Deloitte Finds 78% of Companies Increased Sustainability Investment

More than three-quarters of companies increased sustainability investment over the past year, according to Deloitte’s 2026 C-suite Sustainability Report, while 77% of executives said those investments delivered greater financial returns than other business investments. The survey of 2,156 C-suite executives across 29 countries also found that companies are becoming more selective, with the average number of sustainability initiatives falling from 5.0 in 2025 to 3.4 in 2026.

 

Companies Are Investing More but Doing Fewer Things

 

Deloitte describes the shift as a move towards a more disciplined phase of corporate sustainability. Forty-seven percent of executives now say sustainability is embedded throughout their organisation, up from 39% last year, while only 18% say they are transforming their business model around sustainability, down sharply from 40% in 2025.

That change is also visible in the number of initiatives companies are pursuing. Respondents reported an average of 3.4 sustainability actions from the 12 options surveyed, down from 5.0 a year earlier, with almost 60% undertaking exactly three initiatives. The result is a narrower portfolio focused on programmes with clearer business relevance and measurable outcomes.

 

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Financial Return Is Becoming a Bigger Part of the Decision

 

More than half of executives, 51%, said short- or long-term financial benefits were the most important factor when assessing sustainability investments. CEOs and CFOs were particularly likely to prioritise near-term financial returns, showing how sustainability projects are increasingly being judged using the same business case applied to other investments.

That helps explain why 77% of respondents said sustainability investments generated greater ROI than other business investments. Deloitte notes that companies are looking at value across several areas, including revenue, cost reduction, resilience, brand, regulatory compliance and governance, rather than treating sustainability value as a single financial measure.

 

Technology Is Becoming Central to Sustainability Execution

 

Technology remains the most commonly cited sustainability initiative, with companies using digital tools for internal monitoring, supply-chain environmental data, risk management, reporting and operational efficiency. Forty-nine percent said they use technology for internal monitoring of sustainability performance, while 48% use it to manage environmental performance across supply chains.

AI is also increasingly part of that picture, although most companies remain at an early stage. Forty-nine percent said AI is deployed in targeted sustainability pilots, 20% are experimenting without scaling, and only 29% said AI is embedded across multiple sustainability use cases at scale.

 

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Climate Risk Is Moving Closer to Core Business Risk

 

Climate resilience is becoming a larger part of sustainability strategy. Sixty-three percent of organisations expect climate change to have a high or very high impact on strategy and operations over the next three years, while supply-chain disruption from extreme weather ranked as the biggest sustainability-related physical risk over the next three to five years.

However, only around one-third of companies said sustainability-related physical risks are fully integrated and routinely modelled within enterprise risk management. That gap suggests companies may feel prepared for climate risk before those risks are fully embedded in their core planning and decision-making systems.

 

The Bigger Shift Is From Ambition to Business Discipline

 

The report suggests corporate sustainability is not disappearing from the business agenda. Instead, companies are narrowing their focus, applying tougher financial tests and embedding sustainability more deeply into operations.

For Deloitte, the next challenge is maintaining that discipline without abandoning longer-term investments that may be harder to measure. As companies move towards fewer and more targeted initiatives, the strongest programmes are likely to be those that can show both sustainability impact and a clear link to business value.

 

Source: Deloitte Global