2025 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for the Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO). From retail to heavy industry, sustainability leaders are stepping into broader, bolder roles—yet they are also facing sharper trade-offs, tighter budgets, and rising expectations from all sides.
What is emerging is not a single archetype of the CSO, but a spectrum: part strategist, part diplomat, part systems-thinker. Thanks to a series of in-depth interviews powered by ComplexChaos Conversational AI, we now have a deeper view into how these executives are navigating the tension between ambition and reality.
Sustainability Is Growing Up
The CSO is no longer just “the conscience of the company.” They're at the table—and in some cases, helping set it. “We’re not just here to report emissions anymore. We’re in the room when capital is allocated, and we’re expected to bring viable investment cases—not just ideals.”
This shift is especially clear when CSOs take a proactive stance in industry ecosystems. As one CSO noted: “For us—I’d like us to do more work around collaboration with our suppliers of metal. There are systemic issues in countries we source from that cannot be addressed by us alone, and collaboration is key to addressing these, and also to de-risking supply chains so we can secure better access to markets.”
This evolution isn’t accidental. According to the 2025 Morgan Stanley Corporate Sustainability Signals Report, 88% of global firms say their CSO or sustainability lead is now involved in strategic decision-making, up from just 63% in 2022.
But involvement doesn’t always mean influence. Many CSOs acknowledge they’re still navigating internal barriers, financial trade-offs, and a deeply ingrained mindset: short-term ROI above all.
Capital Allocation: The Real Power Play
For many CSOs, influencing capital allocation is the holy grail—and the biggest struggle. “We’re constantly walking the line between what’s sustainable and what’s fundable. In some industries, those are still seen as two different things.”
One leader summed it up starkly: “There is no tension between business growth and sustainability—if the strategy is designed in conjunction with the business, knowing its real issues, challenges, and valuation drivers.”
That alignment is often grounded in a “detailed understanding of the business model, its drivers, and what impacts valuation,” paired with “relationships with internal stakeholders and pragmatism.”
Others are seeing incremental breakthroughs. A CSO shared how adjusted ROIC models and internal carbon pricing are giving sustainability projects a fighting chance to compete with traditional investments. In sectors like chemicals and petrochemicals, the strategy is often more surgical:
“We don’t abandon long-term goals, but we do triage. We invest in what helps both the bottom line and sustainability—fast.”
Finance: Foe, Fence-Sitter, or Future Ally?
Interestingly, several CSOs pointed to finance as their “unexpected ally”—or at least the department with the most potential to unlock real change. “If finance becomes a co-owner of ESG, we can start embedding sustainability into how investment decisions are actually made—not just how they’re marketed.”
That co-ownership is growing. A PwC 2025 study found that 41% of CFOs now consider sustainability risks and opportunities when making long-term financial projections, up from 24% in 2023.
But the bridge is language, ensuring the connection of sustainability goals to accessing capital, mitigating corporate risk, and preserving (and growing) financial returns into the future:“If you can’t speak their language—cost, margin, risk—you’ll never get past the first slide.” Or as another CSO put it more directly: “Access to capital and access to market—these are the metrics I care about. These are core value drivers for the company.”
Metrics: Necessary, But Not Magic
The CSO community remains divided on metrics. While nearly all agree on the need for clearer ROI tracking, there’s no consensus on what the ideal metric looks like.
Some lean toward financial realism: “Show me the cost we avoid—carbon taxes, remediation, brand risk—and that’s ROI.” Others want to capture intangibles like brand equity, talent retention, and consumer preference: “It’s a blend—price, purpose, reputation. That’s what moves the needle in the long run.” Some CSOs point to the social side of sustainability as an especially difficult challenge: “We’re getting better at valuing carbon, but we still don’t know how to price employability or long-term social uplift. We often lack baseline data—and the longitudinal tracking needed to show what truly works.” Another adds:“Sustainability is about shared value—it's not just good for society, it helps our business thrive. But we’re not yet equipped to track those ripple effects at scale.”
Middle Management: The Bottleneck—or the Breakthrough?
Many CSOs report that the greatest resistance to sustainability isn’t from the C-suite or the frontline—it’s from the layer in between.
“Our CEO gets it. Our store teams are eager. But mid-level managers are still judged on short-term KPIs that have nothing to do with ESG.” Another executive adds: “It’s not that they’re resistant. They’re overwhelmed. There’s too much uncertainty, too many moving pieces, and we’re asking them to think holistically when their incentives haven’t changed.” She continued: "They fall back on what they know. They aren't always trained to connect decisions across systems—and when they are rewarded on one set of metrics but not another, change stalls.”
Some organizations are tackling this by tying sustainability KPIs to bonuses and promotions. Others are piloting internal “sustainability fellowships” to upskill managers and reframe what performance means.
Proof of Progress: The Quiet Wins
While bold headlines are few, many CSOs take pride in hard-earned, low-profile victories: “We scaled a new recycling tech across thousands of sites—with zero additional cost. That’s more satisfying than any glossy launch.” Another shared: “Developing our climate strategy—it wasn’t flashy, but it was tough. We faced internal resistance, some outright climate denial. But we got there—by grounding it in the business model and earning external recognition.”
And one executive highlighted the systems-level ambition behind their latest inclusion effort: “We launched a new framework focused on the root causes of inequality in the labor market. It wasn’t just performative—it was built to create shared value at scale. The board, the execs, our leaders—they all got behind it.”
A Product Worth Investing In—If You’re Willing to Wait
Asked to pitch their sustainability vision as a product, one CSO offered: “Think of it like infrastructure. Not sexy. Not fast. But absolutely essential. Without it, your business won’t survive the next two decades.” Another added: “We enable access to capital and access to market. That’s the pitch—and yes, it’s been effective.”
And one took a more expansive view: “It’s how we enable every part of the business to deliver on its goals—financial, societal, regulatory. Done right, it builds resilience, relevance, and reputation.”
Conclusion: Between Optimism and Operational Reality
If 2020 was the decade of sustainability promises, 2025 is the year of problem solving and course correction. The CSO is no longer the voice of aspiration—they are the manager of trade-offs, the negotiator between ESG intent and operational feasibility.
The future is neither guaranteed nor grim. It is uneven. Progress depends on sector, geography, leadership, and timing. But across the board, one thing is clear: the CSO is becoming less of a storyteller and more of a systems architect.
As one executive said, half-joking: “We’re not saving the world—but we might just help our companies survive in it.”
