Sustainability is becoming more than an aspiration to do well by people and planet. It's becoming a core component of businesses' operations and bottom lines. Companies have come a long way from simply reducing carbon emissions to include other environmental impacts like water and waste, social impacts like employee engagement, and economic impacts like profitability. What should sustainability teams be thinking about as we enter 2023?

We asked 5 experts with experience across nature-based solutions, real estate and the built environment, consumer products, venture capital and corporate sustainability about the trends they are tracking going into the new year. 

Corporate Sustainability

Chrissa Pagitsas, author of “Chief Sustainability Officers at Work” shared this insight during a webinar.

“In 2023 I'm expecting people to invest in tools that allow them to really understand where their company is headed. I'm expecting … more and more reporting requirements and companies are going to look for ways to communicate, measure, and track sustainability in a common language in a controlled way.”

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Talent influx

Yin Lu, partner at MCJ Collective, has been closely monitoring both white and blue collar labor trends.

Real estate and the built environment

Michael Beckerman, CEO of CREtech and CREtech Climate, shares that 40% of all CO2e emissions are from the built environment and what that will mean for developers and the corporations that rent office space. 

Consumer products

Kayalin Akens-Irby, head of growth for Planet FWD, shares her view on how shifting demographics will affect forward-thinking consumer companies. 

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Biodiversity and Nature-based solutions

Diego Sáez-Gil, CEO and Co-founder of Pachama shares his view on how biodiversity will become a growing area of action in the coming year. 

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Bring on 2023

According to a recent Ipsos poll, two thirds of Americans believe that 2023 will be better than 2022. In our conversations with Sustainability teams, the optimism is much higher. 

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There is a growing sense of momentum across industries that if goals set for 2030 and beyond are to be met, that this is the year progress needs to be made. 

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Older solutions like renewable energy deployment will accelerate, new solutions will be vetted and operationalized and employees, who have largely been left on the sidelines, will become part of the Sustainability team’s plans. 

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