The top sustainability trends in 2025 show how concern for the environment and the planet’s future isn’t limited to consumer buyers. More and more, it’s driving B2B decision making.
Recent research from Bain & Company indicates that for the first time, sustainability has become one of the top three purchasing criteria for corporate buyers. Other findings from the research show how important sustainability has become for B2B buyers:
- 48% of B2B customers are willing to pay a 5+% premium for sustainable products
- While 85% of suppliers now embed sustainability into their product offerings, only 53% of buyers feel like these offerings meet their needs
- 36% of B2B buyers are willing to walk away from suppliers that fail to meet their sustainability expectations—and that figure is expected to reach 60% within the next three years
In other words, sustainability isn’t just a nice-to-have; it has to be a business priority. With increasing regulations, technological advancements, and growing stakeholder demands, all businesses need to embrace sustainability with intention and focus.

Leaders don’t leave carbon footprints.
Get a free trial of SAP sustainability solutions HERE.

5 sustainability trends for 2025
For high-achieving organizations, sustainability also is a catalyst for innovation.
According to a survey by IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) and SAP, in collaboration with Oxford Economics, 84% of senior executives believe that sustainability fuels their drive to evolve and improve.
Here are five key sustainability trends for 2025 and actionable insights to help your business stay ahead:
- More regulations spur shift to standardized reporting: Increased regulatory requirements for corporate sustainability will lead more companies to adopt standard ESG reporting and governance frameworks.
- Carbon accounting drives business performance: New technologies allow companies to accurately measuring and reducing carbon emissions, which is essential for meeting net-zero goals.
- The evolution of Scope 3 emissions management: In 2025, companies will look to get better insight into their Scope 3 emissions to improve their sustainability.
- Pressure to reduce microplastics grows: Industries will face increased demand from stakeholders to reduce the environmental and health impacts of tiny plastics.
- AI is be a double-edged sword for sustainability: While artificial intelligence can help companies drive sustainability by optimizing resource use and increasing supply chain efficiency, it also consumes enormous amounts of energy.

1. The shift to standardized ESG reporting frameworks
A wave of new regulations is transforming ESG reporting from a voluntary initiative into a core business requirement.
2023 saw the introduction of the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). While the future of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Climate Disclosure Rule is uncertain, it’s fueling a broad shift toward mandatory, standardized ESG reporting.
This regulatory trend is forcing companies to rethink their approach to sustainability governance, with more adopting standardized reporting and governance frameworks, a shift that will continue in 2025.
For example, a Deloitte study found that 52% of companies now have cross-functional ESG councils in place. Deloitte also found that the role of chief sustainability officer has grown to 55% (up from 42% in 2022).
The stakes of non-compliance extend far beyond potential fines. Those that fail to comply risk losing access to capital markets, increased scrutiny from investors, and damaging relationships with customers who need reliable sustainability data for their own reporting.
Companies that develop robust ESG frameworks now will avoid last-minute scrambles for compliance and can build trust with stakeholders.
EUDR: How to comply with the EU deforestation rules
The EU's Regulation on Deforestation-free products takes aim at the cost of deforestation, and supply chain managers will bear the brunt of addressing them. While EUDR compliance goes beyond technology, technology can relieve much of the burden.

2. Carbon accounting becomes business-critical in 2025
Accurately measuring and reducing carbon emissions is essential for meeting net-zero goals, making carbon accounting a top trend.
Carbon accounting is the process of measuring, tracking and reporting the amount of greenhouse gases an organization produces. It helps businesses understand their carbon footprint generated through activities like manufacturing, transportation or energy use.
The era of treating carbon accounting as an ad-hoc, annual exercise is over. Tools like SAP Green Ledger allow companies to integrate emissions data with financial reporting, making carbon tracking more precise and actionable.
The business case for this trend is compelling: organizations that leverage integrated sustainability systems outperform their peers by 46% in profitability, according to the IBM-SAP study.
But it’s not just about performance. With 70% of EBITDA potentially impacted by sustainability challenges, and 50% of professionally managed assets projected to be ESG-mandated in 2025, carbon accounting is becoming as fundamental as financial accounting.
Without precise carbon accounting, companies can’t effectively reduce their emissions, meet regulatory requirements, or satisfy increasingly demanding customers. The integration of carbon accounting into core business systems enables real-time decision-making based on both financial and environmental impacts.

