If 2025 was the year sustainability lost its footing, 2026 is the year it sees a resurgence, and the sustainability trends for 2026 point to a clear shift.
Political u-turns, polarised debate and ESG scepticism created uncertainty like never before this year. Yet behind the headlines, something quieter and more important happened. Supply chains continued to decarbonise, energy systems evolved, and businesses progressed their plans, even when the external environment felt unstable. The transition didn’t stop.
This is no longer about lofty ambition or headline pledges. Instead, it is about credibility, value and action that stands up to scrutiny. For brands, the challenge is not whether sustainability matters, but how to speak in a language that resonates with investors, customers and employees alike.
A Shift from ESG Compliance to ESG Value
One of the defining sustainability trends of 2026 is the move from ESG reporting as a compliance exercise to ESG as a value driver. Mandatory and standardised reporting is here to stay despite various rollbacks and delays that hit the headlines this year. UK Sustainability Reporting Standards, the EU’s CSRD, and climate disclosure rules across the US and Asia are raising the bar and making ESG data unavoidable.
What changes in 2026 is not just what companies report, but why. Sustainability data is being used to inform investment decisions, safeguard reputations, and inform decarbonisation strategies covering Scopes 1,2 and 3 with a particular emphasis on supply chains. This data can then be used to build awareness and create conversations, however, it needs to be done in a way that is tailored to the specific audiences you’re targeting. For example, if you’re an EV business.
When reporting, PR, stakeholder engagement and internal communications align, ESG stops being defensive and starts driving belief.
Greenhushing Rumbles On
A trend we believe will continue into 2026 is the inevitable: greenhushing.
Political pressure, consumer scepticism and fear of backlash have led some brands to go quiet on sustainability. Action continues, but communications efforts have stalled, largely driven by a fear of political fallout, particularly in the US, where Trump stoked anti-green sentiment.
While staying quiet may feel safer in the short term, it could create issues long-term for the business or organisation. Brands that have invested for years but failed to articulate their journey may struggle to prove credibility, while those who told their story early win on audience engagement.
We advise brands to say less, better, and lead with success metrics and outcomes versus ideology. The most effective communications make sustainability feel credible and commercially viable, versus detached from everyday life.
Demand-Side Flexibility
2026 might well be the year we realise the potential of demand-side flexibility in the energy space. As grids absorb more variable renewable energy, the timing of energy use becomes as important as the total consumed. Technologies that shift or reduce consumption at peak times help businesses cut costs, reduce strain on infrastructure, and unlock new revenue opportunities without anyone noticing.
There’s a huge opportunity for energy flexibility businesses to showcase the potential of their technologies in the new year. It’s an incredibly complex space and needs careful communication, especially from a media perspective. Often the tech can be misinterpreted as making businesses or consumers ‘go without’, but that is where messaging and positioning is absolutely key.
Depolarising Climate Messaging
It’s a harsh reality, but ‘save the planet’ narratives are failing to deliver when pitted against the cost-of-living crisis. People care about bills, homes and local communities, not distant lands on the front lines of the climate crisis. As a result, the way businesses and organisations communicate must shift. It’s not about completely rejecting messaging relating to the planet, but putting fresh emphasis on local commitment and impact.
Localism, affordability and credible everyday messengers are key to engaging people. According to a recent study, two of the most trusted commentators on climate in the UK are David Attenborough and Jeremy Clarkson. Climate activists like Greta Thunberg fall further down the list, signalling some of these movements have become too political for individual buy-in. If your business is working with a trusted influencer or someone who is supporting the transition in their own way, consider working with them. It will help to depolarise the subject of net zero and get more people engaging with the movement.
Nature Steps into the Spotlight
2026 is also the year nature has its moment, driven by the so-called ‘Nature COP’ – COP17 of the Convention on Biological Diversity. With a focus on Taking Action for Nature, the summit will review progress against the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and shift attention from ambition to delivery.
The alignment of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures with global reporting standards is pushing biodiversity, water and land use into the heart of sustainability strategy.
Many businesses are less confident talking about nature than carbon. The science feels less definitive, and the metrics feel softer. The risk of sounding vague is what many businesses contend with here. Nature needs to be woven into the same narratives of climate resilience, value and long-term viability. When brands ground nature stories in evidence, they feel credible. When they don’t, they drift.
AI’s environmental reckoning
AI adoption is accelerating, and so is scrutiny of its environmental impact. Energy use, water consumption and the growth of data centres are increasingly visible, especially where communities are affected.
AI is unavoidable. The reputational risk lies in ignoring its impact rather than acknowledging it. Brands need to navigate this space carefully, balancing innovation narratives with transparency and honesty about trade-offs. No organisation has all the answers yet; clear, thoughtful communication that recognises complexity while demonstrating intent will be essential in 2026.
What Sustainability in 2026 Demands from Brands
Sustainability trends in 2026 are not about doing more for the sake of it. It’s about doing and saying things better.
As regulation tightens, economics take centre stage, and sustainability becomes more embedded in everyday decisions, communication plays a defining role. It connects strategy to action, data to meaning, and ambition to belief.
When rigour, imagination and execution come together, sustainability stops blending into the background and starts driving impact that multiplies. That is how progress builds momentum and lands where it matters most.
More From Us:
If the sustainability trends for 2026 raise questions about how your brand can show progress, build belief, and cut through complexity with communications, that’s a conversation worth having with our team of specialists. Get in touch at hello@thephagroup.com for a response within 24 hours.
We work alongside sustainability, comms and leadership teams to turn strategy into stories that land. From high-profile consumer brands such as Suntory Beverage & Food GB&I, to fast-growing net zero innovators like TRUE, our work helps businesses move from activity to impact, and from ambition to authority.
You can explore more of our thinking in the related blogs below:
- How to PR Your Sustainable Business
- How to Communicate Your Environmental Values and Reach Your Target Audience
- An Expert’s Guide on Effective Sustainability Communications
About PHA
PHA is an award-winning earned-first integrated communications agency.
We believe communication can make the world a better place. It matters. But with constant disruption, fragmentation and growing complexity, earning attention and inspiring action is harder than ever. PHA is built to solve for this.
We nurture, grow and protect brands & reputations for a portfolio of consumer, corporate, technology, b2b and health clients in the UK and internationally. We bring clarity to a fast, chaotic, complex world, challenging convention and delivering fresh thinking. Our agile multi-disciplined teams create dynamic campaigns across earned, social, digital and paid media, engaging audiences wherever they are, always.
We lead with strategy and deliver a full suite of creative services and production capabilities, generating impact at every step of the audience journey from awareness through to conversion. Working as one to solve any client challenge, we bring the best of PHA to drive impact that multiplies. When unboxed minds meet unboxed ambition, communications don’t blend in – they break out.
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