Communicating about sustainability in a world veering right
Sustainability is entering its awkward teenage years and I'm here for it.
Dear sustainability community, are you still there?
Or are you just… quieter?
As we head into 2026, sustainability communications feels like it’s gone through a personality shift. At one point, everyone was talking about it. These days, as the economic tide goes out, a lot of the noise has gone with it. Less megaphone, more murmurs.
Honestly? That might be a good thing for a field that’s been facing a major reckoning.
Here are my predictions for how sustainability and ESG communications will evolve in the coming year.
#1. The new language of sustainability
Let’s not ignore the political weather.
As global sentiment towards sustainability and ESG issues shifts to the right, communications around it will move down. Down to the brass tacks of what builds a good business and economy.
That means framing issues in the language of:
Risk
Resilience
Cost
Products
Supply chains
Continuity
High-level language like “commitments,” “goals,” and “aspirations” now lands with more cynicism than credibility.
#2. Visibility is no longer the goal
Some of the most meaningful sustainability work that’s being done right now is invisible.
Activists aren’t leading the charge anymore. Progress is now in the hands of procurement teams dissecting value chains. Legal and finance teams aligning data and reporting to compliance standards. Marketing teams questioning what customers value. Leaders asking more targeted questions about sustainability where it intersects with growth and resilience.
This work doesn’t make for sexy headlines. It lives in spreadsheets, contracts, internal decks, and boardroom conversations.
Credibility is now built across functions. Your sustainability narrative has to hold together in procurement meetings and finance reviews and product discussions.
#3. New ways to build connection
When sustainability no longer sits neatly in one team, cross-pollination matters more than ever.
The value of communications is shifting away from broadcasting and toward connection. Not in the kumbaya way, but in joining the dots across value chains, industries, and functions.
On that note, let’s call it for large-scale events. These generic conferences have become expensive echo chambers with the same talking points rinsed and repeated in different cities.
“We need to work together.”
“We need to break out of silos.”
“Businesses aren’t doing enough.”
Besides, the mounting carbon footprint of air travel behind these events presents a real paradox. Speakers are opting out of flying across continents just to say the same thing again.
The future looks more intentional, more curated, with microphones swapped out in favour of closed-door gatherings and roundtables.
Having access to these quality conversations is not about having an expensive event sponsorship, but building real partnerships and connections that get you in the door.
#4. A higher tolerance for disagreement + a lower tolerance for BS
Let’s leave cancel culture behind in 2025.
People working in sustainability are tired. Divisive language doesn’t energise them; it exhausts them.
Part of the stagnation comes from fear of being called out. A recent example has to be the response to Patagonia’s “Work in Progress” report, a report that was a bold sleight of hand but received its fair share of detractors for missing some targets.
If we’re serious about progress, we need communications that rely less on feel-good rhetoric and more on helping brands navigate real, systems-level issues publicly - without every conversation being turned into a culture war.
If you’re an existing subscriber… It’s so great that you’re still here!
I’ve been doing some rethinking around my content, making sure I’m putting 100% of my commitment into this space. Half-baked bread and soggy sandwiches just aren’t my thing.
I’m letting The Frequency evolve so it stays true to my flighty Gemini tendencies while still delivering ideas that are worth your full three minutes.
I’m excited for what’s coming up next: unpacking some major global shifts in disclosures.
-Janissa