Build now for the long-term advantage
Just 25% of the largest public companies in the United States, the S&P 100, put the term ESG, meaning environmental, social, and governance, in the title of their sustainability reports in 2024. In 2023, 40% did. The label is disappearing from report covers, and the wariness behind that shift runs deeper than titles. Read the headlines and you could conclude that corporate sustainability has gone into a recession.
In some ways, it has. In March 2024, the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) removed the net-zero commitments of 239 companies that missed the deadline to validate their targets, part of roughly 695 commitments withdrawn or expired over the prior decade.
In Europe, the Omnibus package narrowed the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) to remove roughly 90% of companies from the scope to no longer have to report. In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) moved to end the climate disclosure-rule development process along with additional political and legal pressure that have turned “sustainability” into a word many executives now side-step.
After two consecutive years of decline, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions increased by an estimated 2.4% in 2025. Notably, the critical decoupling trend ended because emissions grew faster than the economy, with GDP expanding by a projected 1.9%.
Where the long game reveals the winners
While the announcements about targets and achievements have gone largely silent, the work has not.
This is where the long game reveals the winners. A market downturn separates the businesses built to last from the ones that were only riding the cycle. The same is happening in sustainability right now. Programs built on marketing are going quiet or going away. Those driven by compliance alone, now the top driver for sustainability action, are meeting the base expectations. Programs built on business value are still running, and many are getting stronger.
Going quiet and just complying carries its own cost. GlobeScan found that the share of consumers who saw at least some sustainability messaging from brands fell to 36% percent in 2025, from 49% in 2023. Awareness and trust are eroding as credible communication thins out, which hands an opening to the companies still willing to show their work.
In addition, indications point to growing expectations from additional regulations and leaders still committed to progressing. Yet, if many businesses have slowed down their efforts, they will be in a position where they must do costly catch up work and miss opportunities. Further, emissions inventories, supplier data systems, and validated targets take years to mature, so a company that stops now falls behind.
The payoff rewards patience
Here is where it gets interesting. A downturn is the best time to build because attention is elsewhere, so the work can go deep without the pressure to perform it. The companies that use this period to build real capability will lead when the cycle turns, the way the strongest brands leave a financial recession with more share than they entered.
The good news is that a durable program has rarely been more achievable. The frameworks have matured and solutions are more available. The business case has also rarely been clearer. A meta-analysis by the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business and Rockefeller Asset Management, drawing on more than 1,000 studies, found that most linked stronger sustainability performance to better financial results, and that the advantage widens over longer time horizons. The payoff rewards patience, which is the point of the long game.
Building to win the long game
For teams playing the long game, we recommend building to win by:
- Strengthening the foundation. Improve materiality assessments, emissions inventories, supply chain traceability, packaging inventories, and related data to enable better management.
- Connecting across aims. Climate, nature, circularity, and community efforts have to progress at the same time, this isn’t a single-issue situation and there are some win-wins that help drive innovation and differentiation.
- Empowering teams and business partners. Get sustainability and business value information to internal decision makers and collaborate with suppliers.
- Communicating with substance. Build from compliance disclosures to show real impacts and results.
Companies that treat this moment as permission to stop will be behind, across sustainability and business opportunities. Companies that build now will have the long-term advantage.
Now is the time to play the long game, build programs that cut risk, strengthen resilience, and earn growth. If your team is deciding what to build while others go quiet, be on the winning side and step up to the plate in sustainability.
