familiar pattern.
First came technology-driven innovation, where companies developed new products because they could.
Then came business-driven innovation, focused on efficiency, affordability, and scale.
More recently, innovation has largely become customer-centric, centered around improving user experiences and solving customer pain points.
Steffen isn’t arguing that any of those approaches are wrong.
His point is that they are no longer enough.
The biggest challenges facing society today are increasingly tied to sustainability, resource management, climate impact, and long-term environmental resilience. If innovation is fundamentally about solving problems, then those challenges deserve a place at the center of the innovation process.
That philosophy is what Steffen calls “planet-centered innovation.”
Rather than asking only what customers want today, planet-centered innovation asks how businesses can create solutions that improve customer experiences while simultaneously helping address larger environmental challenges.
For Steffen, sustainability isn’t the outcome of innovation.
It’s the starting point.
Why Hansgrohe Sees Sustainability And Customer Experience As Partners
One of the most compelling parts of the conversation was how Steffen connected sustainability directly to customer value.
Hansgrohe sells showers, faucets, and bathroom fixtures in more than 140 countries. At first glance, water conservation might seem like the obvious sustainability focus.
But Steffen believes retailers and manufacturers often make a critical mistake when talking about sustainable products.
They lead with sustainability.
Customers rarely buy products because they are sustainable.
Customers buy products because they make their lives better.
In Hansgrohe’s case, consumers don’t purchase water-saving showers because they want to save water. They purchase them because they deliver a great shower experience.
The sustainability benefit is important, but it cannot come at the expense of performance.
That distinction matters because it reframes how retailers communicate sustainable products. Instead of selling environmental responsibility, retailers should focus on the benefits customers actually care about first.
The sustainability story can support the purchase decision, but it rarely drives it.
The “60% Potential” Every Retailer Should Understand
Steffen referenced research from the University of St. Gallen that he believes every retailer should study.
The research suggests roughly 20% of consumers actively seek sustainable products and another 20% actively resist them.
The real opportunity lies with the remaining 60%.
These consumers generally support sustainability in theory. They want to make better choices. But when faced with a purchase decision, they often choose the option they believe will perform better, work better, or provide a better experience.
That creates a challenge for brands.
If sustainability is positioned as a compromise, the majority of consumers will walk away.
If sustainability is positioned as an enhancement to performance, convenience, or enjoyment, adoption becomes much easier.
Steffen illustrated this with a simple analogy.
Consumers don’t buy a vegan ice cream because it’s vegan.
They buy it because it sounds delicious.
The fact that it’s vegan becomes an added benefit rather than the primary selling point.
The same logic applies across retail categories, from home improvement products to appliances, building materials, and bathroom fixtures.
AI Could Accelerate Sustainability Faster Than Ever
The conference theme this year centered heavily around AI, and Steffen sees enormous potential in its ability to accelerate sustainability efforts.
In his view, the world is currently experiencing two major transformations simultaneously.
The first is the sustainability transformation.
The second is the technology transformation led by AI.
Rather than viewing those shifts as separate trends, Steffen believes they can reinforce one another.
AI can help organizations process complex data, identify opportunities, optimize resources, and solve problems faster than traditional approaches ever could.
The technology itself is not inherently good or bad.
Its value depends entirely on how it’s applied.
Using AI to help solve resource scarcity, environmental challenges, or sustainability problems is far different than using it simply to generate more content or automate routine tasks.
Steffen’s perspective was refreshingly practical: sustainability transformation should have started decades ago. AI may help accelerate progress at a pace that was previously impossible.
Moving From Competitive Advantage To Collaborative Advantage
Perhaps the most ambitious idea Steffen shared was his belief that sustainability requires businesses to rethink competition itself.
Traditional business strategy focuses on competitive advantage.
Winning means outperforming competitors.
Steffen argues that many sustainability challenges cannot be solved through competition alone.
Take water conservation.
If one manufacturer develops products that significantly reduce water usage while the rest of the industry continues operating the same way, the overall impact remains limited.
The same logic applies across countless environmental challenges.
Real progress requires collaboration between manufacturers, retailers, suppliers, governments, and even competitors.
Steffen described this shift as moving from competitive advantage to collaborative advantage.
That doesn’t mean competition disappears.
It means organizations work together to create entirely new markets and new solutions before competing within them.
The opportunity isn’t about dividing a fixed pie into smaller slices.
It’s about creating a larger pie altogether.
Why Systems Thinking Matters
One reason sustainability remains so difficult is that environmental challenges rarely exist in isolation.
Steffen pointed to water management as an example.
Saving water in the shower is valuable.
But if that water is later wasted elsewhere in the system, the overall impact becomes much smaller.
The challenge isn’t simply designing better products.
It’s understanding how products interact with broader systems.
That requires companies to think beyond their own categories and collaborate across industries.
Manufacturers alone cannot solve these problems.
Retailers alone cannot solve these problems.
Technology alone cannot solve these problems.
The solutions require an ecosystem mindset.
While that makes innovation more complex, it also creates opportunities for entirely new forms of value creation.
What Retailers Should Take Away
One of the most practical takeaways from the discussion was Steffen’s advice for retailers trying to encourage more sustainable purchasing decisions.
His recommendation was straightforward.
Sell the benefit first.
Sell the experience first.
Sell the outcome first.
Then support that message with the sustainability story.
Customers want products that perform well, save time, improve comfort, reduce frustration, and create better experiences.
When sustainability enhances those outcomes, it becomes a powerful differentiator.
When sustainability is presented as a sacrifice, adoption becomes much harder.
For retailers, that means merchandising, marketing, product education, and associate training should focus on helping customers understand how sustainable products improve their lives rather than simply how they help the environment.
The Bigger Takeaway
The most interesting aspect of Steffen’s perspective is that it doesn’t position sustainability and business performance as competing priorities.
Instead, it treats sustainability as a source of innovation itself.
That shift feels particularly relevant at a moment when AI is reshaping industries, customer expectations continue to evolve, and businesses are searching for new growth opportunities.
The companies that thrive may be the ones that stop viewing sustainability as a constraint and start viewing it as a design challenge worth solving.
Because as Steffen argued, the biggest problems facing society today are also some of the biggest opportunities for innovation.
The Bottom Line
Steffen Erath’s message in Amsterdam was ultimately about expanding the way businesses think about innovation.
Technology still matters.
Customer experience still matters.
Business performance still matters.
But adding a planet-centered lens creates new opportunities to solve problems that affect everyone.
The challenge isn’t choosing between sustainability and growth.
It’s finding ways to achieve both at the same time.
And according to Steffen, the companies that learn how to do that may unlock the next generation of innovation.
To catch more conversations from the Global DIY-Summit 2026 in Amsterdam, follow Omni Talk Retail on LinkedIn or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Thank you to Vusion for supporting Omni Talk Retail’s live coverage from the Global DIY-Summit 2026, and thank you to our listeners for joining us during the event.
Be careful out there,
Chris Walton and the Omni Talk Team
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Omni Talk® is the retail blog for retailers, written by retailers. Chris Walton founded Omni Talk® in 2017 and have quickly turned it into one of the fastest growing blogs in retail.