{"id":37300,"date":"2023-03-27T20:16:49","date_gmt":"2023-03-28T00:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/?p=37300"},"modified":"2023-04-27T21:48:26","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T01:48:26","slug":"state-of-green-business-2023-and-the-top-10-trends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/state-of-green-business-2023-and-the-top-10-trends\/","title":{"rendered":"State of Green Business 2023 and the Top 10 Trends"},"content":{"rendered":"
>> Back to April 2023 Issue<\/a><\/div>\n

The following is an excerpt from GreenBiz Group’s 16th annual State of Green Business Report, which explores sustainable business trends to watch in 2023.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/h2>\n

To look only at the positive outcomes belies the immense challenges ahead.<\/b><\/p>\n

“Stay the course.” That may be the key message coming out of the convulsing, confounding year that was 2022. For all that those 12 months threw at us \u2014 a still-raging pandemic, a global economic downturn, major supply-chain chokepoints, political upheavals, climate-exacerbated natural disasters and a global energy crisis spurred by Russia\u2019s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine \u2014 there\u2019s no turning back for sustainability professionals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, inflation and low economic growth led some companies to tap the brakes, slowing some initiatives, including the increased headcount that goes with companies\u2019 growing sustainability ambitions. But not for long. There\u2019s a general sense that the critical nature of social and environmental challenges, and the risks they pose to companies and society, will keep sustainability a hot-button business issue for the foreseeable future.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s another round of the sustainability cha-cha: two steps forward, one step back.<\/b><\/p>\n

Oddly, some perturbations listed above have had a salutary effect on progress. The energy crisis laid bare the world\u2019s unsustainable reliance on oil and natural gas from unfriendly nations and led to a ramping up of renewable, homegrown energy sources, notably solar and offshore wind along with fast- growing energy storage technologies. The spiking of gasoline and diesel prices accelerated the uptake of electric vehicles of all types, from e-bikes to big-rig trucks and everything in between. Supply-chain shortages contributed to a relocalization of manufacturing and logistics, driving down the emissions from shuttling things across oceans. Low-input indoor agriculture took root alongside rising food prices and distribution disruptions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s a treacherous, often terrifying time, given the real-world indicators of progress, or lack thereof. And to look only at the positive outcomes belies the immense challenges ahead: more extreme weather disruptions; more dithering by political leaders on decisively addressing the climate, biodiversity and equity crises; more evasive maneuvers by the fossil fuel lobby and its acolytes to delay a global energy transition; more plastics polluting oceans, reservoirs and, ultimately, our bodies. And more corporate commitments and pronouncements unmatched by actual, or at least sufficient, progress.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n