How businesses can escape the sustainability trap
20 January 2025 – Writing in Sustainable Views, CISL's CEO, Lindsay Hooper, says it is time to reframe sustainability as a save-ourselves imperative.
Global business is stuck in a losing game. Over three decades, companies have invested in so-called responsible actions on climate and nature that have yet to add up to anything like the changes needed or create significant commercial value.
Governments, meanwhile, have struggled to phase out damaging activities or build thriving markets for sustainable products and services.
Meanwhile, fossil fuel interests and other defenders of the status quo deploy vast resources to harden social and political resistance to change.
As we head into 2025, the prospects for change are not promising. Donald Trump’s vocal support for fossil fuels signals a shift towards short-termism in the world’s largest economy.
Globally, the liberal, post-cold war era is fading, giving way to fractured politics, populist discontent and nationalist priorities.
Meanwhile, the devastating LA wildfires and the floods in Valencia serve as stark reminders that climate-driven disasters are no longer distant threats — they are accelerating and costly.
Yet change remains possible, offering competitive advantages to those regions — notably the EU and China — that invest in reforming and positioning their economies for transition.
For businesses the agenda should be clear: step up and drive market reform to secure future markets, and position themselves to compete within them.
But building widespread political, cultural and market support for market shifts will require a change in approach.
It is time to confront hard truths, abandon naive optimism and focus on what is needed to succeed in a world increasingly shaped by climate and nature crises.
From myths to action
Three persistent myths have allowed businesses to delay action.
The first is the belief that governments will eventually lead, without businesses actively pushing and supporting them to do so. In many regions, this is misplaced. Election cycles, lobbying from those resisting change, and outdated economic world views result in slow and inconsistent state action.
The second is that incremental business improvements will be sufficient. Decades of such actions have failed to deliver change at the speed and scale required, because they rarely create material value.
Markets follow value, not virtue. Until sustainability is embedded into the rules of the market, progress will remain fragmented and insufficient.
The third is that sustainability can be achieved painlessly. There is no cost-free path forward. The choice is obvious: manageable — if painful — costs today or catastrophic consequences tomorrow. Businesses and governments must stop limiting ambition only to win-wins and selling the illusion of painless transitions. Instead they must focus on the trade-offs necessary for long-term resilience.
The business agenda needs to look beyond these myths to the action required.
Action on climate and nature is no longer about reputation — it is existential. Yet many businesses continue to operate under the hubristic assumption that they will be able to jump before the music stops, ignoring the dangers posed by collective inaction.
The currently estimated £150bn losses from the LA wildfires are just the latest wake-up call. Many of today’s businesses will not survive without market reforms and proactive adaptation. But even reforms will not guarantee success for all.
Drop the pretence of painless transitions
Smart businesses will instead use value-at-risk analysis to identify vulnerabilities and address complacency, taking steps to protect value ahead of broader market shifts and disrupting themselves before external factors force the change.
Where taking action creates a competitive disadvantage, they will identify the policy measures needed to level the playing field and advocate assertively for change.
Politically-savvy lobbying by business will frame policy action on climate and sustainability as routes to energy independence, food security and economic competitiveness; it will drop the pretence of painless transitions, and make a bold case for pragmatic choices for long-term economic gain.
Broad-based business support for change will be essential. This will need a major push from industry associations — not a reliance on small groups of elite businesses — with tactics that match the sophistication and intensity of those working to resist change.
Those who are squeamish about lobbying, seeing it as the preserve of the bad guys, are naive. Sitting it out and hoping for change is not leadership, it is complicity in the status quo.
The populist wave sweeping elections and posing threats to climate action is not just a rejection of elites; it is a visceral demand for security and relevance in a rapidly changing world.
Yet the sustainability movement has been woefully ineffective in informing and channelling this discontent, framing action as a moral, save-the-planet concern, detached from everyday struggles. It is time to reframe sustainability as a save-ourselves imperative.
Does this mean that instead of wasting time railing against nationalism and populism we need to make action on climate and nature relevant to questions of national pride, security and economic opportunity? Yes. And the private sector — with its vast brand and marketing influence and scope for on-the-ground community engagement — has much to contribute.
The world’s hottest year on record is behind us, devastating wildfires have already set the tone for the year ahead. The impacts of climate and nature crises are no longer distant warnings — they are here.
The agenda for 2025 is not about perfection but about progress. But it must be the year in which businesses abandon complacency and incrementalism, disrupting themselves before others do, and pushing for bold policies that level the playing field for action.
The choice for business is clear: transform markets or defend a future already lost.
First published in Sustainable Views