In a more positive story ESG Today tells us that more than four out of five companies continued to increase their sustainability-related investments over the past year despite reduced pressure from some stakeholder groups.

Executives report already seeing strong tangible benefits from their sustainability actions, including revenue growth and cost reductions, according to a new survey released by global professional services firm Deloitte.

In Deloitte’s 2025 C-suite Sustainability Report, market research firm KS&R surveyed more than 2,100 C-level executives in 27 countries, across a broad range of industries and enterprise sizes, ranging from $500 million in revenues to over $10 billion.

The report found that climate change and sustainability remains a top priority for companies, cited by 45% of respondents as a most pressing challenge to focus on over the next year, coming in slightly ahead of technology adoption and innovation at 44%, and economic outlook at 38%.

The high prioritisation given to sustainability also appears to be reflected in executives’ investment decisions, with the survey finding that 83% of companies increased their sustainability investments over the past year by more than 5%.

Larger companies were the most likely to report significant increases, with 22% of companies with more than $10 billion in revenue increasing investments by more than 20% over the prior year.

If there is a concern in this report it is that whilst 81% of those surveyed agreed they feel pressure to increase action on sustainability from stakeholder groups, this has declined in recent years.

Clearly, a large contributor to this decline in pressure and, in many cases, an overt push back on the ESG agenda, will come from the US, where the Trump administration has weaponised the climate crisis. This has forced many large financial institutions, asset managers and law firms to pull away from mentioning ESG, but the Deloitte report indicates that, whilst silent in public they are still active in private.

What seems inevitable is that this drive to prioritise sustainability and climate change in large organisations will have a cascading effect on supply chains. These organisations are focused on changing their own behaviour through Scope 1 and 2 but a lot of attention is now concentrated on Scope 3 and the supply chain.

This is born out by evidence from the EBN, where we regularly hear that tenders and PQQs demand data backed evidence of a sustainability strategy and carbon reduction plan from potential suppliers.