In 2023, It’s Go Green Or Go Bust

Sustainability is now a matter of survival–not only for the planet, but also for every business on the planet.

Driven by massive government investment and a seismic shift in public opinion, the green market revolution is gathering speed in 2023. This may be overwhelming, but it’s also good news–again, not only for the planet, but also for business leaders.

Going green now presents tremendous opportunities as well as risks. It’s a major enabler of customer obsession and a growth area for innovation.

To take advantage of these opportunities, it’s vital to stay up to date with emerging sustainability trends. Here are three I expect to be key in 2023.

1. Carbon offsetting that actually offsets carbon

Long ridiculed as an excuse to avoid actual decarbonisation, carbon offsetting and carbon credits fell out of fashion after businesses and even governments sank to using questionable or outright fraudulent tactics. In 2023, they’ll be back in, with a new, more honest approach. Organizations that have learned from their past mistakes will lead industry in setting new transparency standards for the practice.

2. Giants will cut business travel

Business air travel is bouncing back from a 54% fall during the pandemic, but some companies are refusing to return to business as usual, instead using the disruption to start tracking their travel emissions and re-evaluating their business travel policies. As public companies gear up for closer SEC scrutiny and risk fines for omissions or misstatements or omissions, we can expect to see high-profile, Fortune Global 200 companies announcing policies cutting down on business travel in the name of sustainability.

3. A single transparency standard for carbon reporting

Carbon accounting is not short of transparency standards–in fact, it’s overblessed with them. In 2023, we can expect to see an international body like the International Organisation for Standardisation, or a public-private collaboration like a UN agency, cut through the confusion and set a single new standard that combines the best of all of them. It will give customers, shareholders and investors reliable information on scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, across industries and around the world–including some of the trickier aspects of scope 3 reporting, like emissions from remote work emissions.

The theme across all these trends is a new honesty. In other words, the strategic imperative for 2023 is to be not only green, but transparent.