Australia’s Opportunity To Lead the Next Wave of Sustainability
Bringing It Back to Core Business Fundamentals and Value Creation
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avril 23, 2026
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The political landscape in the US has affected markets and sustainability progress globally. However, speaking with US-based Miriam Wrobel, FTI Consulting’s Global Head of ESG & Sustainability, a common takeaway emerged; that this reset has actually given organisations globally a timely nudge of where to go next.
In this latest article, Carly West, Managing Director, ESG & Sustainability, explains that it isn’t about abandoning ambition or 2035 targets; it’s about anchoring them in business fundamentals that withstand scrutiny and deliver value. And Australia is uniquely positioned to lead that charge.
A Timely Correction
For many years, and excluding a few long-term leaders, we’ve seen what Miriam aptly calls “sustainability theatre.” You can see this demonstrated in grand commitments without capital allocation, sustainability reports without strategy, or goals without the data or methodology to back them up.
This is in no way the fault of the many highly capable sustainability experts, but because many sustainability teams continue to be earmarked as an expendable cost centre. When economic or global instability ramps up, they are asked to do more with less, pull back, reduce costs. Prioritise reporting and compliance over supporting the organisation to integrate material risks and opportunities into business-useful decisions and long-term impact. And all while the theatre is expected to continue to ensure shareholders and stakeholders are hidden from the retreat.
However, the recent global pullback in ESG, particularly in the US, isn’t a retreat from sustainability; it’s a necessary correction that’s separating genuine business discipline from performative gestures.
Companies that truly understood why they were pursuing sustainability initiatives - because access to renewables can reduce costs and provide stability in investment decisions, because circular materials and lower carbon products open new markets, because water security is fundamental to operations, because ESG risk assessment conducted by investors and financiers influence an organisations ability to secure the necessary capital - are still doing exactly what they were doing before. They’ve just changed how they talk about it. Some of the bold ones are talking even louder.
The shift in language across the US is significant and, yes, this is creating small ripples across other parts of the globe. However, organisations are responding by making a necessary shift away from aspirational sustainability speak toward the grounding concepts of materiality, resilience, risk, and governance.
This isn’t about abandoning ambition or 2035 targets; it’s about anchoring them in business fundamentals that withstand scrutiny and deliver value.
Widening the Aperture of Risk Management
One of the most powerful reframes is viewing sustainability not as a separate discipline, but as a tool that widens the aperture of traditional risk management and strengthens core business operations.
Consider her example of working with a food and beverage company whose leadership initially didn’t see climate as relevant to their business. Yet they did not realize the potential risks about water security, supply chain viability, and operational continuity that were intricately bound with climate change. When you frame it as “what happens to our business model in a drought year?” rather than “what’s our climate strategy?”, suddenly it becomes material to people who are not exposed to climate impact methodologies.
Which is where the opportunity lies—making sustainability relevant by connecting it to the operational realities and financial metrics that business leaders already manage. It’s not just about solving climate change as a company, it’s about building a resilient business that can thrive over the next 5, 10, 20 years regardless of external conditions.
Australia the Quiet Achiever
Australia’s mandatory climate reporting regime as part of the Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards, now coming into effect for the first wave of companies, represents more than a compliance obligation. It’s an opportunity to demonstrate to global markets and investors that climate disclosure can be rigorous, decision-useful, and fundamentally boring in the best possible way.
Boring because it’s grounded in materiality, coordinated with financial reporting, and built on auditable data and transparent methodologies. Boring because it serves investors and strengthens governance rather than generating headlines. Boring because it’s simply good business practice.
Australia is building on a strong foundation of voluntary reporting and high standards, particularly among the ASX100. Now, with mandatory disclosure requiring companies to submit comparable information using consistent formats and methodologies, we have the chance to cut through the noise and storytelling that has flooded global markets.
This matters because, as Miriam reminded us, “no investor ever asked for less information.” Asset managers and institutional investors want comprehensive data to make risk-adjusted decisions. The question isn’t whether to disclose, it’s whether that disclosure is accurate, material, and useful for decision-making.
From Standalone Function to Business Integration
One of the most encouraging trends we are seeing globally is sustainability moving from standalone departments into the core functions of the business. CFOs are taking ESG controllers into their teams to manage the data and connect the financial dots. General counsels are becoming executive sponsors of sustainability programs. Company secretaries are integrating sustainability governance across executive and board teams. The focus is shifting from strategy in isolation to data management, risk assessment, governance and integration with investment and operational decisions.
In due diligence processes, the question shouldn’t be “did we tick the ESG box?” but rather “were ESG factors discussed at the investment committee? Were financial metrics attached? How seriously was this information weighted in the decision?” Following the capital tells you everything about whether sustainability is genuine business discipline or just talk, and what sets the leaders and laggards apart.
This is exactly where sustainability belongs. Not as a separate initiative that lives in environment, SHEC, communications or corporate social responsibility, but embedded in how companies assess risk, allocate capital, make investment decisions, and manage operations.
Threading the Needle
Australian companies are facing a complex challenge. Supply chains are global. Customers are global. Information disclosed in Australia reaches stakeholders everywhere, including jurisdictions where the political climate around sustainability and ESG language has become fraught. But ultimately it’s not the role of government to dictate information that should not be considered by an investor, or is lowering the risk exposure for organisations.
This is where the discipline matters most. When disclosure is grounded in materiality, backed by solid data, and clearly connected to business fundamentals, it withstands scrutiny regardless of the political winds. When companies can demonstrate that they’re managing real risks and pursuing genuine opportunities - not virtue signalling or box-ticking - the quality of that disclosure speaks for itself.
We’re threading a needle, certainly. But Australia’s approach - mandatory, standardised, material, and decision-useful - provides a clear path through.
The Road Ahead
The global mood around sustainability and ESG may have shifted, but the fundamentals haven’t changed. Investors still need information to assess risk. Companies still need to manage climate impacts, supply chain resilience, human rights risks, and stakeholder and community expectations. The energy transition is still happening—perhaps more quietly and with a few road bumps along the way, but no less inevitably.
What’s changed is the tolerance for ESG and sustainability as a “nice-to-have” overhead that changes as political winds shift. The market has developed “a massive BS detector,” and that’s welcome. It means we can get back to basics: decision-useful impact, value creation, and core business discipline.
Australia now has the opportunity to not only get on the radar of global investors, but show the world what the next chapter of sustainability looks like—less performative, and fundamentally grounded in discipline, financial stewardship and impact.
That’s the opportunity in front of us. And I’m optimistic about Australia’s ability to seize it.
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Date
avril 23, 2026
Contacts
Senior Managing Director, Global Leader of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and Sustainability
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