SF Climate Week edition: WHAT do we say… right now?
published 5.6.25
With the aim of helping impact leaders find grounding and solidarity in a time of deep uncertainty, qb. hosted a confidential, in-person gathering during San Francisco Climate Week. This candid, off-the-record event created space to name challenges and exchange strategies to work through them. When asked to describe how they were feeling, attendees used words like “paralyzed,” “uncertain,” “tired” and “noisy”—though importantly, also “adaptable,” “inspired” and “hopeful.”
The backdrop to this conversation needs no introduction: corporate sustainability professionals are facing the most volatile environment in recent memory. As we’ve previously discussed, the return of the Trump administration has intensified anti-ESG and anti-DEI backlash and brought regulatory rollbacks and legal threats.
Here’s what leaders from top companies had to say in this second installment of our What Do We Say Now? roundtable series:
1. Stop Relying on Regulatory Pressure Alone to Justify the Work
For many of us in this space, phrases like “evolving regulatory landscape” are a cliche, but the ground today feels shakier than ever. In a matter of months, new executive orders and agency actions have rolled back DEI initiatives, weakened federal climate commitments, and introduced the threat of legal action for organizations advancing sustainability and inclusion. Meanwhile, companies are having to navigate a patchwork of state-level and international requirements.
The consensus was that compliance is still important, but if we keep making a business case for sustainability that is anchored solely in the regulations of today, we risk being vulnerable to the politics of tomorrow. We need to connect our work back to financial materiality. This means linking sustainability directly to business value—not just compliance—by framing it within the context of a company’s specific industry and material benefits, such as risk mitigation, talent retention, customer trust and operational resilience.
From our roundtable: “In my old role, it was easy—build a renewables power plant, and the value was obvious. But in most sustainability work, the benefits are less tangible. That’s why relying on regulatory language alone doesn’t cut it—rules shift depending on who’s in power. It’s hard work, but we need to get better at telling the business value story ourselves.”
2. Be Pragmatic and Remember: All Impact is Business Impact
With reporting season ramping up, several leaders shared that their legal teams are urging them to scrub even seemingly innocuous terms like “inclusion” and “sustainability” from their drafts. Legal will be legal, and caution is understandable right now. But as some participants pointed out, silence carries its own risks. Choosing not to speak up on issues that matter to investors and internal stakeholders can erode trust and incur reputational harm. Also, we can’t just nix all words.
To move the work forward, building bridges and identifying champions to collaborate with internally—especially in leadership roles—will be crucial. One participant described working with legal to preserve the word “accessibility” in a white paper by highlighting its intrinsic role in the company’s business model, rather than as a political stance. Another shared that her team is proceeding with a double materiality assessment, partnering with an ally in leadership to make the case that issues like inclusion should remain in the company’s strategy, despite mounting legal pressure and the uncertain applicability of CSRD.
Otherwise put, impact professionals must grow more fluent in the kinds of risk-reward tradeoffs their peers in product, marketing and finance navigate every day. That includes knowing when it’s riskier to stay quiet than speak up. Tools like Gartner’s Peer Insights portal can help teams assess how peers are moving through this terrain and avoid unnecessary overcorrections.
From our roundtable: “You have to be comfortable with some risk—there are always risks. But there’s also a benefit to doing this work. You can’t avoid everything.”
3. Innovate or Risk Irrelevance
Some attendees—especially from the tech sector—voiced concerns that while their companies are racing towards the future, sustainability teams risk becoming disconnected if they hold on to outdated frameworks without stopping to question if they’re still useful. This is a pivotal moment to rethink the tools, strategies and assumptions that have defined our work.
Innovation is the key to moving our work beyond compliance and towards value-generating impact that aligns with long-term business goals. This includes embracing new business realities, such as the importance of harnessing data, using AI tools to measure and assess impact and collaborating cross-functionally to amplify results. Our focus should be on what’s material now—and we should be willing to challenge assumptions and assess whether our practices still meet our needs.
From our roundtable: “If we don’t shine a light on our own work, we risk becoming the least innovative people in the room. I want us to be asking the right questions about why and how we do things… Because I think if we don’t, we’re not catching up.”
4. Protect Morale, Reconnect to Purpose
Burnout is real. Resilience starts with reconnecting to the sense of purpose that drew us to this work in the first place. Whether it’s by celebrating Earth Day, volunteering, or leaning on the support of our networks, these moments can help inspire and remind us why we do what we do. Small wins matter, and so does ensuring our work can continue in the face of adversity. Nobody is in this alone—coming together in safe spaces to vent and reenergize lightens the load and brings us closer to shared solutions.
From our roundtable: “It’s time to hold on to each other and make sure we’re all around for the next year. In many ways, we’ve been made for this moment.”
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by Noemí Jiménez
Communications Lead & Cofounder
