It wasn’t long ago that terms such as sustainability, ESG and net zero were everywhere. Just last year, one would be hard-pressed to attend an industry conference—any industry conference—without sustainability taking center stage. This year? Not so much.
Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has once again withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement to curb global emissions, revoked plans to increase electric vehicles in the U.S., prioritized oil and gas production—its most recent tariff deal with the European Union is strongly centered on increasing liquefied natural gas purchases by the EU from the U.S.—and even reversed bans of plastic straws.
Take a deep breath and make your own judgement on whether all that backsliding is for good or bad for us, but as we sit here today it’s fair to wonder how companies are reacting to this swift shift in priorities. That’s why we recently posted a survey on our website, to find out what you think about these changes.
Once thing these next few years will tell us is who’s serious about sustainable processes, and who was simply greenwashing. As a recent article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review pointed out, “Management teams have a range of strategic responses available; they can exit or hide, and they can fight or foster…Companies should learn from the past and think long term: in other periods of backsliding, leaders were separated from greenwashers.”
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While it’s understandable why some companies might want to step back and wait out the current political environment, it’s also admirable to see those who are still committed to the same cause they’ve espoused as vital.
You can read about how system integrators, operators and suppliers are chugging along to create the best sustainable practices for process automation in "Street-smart sustainability".
So, while it seems the volume of sustainable investment and initiative may have turned down a bit this summer compared to last year, companies deeply committed to sustainability, ESG and net-zero results are still hard at work, and putting their money where their mouths have always been.
