Sustainability, CSR and ESG Are not Dead

If you follow business headlines, it can feel like sustainability, CSR and ESG are in retreat.

By Michael Quartermain, C.I.M., C.Mgr. | Chartered Managers Canada

When you look beyond the rhetoric, a different story emerges: the work is continuing, often repositioned, repackaged, and increasingly operationalized. Sustainability, CSR and ESG are not dead. The terminology has changed, and that change is strategic (Townsend, 2026). As we head into 2026, the corporate narrative around sustainability appears to have shifted from public signs to internally focused execution.

This shift aligns closely with what Townsend identified as a defining dynamic for 2026 in her article “Pride, hide or slide: 3 sustainability strategies for 2026.” Townsend argues that companies are not choosing between action and inaction, but among different communication strategies in a shifting socio-political environment:

• pride (publicly doubling down),
• hide (continuing the work while changing the language),
• or slide (retreating from commitments).

Many organizations adopt hybrid approaches depending on geography, audience, and legal risk (Townsend, 2026).

Why language matters (more than ever)

Giles, in his article “Why 2025 was the Year of Greenhushing” describes 2025 as a ‘year of greenhushing: firms maintained or expanded programs but reduced external promotion amid legal and political headwinds (Giles, 2025). Reuters’ 2025 global sustainability survey similarly finds companies staying the course while reframing narratives toward ‘efficiency’ and ‘resilience’, prioritizing decarbonization and supply-chain engagement (Stoker et al, 2025).

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS REUTERS IMPACT: GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY 2025

Language matters because words operate as signals: they can activate socio-political interpretations, trigger legal scrutiny, and shape stakeholder trust. Evidence suggests companies are narrowing or reframing external messaging, including moving away from the term “ESG”, even while maintaining internal sustainability work (Mirza, 2026). Language also matters because it changes what audiences believe the work is for. When leaders frame sustainability as risk management, resilience, efficiency, competitiveness, or value creation, the work is more readily understood as strategic foresight rather than ideology (Ioannou, 2025). At the same time, the liability landscape has changed. Legal and regulatory scrutiny of environmental claims means companies are increasingly judged on the precision and verifiability of their narratives; this pushes some firms to communicate less, or to raise internal controls and legal review over sustainability claims (Giles, 2025).

Internalizing the work without stopping it: “greenhushing” and embedded sustainability

Research and reporting suggest greenhushing can be widespread. Morgan Stanley’s Sustainable Signals: Corporates 2025 reports that 88% of companies see sustainability as a long-term value creation opportunity and more than 80% say they can measure ROI for sustainability investments like any other spend; over half experienced climate-related disruptions in the past year, underscoring risk and resilience planning (Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing, 2025).

Townsend (2026) similarly describes 2025 as a year when legal threats and reputational risks drove strategic silence even as programs often continued. South Pole’s net-zero survey reporting also points to companies “going quiet” on climate goals across sectors, based on a large multi-country survey of companies with sustainability leads, suggesting the shift is often about communications posture, not abandonment (South Pole, 2024).

When companies “slide”: why sustainability may be dropped (and what that signals)

Not every organization chooses “hide.” Some “slide”, reducing targets, removing language, or cutting dedicated roles and programs. These moves often happen when commitments are perceived as too costly, too risky to communicate, or too difficult to deliver in the near term (Townsend, 2026). Harvard Business Review describes organizations withdrawing emissions goals, or removing decarbonization targets from public websites, often amid political opposition, budget pressures, and difficulty justifying investments whose benefits are long-term or intangible (Pucker, 2024).

A critical nuance of language, disclosure declines do not always equal program elimination. Research finds that many firms are selectively reframing sustainability commitments, reducing public exposure while integrating oversight into governance and risk structures (Ioannou, 2025). Despite changes in rhetoric, business fundamentals remain the same. Energy economics, supply-chain resilience, workforce stability, and regulatory readiness continue to shape strategy. Corporate strategy signals reinforce this picture. In Morgan Stanley’s Sustainable Signals: Corporates 2025 survey, most companies reported that sustainability is tied to long-term value creation and that they can measure ROI for sustainability initiatives in ways comparable to other business investments (Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing, 2025, p.17).

