What This Report Covers
Sustainability Leadership Is Evolving in Response to a More Complex Operating Environment
Sustainability professionals across North America are navigating a more complex operating environment. Cost pressures, regulatory uncertainty, competing priorities, and evolving expectations are increasing the need for sustainability leaders who can help organizations prioritize, adapt, and deliver results.
Based on research with sustainability professionals across Canada, Mexico, and the USA, this report from GlobeScan and the United Nations (UN) Global Compact examines the forces shaping corporate sustainability approaches, the changing signals of credible leadership, the barriers to deeper integration, and the capabilities and forms of collaboration that can help organizations maintain momentum.
Key Insights:
Five themes are shaping the evolving role of sustainability professionals in North America:
- Sustainability professionals are navigating a more complex operating environment: Customer expectations remain influential, but sustainability professionals are also managing cost pressures, regulatory uncertainty, competing priorities, and the challenge of balancing global commitments with local realities. Around three in five respondents report feeling at least somewhat constrained in advancing their organization’s sustainability strategy.
- Companies are becoming more selective in how they pursue sustainability: Over half of respondents expect their organization’s sustainability ambition to increase, remain stable, or become more targeted without being reduced overall. Only 10% of respondents expect their organization’s sustainability ambition to decrease. Organizations are becoming more deliberate about where they focus effort, allocate resources, and communicate progress.
- Credibility in sustainability increasingly depends on integration and measurable results: Nearly six in ten respondents say embedding sustainability into core business and investment decisions is the clearest indicator of credible sustainability leadership. Sustainability commitments and communications remain important, but they are no longer sufficient on their own.
- Sustainability professionals are taking on a more strategic role: More than three-quarters of respondents identify linking sustainability to business value and risk as one of the most important capabilities for sustainability leaders today. Increasingly, sustainability professionals are expected to influence business decisions, build support across the organization, and connect sustainability to long-term business performance. As sustainability becomes more integrated, their role is increasingly to enable action and shared ownership across business functions.
- Collaboration and shared learning are essential: Peer learning, value-chain collaboration, common standards, and practical guidance emerge as important enablers of sustainability progress. Sustainability professionals are looking for practical ways to reduce complexity, build capability, and accelerate action.
This report was developed with the involvement of the UN Global Compact Country Networks in Canada, Mexico, and the USA.
The UN Global Compact is a special initiative of the United Nations Secretary-General that calls on companies worldwide to align their operations and strategies with Ten Principles covering human rights, labour, the environment, and anti-corruption. Its aim is to mobilize business to transform sustainability ambition into action at the scale the world demands.
