This article has been supplied.For the past few years, a question has circulated through boardrooms and media: are sustainability and ESG dead? Depending on who you ask, they are being abandoned, rebranded, politicised or pressured to prove their value.
But climate change has not disappeared because the terminology has become contested. Water scarcity, supply-chain disruption, biodiversity loss, energy insecurity and changing trade requirements remain. Sustainability is arguably becoming more relevant precisely because it is becoming less comfortable.
From reporting sustainability to managing what is material
The first phase of corporate sustainability was dominated by commitments, frameworks and disclosure. Companies became better at measuring emissions, writing reports and responding to ratings questionnaires. That was necessary, but reporting is not the same as performance.
The next phase requires harder questions. What does a water constraint mean for production? What happens if insurance costs rise materially? How exposed is a company to environmental and social risks several tiers into its supply chain? Can it compete where buyers want product-level information about carbon, materials and origin?
