The World Economic Forum’s first Chief Sustainability Officers’ Outlook finds that 63% of sustainability leaders expect global progress to hold steady or accelerate, despite policy uncertainty, economic pressures and rising geopolitical tensions.
Geneva, Switzerland – Global sustainability progress is expected to remain steady or accelerate over the next year despite growing policy uncertainty and short-term financial pressures, according to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) inaugural Chief Sustainability Officers’ Outlook, released on 15 September 2026.
The report, based on a survey of 103 members of the WEF’s global Chief Sustainability Officers Community, found that 63% expect sustainability progress to either hold steady or accelerate over the next 12 months.
Over a three-year horizon, respondents identified a stronger commercial business case for sustainability and more affordable, applicable technologies as the two leading drivers of further progress. They were cited by 64% and 56% of respondents, respectively.
The report says the central challenge for sustainability leaders is increasingly about translating sustainability goals into business decisions that create value and strengthen resilience, while navigating changing economic, political and geopolitical conditions.
The positive outlook is tempered by concerns over the policy environment.
Policy uncertainty was identified as the biggest constraint on sustainability progress, cited by 68% of respondents. Short-term business pressures followed at 61%, while international tensions were cited by 54%.
The report describes the resulting landscape as “green divergence”, with different markets and industries moving at different speeds depending on factors such as competitiveness, resilience, energy security and industrial priorities.
Emerging markets, the report suggests, are likely to play an increasingly important role as those priorities reshape the global sustainability landscape.
Akanksha Khatri, WEF Head of Strategic Insight and Impact, said in an analysis accompanying the report that some of the most important sustainability decisions are made outside functions formally labelled as sustainability.
She argued that choices over where companies build facilities, what they source and which technologies they deploy can determine resource exposure and environmental impacts for years or even decades.
The report also points to a changing role for sustainability executives within companies.
While 65% of respondents said compliance remains the dominant way sustainability is viewed internally, 41% said sustainability is already recognised as a source of business growth or value.
That shift is changing expectations of Chief Sustainability Officers, who are increasingly required to connect environmental and climate risks with financial and operational decisions.
The role can now extend into areas such as lending and investment decisions in financial services, product development in manufacturing and supplier management across corporate value chains.
The report suggests that sustainability is therefore moving from a largely compliance-driven function towards a broader commercial consideration.
Artificial intelligence is emerging as both a potential enabler of sustainability and a growing source of environmental pressure.
Nearly three-quarters of the CSOs surveyed expect AI and other digital technologies to support sustainability through areas such as risk modelling, operational efficiency, measurement and reporting.
But 77% identified the energy and resource intensity of AI infrastructure as its most significant negative sustainability impact.
The finding highlights a growing tension for companies pursuing rapid digital transformation while also trying to reduce energy consumption and environmental impacts.
The report points to a case study from the WEF’s MINDS programme involving Schneider Electric as an example of how AI can deliver measurable environmental benefits when applied to specific operational challenges.
According to the case study, AI-enabled microgrid systems reduced energy consumption by 14% and carbon dioxide emissions by 28% per site annually across 97 locations.
The example illustrates the report’s broader argument that the sustainability value of AI is most evident when the technology is applied to concrete business and operational problems.
Climate adaptation is also becoming a bigger priority for sustainability leaders.
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The report found that 85% of respondents expect adaptation to receive greater global attention, while 77% believe private investment will be critical to financing it.
Yet significant barriers remain.
Some 62% of respondents identified uncertainty around the cost-benefit case as a major constraint on adaptation finance.
The difficulty is partly structural. Investments in climate resilience often generate value by preventing losses that may never occur, making their financial returns harder to demonstrate than those of projects with immediate and measurable revenues.
That can make adaptation projects more difficult to finance, despite their growing importance for infrastructure, supply chains and communities exposed to climate risks.
The WEF findings have particular relevance for African economies, where sustainability priorities often intersect with energy security, industrialisation, infrastructure development and climate adaptation.
For companies operating in African markets, the report’s concept of “green divergence” is especially significant because sustainability priorities and regulatory requirements can vary considerably between markets.
At the same time, African businesses seeking international capital face growing expectations around sustainability disclosure and climate-related risks.
South Africa provides one example of this evolving environment, with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange updating its sustainability disclosure guidance in line with international reporting developments, including the IFRS S1 and S2 standards developed by the International Sustainability Standards Board.
The country has also been advancing its sustainable finance framework through work involving National Treasury and financial-sector regulators.
South Africa has representation within the global sustainability policy debate captured by the WEF report. Shameela Soobramoney, Chief Sustainability Officer of the JSE, has served as immediate past chair of the World Federation of Exchanges’ Sustainability Working Group and chairs National Treasury’s Sustainable Finance Working Group.
For African sustainability executives, the challenge is increasingly about balancing competing priorities: securing reliable and affordable energy, supporting industrial development, financing climate adaptation and meeting the expectations of investors and international markets.
The WEF report’s central message is that sustainability will need to be embedded in those commercial decisions rather than treated as a separate corporate agenda.
Despite the uncertainty facing businesses, the survey suggests that sustainability is not retreating from corporate agendas.
Instead, the role of sustainability leaders appears to be changing, with greater emphasis on demonstrating financial value, strengthening resilience and integrating sustainability into core business decisions.
The WEF said it plans to repeat the Chief Sustainability Officers’ Outlook annually, providing a longer-term view of how sustainability priorities and the role of corporate sustainability leaders evolve.
The first edition points to a sustainability agenda that is likely to remain firmly on the corporate agenda, but increasingly judged by its ability to deliver measurable business value alongside environmental and social outcomes.
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