Sustainability: Alive and Well in 2025
Despite recent headlines, sustainability is not fading away. In fact, it's poised for significant growth in 2025 and beyond.
Recent reports confirm this trend. While job creation was a major focus of the recent election, voters increasingly demand not just more jobs, but better-paying jobs.
The clean energy industry has delivered, creating over three million well-paying U.S. jobs, nearly 40 percent of which are in manufacturing.
This growth has been driven by significant investments in clean energy and span various sectors, including manufacturing, construction, and distribution, all of which are offering those much wanted, better-paying jobs.
Further, since 2023, clean energy job growth outpaced the national average by a significant margin. Notably, many of those jobs don't require advanced degrees, and yet pay more – about 25 percent more - than comparable roles in non-green industries.
Interestingly, many of these green jobs are concentrated in states that did not support the previous administration, including Nevada, Georgia, Wyoming, Ohio, Texas, and several others.
Yet, these states have seen substantial economic benefits from investments in solar energy, solar storage systems, the development of cleaner aviation fuel, wind farms, and electric grid upgrades.
While initial support for many of these projects may have been minimal, their positive impact on job creation, tax revenue, and local economies now have widespread local support in these states.
Major financial institutions like BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street, managing over $22 trillion in assets, are strongly committed to sustainability. They require their suppliers to disclose climate risks and how they are working to mitigate those climate risks, driving further green investment across the supply chain.
This trend is mirrored by major corporations like Apple, Walmart, and Microsoft, whose sustainability commitments are also creating green jobs. Walmart, specifically, has established multiple goals and metrics aimed at:
Reducing carbon emissions
Increasing the use of post-consumer recycled content in packaging
Sourcing commodities more sustainably
Encouraging if not requiring suppliers to report on their sustainability progress and strive for improvements in their environmental and social practices.
Furthermore, studies by Morgan Stanley and McKinsey & Company have shown that companies with strong environmental performance often experience higher profit margins, greater resilience to supply chain disruptions caused by extreme weather events and improved operational efficiency.
The writing is on the wall so let’s stay optimistic and take many of those headlines mentioned earlier with a grain of salt.
The bottom-line is that sustainability will thrive in 2025. It's not just environmentally sound, it's also economically advantageous. It's a smart business strategy that drives job growth, boosts local economies, and enhances long-term financial performance.
-Steve
In this post, we reference current events. However, The Ashkin Group and Green2Sustainable.com maintain a non-political stance. Our primary objective remains consistent: we assist organizations in creating healthier and more sustainability-focused workplace environments.