The Case for Staying the Course: Why Smart Companies Are Doubling Down on Sustainability Now

By James Schaffer, Chief Strategy Officer, Worldly 

The first half of 2025 has had no shortage of news related to sustainability regulations. In recent months, headlines about regulatory delays, political pushback, and economic uncertainty have left some business leaders wondering, “Is now still the time to prioritize environmental and social responsibility?”

For companies that have long understood the business case for sustainability, the answer is an unequivocal yes.

While it’s true that some highly anticipated regulations are being postponed or reevaluated—especially in the European Union—these shifts don’t diminish the long-term imperative for businesses to understand and improve their social and environmental impact throughout their global supply chains. 

If anything, today’s political climate highlights the difference between companies that treat sustainability as an exercise in checking boxes and those that integrate it into the core of how they operate, lead, and grow.

In this moment of uncertainty, leaders have a choice. They can hit pause, waiting for the next wave of mandates. Or they can stay the course and recommit to the same principles that guided them before any of the current regulations were ever conceived, and that will still define success when regulations inevitably catch up.

Because the truth is, the fundamentals haven’t changed. Sustainability remains essential to building resilient supply chains, managing risk, and earning long-term trust with consumers, investors, and workers alike.

This is why, amid shifting politics and market pressures, sustainability still makes as much business sense as it always has. Here are three reasons your socially and environmentally responsible business practices should remain front and center.    

The heart of sustainability transcends politics

Sustainability isn’t a political fad that rises and falls with election cycles or shifts in public sentiment. It’s a decades-long movement rooted in stewardship of natural resources, protecting the people working in global supply chains, and preserving the long-term health of the planet and our businesses. Call it “the enlightenment”—that moment when we realized these things are inextricably intertwined. Those of us whose careers were changed by the realization aren’t going back to the stone age.

When I think back to similar moments in the past, when impact work of any kind fell out of popularity, the temptation was to hunker down, hide, retrench, or pretend you weren’t all that committed in the first place. But those years ended up being among the most impactful of my career. Why? Because responsible companies and leaders stay true to their values, through shifting sentiments and political phases, confident in the long game. 

After all, sustainability leaders who began this work more than 50 years ago were doing it long before the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) existed. And the factors that motivated us to begin this work don’t change with each new political administration or policy shift.

Regulatory uncertainty is an opportunity, not a reprieve

We’ve seen recent headlines about delays in sustainability regulations, particularly in the EU. It might be tempting for businesses that are unprepared for these regulations to be enforced to pause or delay sustainability efforts. But instead of viewing these delays as a reason to slow down supply chain sustainability efforts, forward-thinking businesses are taking the opportunity to catch up, strengthen their systems, and prepare to lead. It might seem strange to talk about “greed” in the context of supply chain sustainability, but Warren Buffet’s quote about being greedy when others are fearful is apt—those companies that are greedy to be tomorrow’s sustainability leaders, should seize this opportunity to excel while others are holding back.

Regardless of the EU’s ultimate timeline for full implementation, it’s important to remember that not every government is slowing down or rolling back their regulatory progress. It’s worth noting that California is the fourth largest economy in the world. There aren’t many companies that wouldn’t like to be doing business in California, if they’re not already. And unlike other states and countries, California is forging ahead with its own environmental regulations that companies will have to meet—not hitting pause on progress.

Ultimately, tomorrow’s leading brands and manufacturers will use regulatory delays as precious additional time to ensure they’re ready to meet or exceed requirements once they reemerge.   

Sustainability is strategic risk management

Caring about the people and resources in your value chain isn’t just ethical; it’s an essential component of risk management and it’s essential to good business. Some companies pursue sustainability out of passion. Others pursue it out of pragmatism. The truth is, the result is the same regardless of the motivation. 

The most basic principle of quantifying risk for the sake of risk management is to multiply the likelihood of a negative occurrence happening by how much that occurrence would cost your business. Depending on the result, a business may decide that it’s comfortable absorbing that risk—or alternatively, putting risk mitigation practices and insurance in place, or ceasing risky operations altogether. 

When it comes to the risk of an environmental or social disaster within your supply chain, however, the cost to your business isn’t entirely calculable. There are so many unknown factors with the potential to cost your business more than you can imagine. At the same time, the likelihood of the occurrence is also potentially unknown if you’re not proactively assessing your supply chain on a regular basis. 

The combination of these factors can propel the cost of a social or environmental incident into “black swan” territory. We only have to look at the fallout from the child labor scandals of the 1990s, the Rana Plaza disaster, or the cascading supply chain failure spawned by COVID-19 to see examples of extreme costs that businesses didn’t account for in their risk management calculations, though arguably they could have. 

The interventions and reporting that recent regulatory frameworks call for are tangible ways for businesses to mitigate a great deal of this incalculable downside. And, they’re ultimately pretty cheap insurance compared to large-scale underwriting (while potentially still maintaining risky operational practices). 

Therefore, sustainability, whether it comes from your heart and values or in response to regulations, is smart business and can lead you to the same place: in a solidly risk managed position.

Lead with clarity and commitment: because trends ebb and flow but sustainability will always be good business

The businesses that will lead tomorrow are the ones that act with clarity today. In a landscape of uncertainty, recommitting to sustainability isn’t just the responsible choice—it’s the strategic one.

At Worldly, we help brands and manufacturers measure what matters: the social and environmental impact of their global supply chains. If you’re ready to turn insight into action, now is the time to get started. Contact Worldly to learn more today