Sustainability Still Rules the Boardroom in 2025, Deloitte Finds

Key Takeaways

• Sustainability Holds Steady: Sustainability remains a top-three C-suite priority globally, alongside technology adoption and artificial intelligence (AI).
• Investment Momentum: 83% of executives reported increasing sustainability investments over the past year, with many seeing direct revenue benefits.
• AI as an Enabler: 81% of respondents say their companies already use AI to advance sustainability goals, from efficiency gains to new sustainable products.
• Shifting Pressures: Executives report declining pressure from stakeholders such as shareholders, boards, and customers to act on sustainability compared to 2022.
• Maturing Approach: Deloitte notes a slight dip in certain sustainability actions, like linking pay to sustainability metrics, suggesting a transition toward more strategic, embedded approaches rather than a slowdown.

Deep Dive

In its fourth annual edition, Deloitte Global has released its 2025 C-suite Sustainability Report, revealing that corporate leaders continue to treat sustainability as a central strategic priority, fueled increasingly by investments and digital technologies. The survey, which polled over 2,100 C-level executives across 27 countries, paints a picture of organizations moving beyond compliance toward embedding sustainability as a driver of business value.

According to Deloitte, sustainability remains among the top three priorities on the C-suite agenda, alongside technology adoption and artificial intelligence (AI).
Executives report that sustainability investments rose over the past year, with 83% saying their companies increased funding in this area.

Revenue generation emerged as the most frequently cited business benefit of sustainability actions, outranking compliance, brand/reputation gains, and cost/risk reduction. Technology, most notably AI, is viewed as a critical enabler that helps firms scale sustainability efforts, strengthen reporting, and create sustainable products and services.

“From AI adoption to increased investments, organizations are building resilience today to help shape the next wave of business value for the future,” said Jennifer Steinmann, Deloitte Global Sustainability Business Leader.

Numbers That Tell the Story

The report offers a number of striking findings:

• 45% of respondents identify climate change or sustainability as a top-three business challenge for the coming year—on par with concerns about technology adoption and AI.
• Of those increasing investments, 69% said their increases were moderate (6–19%), and 14% said they were significant (over 20%).
• 81% of respondents say their companies already use AI in support of sustainability efforts.
• The report also notes a marginal decline in the proportion of respondents engaging in certain sustainability actions compared with last year. Fewer firms now tie executive remuneration to sustainability, require supplier sustainability criteria, or develop new sustainable products, suggesting some moderation or maturity in the pace of action.
• Executives report a reduced sense of stakeholder pressure. Across categories—shareholders, boards, governments, employees, customers, civil society—fewer respondents say they feel pressure to act today than in 2022.

Deloitte frames these shifts as possibly signaling a transition: from “quick wins” toward more strategic, integrated sustainability, or perhaps a temporary adjustment as firms reassess their approach amid evolving pressures.

Challenges and Strategic Directions

Despite progress, obstacles persist. One of the foremost is the difficulty in accurately measuring environmental impact. Many executives cited this complexity as a barrier, along with the challenge of aligning stakeholder demands and selecting the right sustainable solutions.

Moreover, respondents appear somewhat less concerned about climate change as an immediate disruption than in past years. Likewise, the sense of external pressure to intensify sustainability efforts has softened, raising questions about how momentum might be sustained.

In Deloitte’s view, the path forward lies in grounding sustainability ambition in economic value, and ensuring that sustainability goals are tied to performance metrics, strategic priorities, and risk exposures. The report suggests a de facto roadmap: implementing technology solutions, using sustainable materials, developing sustainable products and services, embedding operational efficiency improvements, and tracking outcomes with rigorous metrics.

What it means for business leaders

As Deloitte presents it, the 2025 survey underscores that sustainability is no longer a side project, but rather an intrinsic element of corporate strategy. In many firms, it has evolved from its roots in risk mitigation and compliance, into a lever for innovation, differentiation, and revenue growth.

Yet, Deloitte also cautions that sustaining momentum will require more than “doing the easy things.” As pressures shift and stakeholder attention fluctuates, leaders must revisit their portfolio of sustainability efforts, reexamine allocations, integrate sustainability into core business models, and safeguard resilience against shifting external conditions.

If executed well, the report suggests, the next wave of business value may well be defined by how effectively firms turn sustainability from obligation to opportunity.

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