Corporate sustainability is evolving. This demands a new roadmap for sustainability communications in 2025
By Anisha Vikram Shah, Senior Consulting Director
2024 was a turning point: the world topped 1.5°C of warming, biodiversity losses hit alarming levels, and major international negotiations failed to deliver outcomes. At the same time, anti-ESG sentiment and the ‘war on woke’ led many companies to publicly retrench or refocus their sustainability commitments or go silent on environmental and social topics, while growing ESG disclosure requirements and greenwashing risks strained internal functions.
With Trump’s return to office in just a few days and renewed political uncertainty, climate commitments face risk of further erosion in 2025, at odds with the escalating climate emergency. These forces will give leeway to those who don’t want to engage positively with sustainability.
While headwinds threaten progress, companies with well-integrated sustainability strategies and roadmaps, and that take their ESG responsibilities seriously, must stand firm. Their role is critical in navigating the challenges ahead. This moment also demands bold and transparent sustainability communications that rebuilds trust, cuts through scepticism, and inspires action – without getting caught in political or cultural crosshairs. Companies that show, through carefully crafted ESG narratives and campaigns, that sustainability is a business priority, can generate lasting commercial value, and stands to create positive impact with the wellbeing of people at its core will benefit the most.
As we start the year, three shifts are shaping how companies should communicate about sustainability in 2025:
1. Confidence in sustainability goals has waned
The industry has learned that while bold, long-term goals set 5-10+ years ago were instrumental in building momentum, they have fallen short of driving meaningful progress. Signs today point to an inevitable filtering, as many companies recalibrate their sustainability agendas – with more expected to follow in 2025. This shift has raised questions about whether a broader pullback is underway.
It’s unclear the outcomes the reshaping of sustainability goals will have, however there are reports that a more “realistic” approach is emerging – focused on what private sector can achieve vs. where government intervention is needed. If well intentioned, this could be a positive shift, producing more impactful sustainability strategies that deliver results rather than serve as unachievable ambitions.
What this means for sustainability communications: Companies need to reassure concerned stakeholders of their commitment to improving sustainability outcomes. Those revising their strategies must convey the value and rationale of refocused goals (ideally to advance specific material issues), while being transparent about challenges and barriers. Authenticity and accountability will be critical to maintaining trust and shaping perceptions.
2. Sustainability leadership is being redefined
Sustainability is no longer seen as just a moral imperative but a business necessity, increasingly integrated into core strategy rather than treated as a siloed function. The C-suite is recognising the interconnectedness of sustainability and profitability, and the need to balance ambitious targets with commercial realities and weigh sustainability investments alongside other critical business decisions. External factors, from policy shifts to cultural rhetoric, are also shaping what companies can achieve. This will require new ways of collaborating and sharing knowledge across corporate functions and stakeholders, and we’ve already started to see growing alignment between corporate affairs and sustainability functions among influential global companies.
What does this mean for sustainability communications: Communicators can’t view sustainability as separate from other corporate or external affairs activities. A company’s corporate narrative is increasingly its ESG story. An effective narrative will articulate where sustainability fits within the business strategy, how it drives both environmental and commercial benefits – to reach and appeal to stakeholders with varying priorities. Messaging must account for external forces like policy and cultural dynamics – while balancing ambition with the practical realities of achieving meaningful impact.
3. Disclosure is not the same as communications - and both are essential
With companies facing a swathe of EU ESG regulations from 2025, starting with CSRD and EUDR with CSDDD to follow, Sustainability and Comms teams are stretched thin preparing for disclosure obligations and gathering data. The resources and focus required risk over-indexing on compliance at the expense of innovation and creative and engaging storytelling.
This imbalance could sideline stories of positive impact and leadership (how a company is doing good, beyond what is table stakes and expected), leaving the narrative space dominated by dry, compliance-driven reports (how a company is mitigating its negative environmental impacts) that fail to inspire consumers and publics. It won’t be enough for companies to just report on their most material impacts, they’ll need to communicate their sustainability efforts in an engaging and impactful way. A disclosure-only focus also might skew perceptions that a company’s ESG risks are disproportionally high, if not balanced with strategic storytelling.
What does this mean for sustainability communications: Communicators should consider how storytelling can complement mandatory ESG disclosures and fill gaps, where others might otherwise misinterpret the information and create their own false narratives. Beyond reported metrics, a focus should be on unearthing compelling use cases of delivering meaningful change. A value creation-based narrative can show how the business’s sustainability strategy is more than a cost, but designed to create lasting impact for people, planet and the business.