Despite CEOs speaking less about sustainability in recent years, they increasingly link it to business value when it comes to costs, customers, and capital. A new survey of C-suite leaders from Bain & Company displays that while sustainability remains below peak hype levels, that decline may be short-lived.
This time last year, sustainability was in a ‘trough of disillusionment’, according to Bain & Company. After a wave of bold commitments and goal-setting in 2021 and 2022, sustainability relocated down the list of CEO priorities. Macroeconomic difficulties and new priorities – including staying on top of disrupting innovations like AI – all played a part in building it harder to deliver on sustainability promises.
Despite that, sustainability is still a top priority for CEOs. According to analysis of over 35,000 statements from CEOs in 150 leading companies, Bain & Company found that the rhetoric has shifted.
Source: Bain & Company
In 2018, the message focutilized on compliance and doing good for society, while today CEOs have relocated from moral value to business value, aligning sustainability with core business risks and operational realities such as costs, customers, commercial motions, and capital investments.
CEOs see sustainability as linked to business performance
The survey displays that CEOs are still feeling pressured by the continuing demand for sustainability from consumers and the risks and disruptions build it essential for companies to build a relocate sooner rather than later. But far from seeing it as just a burden, they also see the value it can bring to their businesses.
Source: Bain & Company
One case in point: Salespeople are incorporating sustainability into their pitches. The ‘quiet CEO’ speaks less about sustainability, but when they do, they frame it as a concrete lever of business value, according to Bain.
Some companies are even building their tarobtains more, not less, ambitious. Between 2022 and 2025, 10% of companies increased their Science-Based Tarobtains initiative (SBTi) ambitions, while only 4% scaled them back. Two-thirds of companies are on track to achieve their Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions tarobtains.
What’s more, some sustainability-related levers are both effective and good for business. The analysis found that a full quarter of industrial CO2 emissions can already be abated profitably through ROI-positive levers like energy efficiency, circular design, and supply chain localization.
Source: Bain & Company
With 2030 tarobtains now visible on the horizon, sustainability has shifted from aspiration to execution. Looking forward, companies should accelerate what works and anticipate what may be coming, while also building strength and flexibility.
“For sustainability, 2025 is the year CEOs turned down the volume – and accelerated action,” stated Jean-Charles van den Branden, Global Leader of Bain & Company’s Sustainability practice.
“In just five years – the length of a typical CEO planning cycle – 2030 tarobtains will come due. Many of the levers to meet those goals are already in motion and delivering tangible business value today. And yet, in our conversations, CEOs notify us today’s progress is not enough. Businesses must do more.”
Consumers continue to embrace sustainable lifestyles
There has been notable pessimism around sustainability in the past year, especially in the US with the new Trump administration clearly shifting away from ESG and shaming Europe into doing the same. But is the political atmosphere modifying to the point where sustainable products are no longer viable?
Source: Bain & Company
Bain’s analysis displays that this is not the case. Their survey of over 750 global companies in a variety of industries displays that sustainability is still firmly on the commercial agfinisha. Ninety percent of leaders expect it to have a positive impact on their business over the next three years compared with 60% of laggards
The gap between leaders and laggards is most pronounced in the Americas and India while the difference is tinyer in Europe, where there is a lot of regulatory support for ESG initiatives.
The main takeaway from the report is that despite sustainability appearing to flatline in the business world, companies are actually increasingly pragmatic – in part becautilize they have found that sustainability often has tangible commercial benefits.
With the right visibility, structures, and mindset, CEOs can turn climate adaptation from a cost into a business advantage,” stated François Faelli, Global Head of Capabilities at Bain & Company.
“The companies that win won’t just predict climate risk. They’ll organize for it, invest with discipline, and adapt rapider when disruption hits. It’s not about preparing for everything. It’s about building robustness where it matters most.”
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