Is corporate sustainability dying? 100 executives respond

My recent column, “No, corporate sustainability is not dying,” prompted a wave of thoughtful responses on LinkedIn from sustainability professionals across sectors and borders. And, while most agreed on the general diagnosis about the profession, there was debate over the causes and prognosis.

Of course, this was hardly a representative sampling. Trellis readers — and my LinkedIn followers — trend heavily toward sustainability professionals in the trenches. They live the confusing and confounding moment I wrote about, every day.

Following is a synthesis of the 100 or so LinkedIn comments, including some of the more striking and pithy insights.

Not dead — but definitely ailing

“100% agree, Joel,” wrote Jim Hartzfeld, longtime sustainability strategist and protégé of the legendary founder of Interface, Ray Anderson, about my hypothesis. “Not dead but evolving out of ‘the end of the beginning’ phase of this inevitable transformation.”

Others echoed this sense of a maturing field. Catherine McKalip-Thompson, sustainability manager at Bechtel, who formerly ran the a White House environmental task force under Bill Clinton, offered a memorable metaphor: “Figuratively, sustainability is in its late twenties. The total optimism and drive are maturing into a more pragmatic stage.”

RepRisk’s Jonny Hardaker added: “I often think of the contrast between tech, where the mantra ‘fail fast, fail often’ is celebrated in the pursuit of disruption, and sustainability, which seems to be ‘fail once and face the executioner!’ There’s always going to be a learning curve when trying something new and complex that’s never been done before.”

But the maturity of the field also brings a more sobering reflection on the slow pace of progress. Auden Schendler, former senior vice president for sustainability at Aspen One and author of “Terrible Beauty: Reckoning with Climate Complicity and Rediscovering Our Soul,” was characteristically blunt: “The problem: most consultants in this field, most journalists and almost every practitioner is making their paycheck doing the same thing we were all doing 20-plus years ago,” he wrote. “Voluntary operational greening, targets, reports, efficiency — was never going to achieve sustainability in any form. So, time for something new.”

Hype, hope and headwinds

“Unfortunately, ‘not dead’ does not mean ‘fully vibrant,’” warned BSR CEO Aron Cramer. “Many companies are reining in ambition, communicating less and some are withdrawing resources.” He noted that the corporate greenhushing trend has contributed to policy backsliding: “That silence contributes to policy retreats that increase costs, delays and uncertainties.”

Cramer sounded simultaneously optimistic and ominous: “The companies that stay the course will be rewarded. And those that don’t will regret it.”

Several commenters noted that the profession’s early enthusiasm has largely given way to box-checking. “Progress has been diverted to reporting and calculations without adequate budget, courage or support for genuine innovation and solutions,” noted Catherine Greener, a decades-long veteran in the field.

Former Microsoft sustainability exec Matthew Sekol agreed. “There are definitely companies that are pivoting to integration, but there are those that are lost in the metrics and those using the push[back] as a convenient excuse to halt efforts.”

Mark Coleman, of engineering consultancy TRC Companies, provided a somewhat more encouraging view: “A ‘pendulum of extremism’ has taken over politics and the airwaves, leaving many business and society leaders uncertain on how best to weigh their options. There is a zone of pragmatism where progress is measured and can effectively be made.”

And Sara McKinstry, senior sustainability advisor at the corporate reporting service Labrador, offered a historical reminder of the profession’s ups and downs: “It wasn’t dead during the Reagan, Bush I and Bush II years and it’s not dead now … Certain political voices, louder than ever, may try to push everyone’s heads into the sand, but the global challenges we face are only getting worse. As the great Kelly Clarkson sings, ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.’ So too for corporate sustainability. We are tired but we never give up.”

Performative sustainability is dead — and that’s OK

There was a shared recognition that the era of performative sustainability — the kind built around slogans, slide decks and press releases — may be over.

That includes the language we use, as my colleague Elsa Wenzel recently noted. “The word ‘sustainability’ has become stretched so thin and contorted it no longer holds the weight of this moment,” said Justin Adams, formerly of BP and The Nature Conservancy. “Perhaps it’s time to let it go — or at least reframe it.”

Sustainability communications expert Catherine Cruveillier agreed: “What has started to die is the jargon and the abstraction. And that’s a good thing. More jargon needs to die so we can get where we want to be.”

Strategic integration is the new frontier

While the headlines may focus on setbacks, many professionals pointed to promising developments, notably the quiet embedding of sustainability into business strategy, operations and governance.

“Quiet, steady — and often — ambitious work is being done every day,” wrote Alexis Fuge, director of sustainability strategy at Sandisk. “While folks aren’t shouting their goals from the rooftops, we are expending energy to embed targets, metrics and working norms into the everyday operations of businesses worldwide.”

Madrid-based Iñigo Jodra, another sustainability veteran, noted a shift from lofty goals to real strategies: “Companies now face a logical calibration of their sustainability targets: from the initial, top-down and aspirational ones to those supported by tangible, profitable, sustainability-driven strategies and operating models that leverage factors such as circularity and climate risk management.”

As always, money talks. “If we see climate and equity performance moved from corporate impact reports into executive comp … we can say sustainability efforts are evolving,” said Dune Ives, an independent board director and former CEO.

Rob Shelton, who penned some of the earliest articles on what was then called “green business,” offered perspective via U.S. Admiral Hyman Rickover: “Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous impatience … so a continuous effort is required.”

Or, as consultancy CEO Simon Mainwaring put it: “There is not a slight chance it is dead with this amazing cohort of practitioners in this chain. We’re not that easy to kill.”