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing, Sustainable Signals CORPORATES 2025

Canada snapshot

Canada’s corporate sustainability activity is advancing under a mixed regime.

Disclosure & reporting (voluntary baseline and paused rulemaking):

• Canada’s sustainability disclosure baseline (Canadian Sustainability Standards Board’s (CSSB)) is voluntary unless incorporated into securities rules, and the CSA subsequently paused work on mandatory climate disclosure and related diversity disclosure amendments. (Canadian Securities Administrators, 2024).

Big-bank example shifts from coalition membership to internal delivery:

• In early 2025, Canada’s largest banks withdrew from the UN‑backed Net‑Zero Banking Alliance, while stating they would continue climate-transition efforts through internal strategies rather than coalition membership. (CBC News, 2025).

• Federal direction and greenwashing reality check:

  • Federally, Finance Canada announced plans to expand mandatory climate-related financial disclosures to large federally incorporated private companies and to develop “made‑in‑Canada” sustainable investment guidance/taxonomy. (Department of Finance Canada, 2024)

  • At the same time, Bill C‑59 strengthened anti‑greenwashing provisions and placed more substantiation burden on companies making environmental claims, one reason many firms are tightening controls around sustainability messaging. (BLG, 2024)

Positive signs (the work is continuing, even if the labels are changing)

• The World Economic Forum (WEF) reports that energy transition progress accelerated in 2025 (Energy Transition Index scores rose year over year), with improvements in equity and sustainability and a growing share of clean energy, while also highlighting where readiness and security must catch up (World Economic Forum, 2025).
• WEF notes clean-energy investment exceeded $2 trillion in 2024, signalling sustained capital momentum behind transition technologies even amid volatility (World Economic Forum, 2025).
• Governance & Accountability Institute (G&A) reports sustainability reporting has become near-universal among large U.S. public companies (S&P 500 at 99% reporting for the 2024 publication year), indicating disclosure and governance practices are deepening despite political noise (Governance & Accountability Institute, 2025).
• At Davos 2025, UN Global Compact reflections emphasized sustainability as a driver of resilience, competitiveness, and innovation, reinforcing that major business coalitions still view sustainability as integral to long-term strategy (United Nations Global Compact, 2025).
• In Europe, CSRD requires in-scope companies to report sustainability information using European Sustainability Reporting Standards, emphasizing materiality, data quality, and assurance (European Commission, 2025).

What does this mean for leaders?

Taken together, these signals suggest we are not witnessing the death of sustainability, CSR or ESG, but their evolution under pressure.

• Use business-coded language without losing substance: translate impact into efficiency, risk and resilience while keeping targets and accountability (Townsend, 2026; Stoker et al, 2025).
• Tighten claim governance: treat every environmental claim as a disclosure, with legal and evidence review, to avoid greenwashing risk (Giles, 2025).
• Invest where ROI is demonstrable, and risk is material: prioritize initiatives that show value creation and operational resilience (Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing, 2025).

The practical leadership challenge is to use clearer, outcome-oriented language without letting reframing become retreated. Reframing can reduce risk and increase credibility, but only if the underlying commitments remain real (Ioannou, 2025; Townsend, 2026).

