Many are talking less about sustainability right now. That is exactly your opportunity.

Why the current headwind on ESG engagement is not a counterargument – but a momentum window for those who act.

The mood around ESG and sustainability has shifted. Many companies – and the people who work on this every day – feel it: the energy that was in the topic two or three years ago is harder to mobilize. Budgets are under pressure, capacity is tight, and for some the term "ESG" has lost its shine. That is a real perception, not a weakness.

And at the same time: those who keep working in a structured way right now are building a lead that will be hard to catch up with in two years.

"The fatigue usually doesn't come from acting — it comes from talking about action without making progress."

That is the pattern I see again and again. Not a lack of will, but a lack of infrastructure to translate insight into motion. Analysis loops that repeat themselves. Measures that don't get internal sign-off because the business case is missing. Progress that gets stuck at pilots.

The double challenge: less tailwind, less capacity

What makes the topic particularly demanding right now is the combination: on one side, acceptance and visibility of sustainability in many organizations have dropped. The topic has to justify itself more than before — to Finance, to the C-level, sometimes even internally within the team.

On the other side, the capacity needed for it has not grown — quite the opposite. Sustainability teams, which are often small to begin with, work in an environment that expects fast results but rarely provides the resources for them.

This isn't a question of priorities or willingness. It's a structural bottleneck: a lot of demand, little room to maneuver — and a topic that is currently harder to sell internally than it was two years ago.

Exactly in this situation, it is decided who wins in the long run. Not whoever has the largest team — but whoever finds the smartest lever.

What is shifting in the market right now

The so-called ESG backlash is often misread. It is less a turning away from sustainability than a turning away from sustainability without verifiable impact. And that is, on closer inspection, a healthy development — even if it doesn't feel that way right now.

Regulatory requirements continue: CSRD, the Energy Efficiency Act, supply chain pressure from customers and banks. That doesn't change with the mood. What does change: patience for anything that doesn't demonstrably deliver impact is gone. And that is exactly the moment when companies that actually move into action become visible — and gain credibility internally.

Three patterns I'm currently observing

Most companies we speak to have already done quite a bit — analyses, first measures, perhaps a reporting system. The difference is not in the starting point, but in where things get stuck afterwards.

Momentum gets stuck at the pilot

A measure runs well at the first site — but then nothing happens. No rollout, no scaling, no next step. The knowledge is there, the proof too. What is missing is the infrastructure to turn it into a movement.

Reporting is running — but the roadmap is missing

The footprint is in place, the numbers are clean, the report is finished. And then? Many know exactly how much CO₂ they emit — but not which measure should be approved next, and why. Reading the dashboard and steering the car are two different things.

Good measures fail internally — not on the merits

The idea is there, the saving is realistic, the will is there. But the approval doesn't come, because the business case is not phrased in the language of Finance. Or because no one clearly owns it. Or because the team simply has no capacity to push it through.

What these patterns have in common: it is rarely about missing knowledge or missing will. It is about the gap between insight and impact — and about how to close it, without starting a new mega-project.

What is concretely possible right now

We see it again and again at dauri: when we take the first structured look at a company's measures pipeline together, concrete levers that pay back in months — not years — can be identified within a few weeks. No big preliminary project, no months of analysis.

"Data uncertainty is not a blocker. The real blocker is the assumption that you must know everything before you can do anything."

The classic approach — first analyze, then balance, then someday act — costs more than money. It costs the energy of a team that wants to see results and gets stuck in endless loops. Whoever starts with a clear measures logic instead creates visibility quickly — and with it the tailwind for what comes next.

What this means if you are in the middle of it

If you carry sustainability responsibility, you know the tension: you see the levers. You know what would be possible. But internally you need tailwind — from Finance, from the C-level, from the site managers. And that hasn't gotten any easier.

That is exactly where we come in. Not with more reporting, but with a logic that translates measures into the language of CFOs: cost, payback, risk. When sustainability is expressed as return, it gets the green light.

The headwind in the market changes nothing about the basic arithmetic. Energy that is not consumed costs nothing. CO₂ that is not emitted does not need to be offset. Measures that pay off, pay off — regardless of how the ESG sentiment curve happens to be running.

The question is not whether now is the right time. The question is: what do we start with this week?

Where are your next levers?

In a 30-minute conversation, we'll look together at which measures will work for you immediately — and how to get internal tailwind for them.

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