Every year, April 22nd comes around the same way
We see the pictures. The recycling infographics. The posts about caring for the planet. And then April 23rd arrives and most of it just goes away.
According to reports, an estimated 62% of consumers said they are willing to change their purchasing habits to limit environmental impact, however, only 31% of people reported that their most recent purchase consisted primarily of sustainable or environmentally friendly items.
But 2026 feels different.
This year’s theme is “Our Power, Our Planet.” If one were to consider the circumstances, it would be very clear that in 2025, several hundred environmental regulations were repealed globally, including emissions standards and wetlands protection measures, each of which had taken over a decade to formulate. It was not a few isolated instances of policy changes; it was a systematic reversal of decades-old policies while the vast majority of businesses were preoccupied with other issues.
It is not a matter of whether businesses have become aware of the problem. It is a matter of what actions will they take to address it.
The Gap Has Never Been About Awareness
Every leader we talk to knows climate change is real. Every CxOs we work with knows that disclosing how their company affects the environment is coming, whether they are ready or not. The market is not unaware. The problem is that awareness has not been turning into action.
As per a new survey conducted by CRM solutions provider Salesforce, in partnership with insights and advisory consultancy GlobeScan, while 90% of executives viewed sustainability as important to their organizations’ commercial success, including two-thirds who rate it as “very important,” only 37% consider sustainability to be very integrated into their businesses.
The report noted the importance of high quality data for meeting new regulatory sustainability reporting requirements, with the survey finding that 59% of executives expect to have difficulty complying with the new EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and 31% expecting challenges with the reporting requirements from the IFRS’ International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).
And under that problem is something just as bad, but harder to notice. For example, a truck that stays motionless and burns up fuel every day. The same goes for the expense of not being sustainable. It builds up quietly. The cost of borrowing goes up. Government scrutiny increases. Investors start losing confidence. The people inside the company start asking questions about what it actually stands for. These are not future worries. They are happening right now. They are just not always easy to spot on a report.
Most companies still think of sustainability as something that belongs in an annual document. Not in the room where actual business decisions get made. That thinking is exactly what keeps companies stuck. And it is exactly why April 23rd tends to feel like the morning after a party nobody really planned.
Saying It and Doing It Are Not the Same Thing
A net-zero commitment without a way to measure it is just words. A diversity goal without a structure behind it is something that gets said in a meeting and forgotten. The difference between companies that are genuinely making progress and those that are just talking about it comes down to whether sustainability is part of how they actually make decisions, not just how they communicate.
Following frameworks like BRSR, GRI, CSRD, and IFRS S1/S2 is not about doing what regulators say. It is about being honest and transparent in a way that holds up. And, this is not niche anymore. For example- as per guidelines, India’s top 1,000 listed companies are now mandated to report under BRSR. Similarly, CSRD will expand ESG reporting requirements to ~50,000 companies in the EU.
Companies that have built this properly do not just report differently. They operate differently. The way they buy, the way they use energy, the way they work with suppliers, all of it gets informed by a clearer understanding of what sustainability costs and what it is worth. That clarity, built up over time, is what separates companies that are actually performing from those that are just trying to keep up.
What This Actually Requires from All of Us
The real change happens after Earth Day. It is about what people and businesses do not just what they say. People need to be careful about what they buy and try to use energy and stuff. They should think about whether the things they buy’re good for the Earth.
Companies need to ensure that they practice sustainability by setting measurable, achievable goals based on factual information. They must also consider how their actions will impact the earth and act accordingly to “do the right thing.” They also have to measure how well they are doing and be honest about it. Businesses must be open about what they’re doing to help the Earth and sustainability of Earth is very important, for businesses and people.
Awareness without measurable actions and accountable actions cannot produce results.
“Our Power, Our Planet” Is Not an Invitation. It Is a Question.
Climate urgency is intensifying, marked by rising global temperatures, record-breaking warm years, and an increasing frequency of climate-related disasters. It is asking companies what they are doing with the power they already have. The supply chains. The capital. The energy decisions made every single day without a sustainability lens. The people being developed, or not. Each one of those is an opportunity. Most of them are still being left alone.
April 22nd is a reminder. But the work does not start or stop on that day. It lives in the decisions companies make every other day of the year.
The answer and the work start now.
