Sustainability Grows Up: Target Setting and Decarbonization Efforts Continue…Quietly

Something has shifted in the sustainability landscape — have you noticed? It’s not just policy change or regulatory breakthroughs, but a change in character, with companies focusing on deeper, more durable aspects of sustainable business.

As companies ease back on bold pledges and roll out fewer public branding campaigns around issues like climate and diversity, many are still at work on areas like operational integration, data infrastructure, investment in decarbonization, and securing high-level support for sustainability as a business fundamental.

As reported by ESG Dive, the Science Based Targets initiative finds that companies holding both near-term and net-zero climate targets grew 61% year over year in 2025, with over 12,000 companies now holding validated targets or commitments. The rate of target-setting has tripled since 2023 and is accelerating fastest in Asia, with healthcare, IT, and materials — sectors not traditionally associated with climate leadership — showing the strongest growth. As SBTi CEO David Kennedy put it, this is happening “despite political headwinds.”

At the same time, Fast Company reports that some of the world’s most visible companies — Big Tech among them — have gone quiet on climate, even as they continue to invest in decarbonization. In a separate piece, Fast Company explores the maturing of sustainability as a business practice — moving from advocacy and public rhetoric into behind-the-scenes work like measurement, integration, and executing existing strategies.

One aspect of this maturity shows in how businesses manage the “sustainability dichotomy” among red and blue state, which Trellis examines. Each company operating in multiple U.S. jurisdictions must navigate a varied landscape, ranging from proactive emissions disclosure mandates to politically-led hostility towards ESG commitments and initiatives. Managing this divide is now considered a core competency for sustainability teams.

G&A Institute’s latest blog on New Jersey’s proposed Climate Corporate Accountability Act adds another data point to the state-level picture. New Jersey is among the growing list of states advancing their own corporate climate disclosure requirements, reinforcing the decentralization trend we’ve tracked throughout 2026.

As the field matures, so do the tools companies use to measure and communicate their progress. G&A has published a new blog on unlocking the strategic power of the S&P Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) — one of the most widely used sustainability benchmarking tools, and one that many companies still underutilize. We’ve also released a new resource paper on engaging the value chain for Scope 3 decarbonization and the next installment in our 2026 CDP Response Cycle Series, covering what’s new and what’s next. All three are available in our G&A Blog/Research section below. For companies looking for support on CDP responses, SBTi target-setting, Scope 3 inventories, or S&P CSA responses – explore G&A’s full portfolio of services.

For professionals tracking the broader landscape, this issue also covers the ISO-GHG Protocol working group on unified product-level accounting, the growth of global emissions trading systems to 38 worldwide, Mexico’s new mandatory corporate sustainability requirements, and the largest U.S. renewable project now generating electricity.