References (APA 7th edition, with links)

BLG. (2024). False advertising and greenwashing: Bill C-59 changes to the Competition Act. Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. https://www.blg.com/en/insights/2024/07/false-advertising-and-greenwashing-bill-c-59-changes-to-competition-act

Canadian Securities Administrators. (2024). CSA issues market update on climate-related disclosure project. https://www.securities-administrators.ca/news/csa-issues-market-update-on-climate-related-disclosure-project/

Department of Finance Canada. (2024). Government advances Made-in-Canada sustainable investment guidelines and mandatory climate disclosures to accelerate progress to net-zero emissions by 2050. Government of Canada. https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2024/10/government-advances-made-in-canada-sustainable-investment-guidelines-and-mandatory-climate-disclosures-to-accelerate-progress-to-net-zero-emissions.html

European Commission. (2025). Corporate sustainability reporting. European Commission—Finance. https://finance.ec.europa.eu/capital-markets-union-and-financial-markets/company-reporting-and-auditing/company-reporting/corporate-sustainability-reporting_en

Giles, J. (2025). Why 2025 was the year of greenhushing. Trellis. https://trellis.net/article/why-2025-was-the-year-of-greenhushing/

Governance & Accountability Institute. (2025). Sustainability reporting in focus: 2025 edition (report landing page). Governance & Accountability Institute. https://www.ga-institute.com/research/research/sustainability-reporting-trends/2025-sustainability-reporting-in-focus/

Ioannou, I. (2025). What the ESG backlash reveals. London Business School. https://www.london.edu/think/what-the-esg-backlash-reveals

Microsoft. (2026). Business sustainability “greenhushing” concept image [AI-generated image].

Mirza, Z. (2026, January 22). Most companies are staying the course on ESG — just talking about it less. ESG Dive. https://www.esgdive.com/news/companies-staying-the-course-on-esg-but-talking-less-about-it-greenhushing/810258/

Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing. (2025). Sustainable signals: Corporates 2025 (report). Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC. https://www.morganstanley.com/assets/pdfs/MS_Institute_for_Sustainable_Investing_Sustainable_Signals_Corporate_report_2025.pdf

Pucker, K. P. (2024). Companies are scaling back sustainability pledges. Here’s what they should do instead. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2024/08/companies-are-scaling-back-sustainability-pledges-heres-what-they-should-do-instead

Stoker, L., Chan, B., Choudhury, T. (2025). Reuters Impact: Global Sustainability Report 2025. Reuters. https://www.eticanews.it/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Reuters_7303_04NOV25_Sustainability_Report_2025.pdf

South Pole. (2024). Survey finds that most companies across nearly all sectors are going quiet on green goals (press release). South Pole. https://www.southpole.com/news/survey-finds-most-companies-going-quiet-on-green-goals

Townsend, S. (2026). Pride, hide or slide: 3 sustainability strategies for 2026. Trellis. https://trellis.net/article/3-sustainability-strategies-for-2026/

United Nations Global Compact. (2025). Five takeaways from the 2025 World Economic Forum. UN Global Compact. https://unglobalcompact.org/compactjournal/five-takeaways-2025-world-economic-forum

World Economic Forum. (2025). Fostering effective energy transition 2025 (insight report). World Economic Forum. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Fostering_Effective_Energy_Transition_2025.pdf

About the Author: 

Michael Quartermain, C.I.M., C.Mgr. is a professor at the School of Business at Conestoga College Institute of Advanced  Learning and Technology, where he has been teaching for over five years in the areas of business management and sustainability. Michael spent over thirty-five years in business and consulting in general management, procurement, and strategic sourcing.

He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from York University, a Master of Law specializing in dispute resolution from Osgoode Hall Law School and a Master of Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Waterloo. Michael is working on a Professional Master of Education at Queen’s University.

He holds professional designations as Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (McGill University), Certified Associate Project Manager (Project Management Institute), Qualified Mediator (Alternative Dispute Resolution Institute of Ontario),  Chartered Manager (Canadian Institute of Management), Certified Business Management Educator (The Chartered Association of Business Schools), Certified International Negotiator (Chartered Institute of Professional Certifications) and Certified Supply Chain Leader/Certified Supply Chain Management Professional (National Institute of Supply Chain Leaders). In addition to these certifications, Michael has several other certificates that are part of his ongoing professional development.