Sustainability is not ideology: it’s security, prosperity, and competitiveness

A few days ago, I was having lunch with a friend who, while pouring water, joked that “the only real legacy of the 2030 Agenda is that little plastic ring keeping the bottle cap attached.” We both laughed, but the comment stuck with me. Behind the irony, it reflected a deeper truth: the growing perception that sustainability has become more about cosmetic artefacts than meaningful change. That moment made me pause and reflect on how the public narrative around sustainability has evolved—and, in many ways, faltered. It’s time we redefine the corporate mandate behind it.

Since 2010, sustainability has taken center stage in public policy and corporate governance. Looking back just a decade, we’ve made remarkable progress globally in laying the groundwork for a more sustainable future. Some key milestones include:

• The Paris Agreement in 2015, which marked the beginning of a more structured and global fight against climate change, through a shared ambition across countries to keep global warming well below 2ºC;
• A dramatic surge in sustainability finance, with most financial institutions now aware of the risks and opportunities related to environmental, social, and governance issues;
• A significant increase in access to information—journalistic, educational, and otherwise—that helps raise awareness and build a shared understanding of sustainability challenges.

All of this has been made possible thanks to the remarkable mobilization of governments, civil society, and non-state actors—driven by a growing awareness of the opportunity to invest in social justice, human rights, and environmental protection. This progress stands among the most significant achievements of humankind and has been enabled by the political systems and values embraced by an increasing number of societies. It reflects what historian Timothy Snyder calls positive freedom: the freedom to build a society where humans can thrive peacefully over the long term.

Yet in recent years, it has sometimes felt like we are moving backwards. Political instability in many regions, combined with the escalating effects of climate change on infrastructure, food security, and other basic needs, has heightened social tensions. The lack of visible, tangible results in how sustainability positively affects our day-to-day lives has also contributed to a growing sense of frustration, as my friend’s joke ironically highlights. This vacuum has been exploited by disinformation campaigns and polarizing narratives that have turned climate and social impact into ideological battlegrounds. A recent study by Data For Good and QuotaClimat documented 128 verified cases of climate disinformation in mainstream French media over just three months—targeting renewable energy, electric mobility, and climate policy.

For too long, the Sustainable Development Goals have been wrongly promoted as an ideological or activist agenda—one that, in the eyes of some, limits individual freedom: freedom to engage in any kind of economic activity, freedom to eat whatever type of food, or freedom to travel wherever possible. This reflects a negative conception of freedom, which has gained traction in recent years: freedom from interference, even if that interference is meant to prevent greater harm.

The dismantling of USAID and diversity & inclusion programs in the U.S. by the Trump administration shortly after the start of their second mandate in 2025 has been orchestrated for its symbolic power: putting an end to initiatives perceived as ideological, and removing what are seen as barriers to unfettered corporate prosperity.

But the reality is the opposite. Sustainability is a means for humankind to ensure it can continue to live and thrive on this planet for generations to come. Sustainability means energy and food sovereignty. It means eliminating pollution so people can live longer, healthier lives, while ensuring that innovation and technology still allow us to explore and connect across the globe. It also means access to trustworthy, high-quality information that fuels new discoveries at the pace we’ve achieved for centuries. And it means earning enough to build a family, enjoy life, and pass on opportunities to the next generation.

To restore trust in sustainability, we must clearly articulate its true value for society:

• First and foremost, sustainability is about protecting future generations from living on an uninhabitable planet, ensuring they can lead healthy lives, and shielding them from authoritarian regimes that bring suffering and instability—as we see today in Ukraine. In other words, it is about ensuring our security.
• Secondly, sustainability means decoupling our economic activities from their social and environmental externalities—enabling long-term, resilient growth and, ultimately, ensuring people’s well-being. This corresponds to securing our economic prosperity.

In today’s geopolitical landscape, Europe must double down on the progress it has made over the past decade. The continent has shown it understands the complexity of the challenge—and European businesses are responding. According to the European Investment Bank’s Investment Survey 2024, 89% of EU firms have already taken strategic action on climate, and 57% have invested directly in climate mitigation or adaptation, such as energy efficiency or renewable infrastructure. In Spain, that figure climbs to 72%, above the EU average. These numbers show that the question is no longer whether to act, but how fast we can move.

To those who still portray Europe as an aging, bureaucratic power stuck in defensive postures, we must offer a different narrative—one of a Europe leading the construction of a more just, competitive, and forward-looking development model. Europe needs a compelling new value proposition for sustainability—one that goes beyond the false trade-off between security, prosperity, and the green transition. There is no future where one exists without the others. The path forward must combine regulatory ambition, institutional leadership rooted in democratic values, and industrial revitalization.

The sustainability regulatory package recently adopted by the European Union—which combines new requirements on reporting, due diligence, green investment classification, and rules on social and environmental claims—goes in the right direction. The accompanying Omnibus package, which simplifies these rules for SMEs, also makes sense at this stage, as the priority should be to target companies whose footprint needs to be managed with greater care—without hindering economic growth across the continent.

Other regions also have a critical role to play. Brazil, for instance, will host the UN Climate Change Conference in 2025 and faces the challenge of keeping the international organization relevant amid a fragmented geopolitical landscape. Initiatives like the Tropical Forest Fund—designed to be financially self-sustaining through returns on high-yield fixed-income assets—are promising examples of the new paradigm we need. The financial sector must become an ally of the sustainability ecosystem, rather than an antagonist.

But institutions alone cannot drive this transformation. Companies—large and small—have a pivotal role to play.

This paradigm shift demands a new kind of corporate leadership—one that embraces the complexity of connecting economic prosperity and security with sustainability. For business leaders, it will require considering sustainability as a way to supercharge competitiveness, rather than virtue-signalling.

There are already many examples showing how sustainability drives business growth: increased customer retention and brand loyalty, market share growth, reduced operational costs, guaranteed access to raw materials in key sectors, product differentiation, monetization of natural capital assets. The ROSI™ framework (Return on Sustainability Investment), developed by NYU Stern School of Business, has helped quantify the financial value of sustainability strategies.

We need to equip businesses with the tools to recognize these benefits and embed sustainability as a strategic priority across their organizations. In the years to come—and with the growing risk of multiplying social and environmental crises—the only companies that will remain relevant in the long run will be those promoting sustainability values and, in doing so, contributing to the world’s security and economic prosperity.