The Conference Board published CEO and C-Suite ESG Priorities for 2025 (February 2025) in the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance. The piece is based on research by The Conference Board in its annual C-Suite Outlook report, which draws insights from a survey of C-Suite executives. It focuses on U.S.-based companies but also includes insights for other countries.
Human Level’s Take:
- Climate risk and resilience, water management, gender equality and economic opportunity are top sustainability issues for CEOs and C-Suite leaders around the world, as shown by The Conference Board’s research on executive ESG priorities for 2025.
- ESG priorities continue to remain near the top of broader business agendas despite pushback, demonstrating the staying power of sustainability and the reality that companies are living in: that issues hurting people and the planet are also bad for business.
- The Conference Board suggests that a number of ESG priorities are driven by local pressures from investors, consumers and society.
- Businesses globally (especially those caught by EU regulations) are also seeing regulation as a driving force behind sustainability issues. This makes a key point: regulations to protect human rights, climate and the environment are also effective in shaping business actions — showing that staying the course on legislation has significant potential to create positive outcomes.
Some key takeaways:
- Social priorities are shaped by the local context: Economic opportunity and education are the top two social priorities for CEOs globally, with a focus on addressing workforce gaps through recruitment, retention and reskilling. In the coming years, companies are expected to increase partnerships with educational institutions and invest in workforce development, particularly in underserved communities, to foster job creation and enhance career pathways. Labour and working conditions are a key priority for business leaders in the EU, and a lower priority in the U.S. At the same time, rising consumer and investor expectations on fair pay and working conditions domestically and globally are pushing companies to improve their transparency and accountability on these issues. Meanwhile, topics like diversity, equity and inclusion and gender equality are evolving in line with regional drivers. In the U.S., for example, many companies are continuing to focus on gender equality (ranking fourth among social priorities) but are decreasing their focus on racial and ethnic inequality, perhaps due to increased social and political polarisation on the issue. In Europe, gender equality also remains a high priority driven by societal interest in the issue and laws on gender quotas and pay transparency. However, racial and ethnic diversity also rank lower, which the report proposes may be due to different societal dynamics in different countries. The report indicates that it is important to have a DEI strategy that is tailored the operating region.
- Climate risk is a top business priority: Climate risk is a top issue for C-Suite executives globally, and is seen as highly likely to impact the business. For example, in 2024, 84% of S&P 500 companies and 64% of Russell 3000 companies reported climate change as a material risk to the business. In the U.S., leaders are especially focused on climate resilience and are responding by prioritising infrastructure resilience to extreme weather and integrating climate risk into strategic planning. Leaders are also focused on water management, driven by growing water scarcity and increased consumer and investor focus on water stewardship. Other global priorities include renewable energy, carbon neutrality, and the energy transition. Waste management and the circular economy are also important, though they rank lower in the U.S. compared to Europe, where strong cultural alignment and regulatory frameworks like the EU Circular Economy Action Plan are driving more attention to circularity. Meanwhile, advances in energy technology are seen as crucial for addressing climate risks, reducing costs and enhancing energy security.
- Regulation is an important driver of sustainability: According to The Conference Board, ESG regulatory complexity is increasing, although U.S. CEOs expect less business impact from regulations compared to their global counterparts. For U.S. CEOs in 2025, ESG regulations rank fifth among external concerns, influenced by state-level initiatives like California’s climate disclosure laws and rising investor demands for transparency. However, the lack of progress on federal climate disclosure rules leaves the U.S. reporting landscape fragmented, creating compliance challenges for larger companies facing overlapping obligations. Meanwhile, global shifts toward mandatory sustainability reporting make ESG compliance a central focus in regions like Europe and among U.S. companies subject to EU laws. Certain sectors like manufacturing cite the stronger influence of regulations on their ESG priorities, which the report indicates could reflect the sector’s large impact on nature and climate, complex supply chains and reliance on capital and consumer trust.