3. 2025 trend: Tackling scope 3 emissions
When it comes to reporting, greenhouse gas emissions are categorized three ways:
- Scope 1 emissions are from assets a company directly owns and controls like factories, machines and company-owned vehicles
- Scope 2 emissions are from the energy a company buys (e.g., utilities like electricity and heating)
- Scope 3 emissions include everything else that happens upstream or downstream in the value chain such as emissions from suppliers, product distribution, and even end-user use of the product
Scope 3 emissions have emerged as the next major frontier—and hurdle—in corporate sustainability.
Scope 3 emissions often represent the largest portion of a company’s environmental impact – sometimes up to 90% of their total carbon footprint. Yet, despite mounting regulatory pressures and market demands, only 15% of companies currently report these supply chain emissions, according to Deloitte.
This is due in part to the complexity of supply chain emissions management. Companies need to navigate intricate webs of suppliers, partners, and downstream activities, each contributing to their overall carbon footprint.
Companies can take several actions to improve their Scope 3 emissions reporting in 2025:
- Collaborate with suppliers to boost data collection and reporting capabilities
- Implement technologies that can track and verify emissions across the supply chain
- Develop clear roadmaps for achieving emissions reduction targets
- Create incentives for suppliers who provide accurate emissions data
Effective Scope 3 management often reveals opportunities for cost savings and supply chain optimization.
As regulations tighten and customers demand more transparency, companies that can’t effectively manage and report these emissions risk losing market access and competitive edge.

4. Sustainability trend: Growing concerns about microplastics
Microplastics have rapidly become a focal point in sustainability discussions, for good reason. These tiny plastic particles—often less than 5 millimeters in size—are now found everywhere: from the depths of the ocean to the air we breathe.
Across industries, the pressure to address microplastics is mounting as stakeholders demand action to reduce environmental and health impacts.
Regulatory bodies are responding. The EU, for instance, has introduced strict limits on intentionally added microplastics, impacting industries ranging from packaging to pharmaceuticals. Meanwhile, consumers are becoming more aware of microplastic pollution, pushing for products and packaging that are plastic-free, biodegradable, or made from recycled materials.
Industries that rely on plastic packaging, textiles, or manufacturing processes involving plastic polymers need to take action. In 2025, expect to see:
- Innovative materials: Companies are investing in alternative materials, such as biodegradable or compostable polymers, to reduce plastic waste
- Better filtration technologies: Businesses are incorporating advanced filtration systems to capture microplastics during production and wastewater treatment
- Circular economy solutions: More companies are adopting closed-loop systems to reduce plastic waste and maximize material reuse
Beyond plastic recycling: What businesses need to do to reduce waste, for real
Despite decades of plastic recycling campaigns, the majority of plastics still end up in landfills, incinerators, or polluting our oceans. Consumers demand change. Here's how businesses can lead the way to a healthier planet.

5. Managing AI’s dual role in sustainability
Artificial intelligence is both a powerful enabler and a potential barrier to corporate sustainability goals.
AI offers unprecedented capabilities to optimize resource use, increase supply chain efficiency, and even identify and target sustainability conscious customers. For example, AI can uncover new ways of tracking and understanding environmental and social issues, processing vast amounts of sustainability data that would be impossible to analyze manually.
It’s also proving valuable in supply chain optimization, where AI can spot inefficiencies and opportunities for emissions reduction that human analysts might miss.
But it also presents a tremendous environmental challenge: it’s a huge energy drain itself—one that could potentially triple IT emissions by 2030.
All those data centers crunching the data for AI consume enormous amounts of energy. Cooling hot data centers requires a lot of water.
Scientists are developing ways to reduce the amount of energy data centers need for AI, but it’s clear that companies must carefully weigh the technology’s environmental costs against its sustainability benefits. In 2025, this balance will become increasingly crucial as both AI adoption and sustainability requirements continue to grow.

Sustainability trends 2025: Turning commitments into action
These trends offer more than challenges; they provide opportunities to innovate, build trust, and drive long-term growth.
The most successful companies will be those that view sustainability not as a compliance exercise, but as a core driver of business value. They’ll use data and technology to make better decisions, engage more effectively with customers, and create new sources of competitive advantage.
2025 will be defined by action and accountability in corporate sustainability. The companies that thrive will be those that move beyond commitments to deliver measurable, verifiable results.
Leaders don’t leave carbon footprints.
Get a free trial of SAP sustainability solutions HERE.