Why 2026 Might Be the Best Year Ever for Corporate Social Responsibility Leaders

If you work in corporate social responsibility, the past year probably felt like swimming against a riptide. U.S. federal rollbacks on climate policy. The "anti-ESG" backlash intensifying. Budget scrutiny tightening. Headlines declaring the sustainability recession.

And yet.

When Tim Mohin surveyed more than 300 sustainability professionals about their outlook for 2026, the dominant response wasn't pessimism. It was cautious optimism—52% of respondents selected this framing, compared to just 21% who described themselves as pessimistic.

What do these professionals see that the headlines miss?

The answer lies in a divergence that's been quietly building: while political and regulatory winds have shifted, the underlying business fundamentals for sustainability—and for CSR more broadly—have crossed a threshold. The companies paying attention aren't retreating. They're repositioning.

For CSR leaders who understand this moment, 2026 may represent an unprecedented opportunity to move from the periphery to the center of corporate strategy.

The Business Case Has Reached a Tipping Point

Three data points tell the story.

First, CEO buy-in has fundamentally shifted. According to Bain's 2025 Visionary CEO's Guide to Sustainability, 54% of CEOs now explicitly link sustainability to business value—up from just 34% in 2018. This isn't incremental growth; it's a strategic reorientation at the top of organizations.

Second, companies increasingly view sustainability as a source of competitive advantage, not a cost center. HSBC's December 2025 Sustainability Pulse Survey found that 95% of corporates see sustainability as a commercial opportunity, and 99% expect it to drive differentiated competitive advantage within three years. These aren't aspirational statements from sustainability teams—they're expectations from business leadership.

Third, the market is responding. A joint report from BCG and the World Economic Forum found that the global green economy has surpassed $5 trillion and is projected to exceed $7 trillion by 2030. Since 2020, green revenues have grown twice as fast as conventional revenues. Companies with at least 50% green revenues achieved valuation premiums of 12-15%.

The business case isn't theoretical anymore. It's showing up in revenue growth, market valuations, and competitive positioning.

The B2B Shift Changes Everything

Perhaps the most consequential finding for CSR leaders is buried in the Bain data: 49% of B2B companies are already buying more from sustainable suppliers, up from 39% last year. And 68% plan to prioritize sustainability in supplier selection within three years.

This represents a fundamental change in how sustainability creates value. When your customers start making purchasing decisions based on your sustainability performance, CSR stops being about reputation management and starts being about revenue protection and growth.

But here's what matters most: B2B buyers are getting more sophisticated. As greenwashing concerns have grown, procurement teams are learning to look past glossy reports and marketing claims. They're asking harder questions: What actually changed? What capacity did you build? What can you demonstrate?

This scrutiny creates an opening for companies with substantive programs. Organizations that can point to genuine capability-building—in their communities, in their supply chains, in their workforce—will differentiate themselves from competitors whose CSR consists primarily of charitable donations and volunteer day photo opportunities.

The type of CSR investment matters now in ways it didn't before. Programs that create measurable, lasting change for stakeholders are becoming competitive assets. Programs that can't demonstrate real outcomes are becoming liabilities.

The Real Barrier—And Your Opportunity

If the business case is so strong, why isn't every company accelerating its CSR investments?

Mohin's survey reveals the answer: the number one barrier to sustainability progress in 2026, selected by 39% of respondents, is "low executive priority." Not regulatory uncertainty. Not budget constraints. Not talent shortages. Executive attention.

This seems paradoxical given the CEO data above. But the gap makes sense when you examine it closely: executives are prioritizing sustainability when they see clear business value. The challenge for many CSR leaders is translation—connecting their programs to outcomes that matter to the C-suite.

This is where the nature of CSR programming becomes strategic.

Consider the difference between two approaches to employee engagement in social impact. The first approach counts volunteer hours, produces an annual report showing participation rates, and positions the program as an employee benefit. The second approach tracks employee skill development through real-world projects, measures capacity gains for community partners, documents how the experience builds leadership capabilities, and connects participation to retention and performance data.

Both approaches involve employees contributing time to social causes. But only one builds a business case that survives CFO scrutiny.

Skills-based volunteering programs—where employees apply their professional expertise to help nonprofits and social enterprises solve real challenges—exemplify this dual-value model. The employee develops leadership, collaboration, and problem-solving capabilities in contexts outside their normal work environment. The community partner gains access to expertise they couldn't otherwise afford. The company builds evidence of both talent development and social impact.

Research supports this distinction. A comparative analysis of more than 30,000 volunteers found that participants in skills-based programs reported significantly higher benefits across recruiting, professional development, stakeholder relationships, and business value—often 7-125% improvements compared to traditional volunteer activities. Separate practitioner data shows that 96% of skills-based volunteers consider the experience a professional development opportunity, with measurable effects on engagement and retention.

Companies like SAP have operationalized this at scale. SAP's Acceleration Collective, which connects employees with social entrepreneurs globally, was designed explicitly to align with the company's HR strategy of developing talent through real-world experiences. As SAP's Global Director of Social Business & Entrepreneurship put it: "This is the one program that EVERY SAP employee can engage in... delivering an unparalleled experience for employee engagement, experiential learning, and innovation."

The lesson for CSR leaders: when your programs can credibly claim to serve talent strategy, not just philanthropy, executive priority follows.

From Participation Metrics to Impact Metrics

The old CSR playbook measured inputs: dollars donated, hours volunteered, employees participating, nonprofits supported. These metrics are easy to track and easy to report. They're also increasingly insufficient.

The new environment demands outcomes: What capacity was built? What changed for partners? What skills did employees develop? What can be demonstrated to skeptical B2B customers or investors?

This shift favors programs that are inherently outcome-oriented. Skills-based engagements, by design, organize around solving specific challenges for partners—which means impact measurement is built into the model rather than bolted on afterward.

EY's Ripples program, as explained in our "The ROI of Skills-Based Volunteering Webinar", illustrates this approach: connecting employee expertise to social entrepreneurs who need specific capabilities, creating measurable outcomes for both sides. The partnership isn't structured around volunteer hours; it's structured around entrepreneur success.

For CSR leaders, the measurement shift has practical implications. The programs worth investing in—and defending when budgets tighten—are those that can answer the question: "What specifically changed because of this program?"

Resilience as Strategy

In his latest newsletter, Paul Polman offered a reframe that resonates for CSR leaders navigating 2026: resilience is not the ability to recover after pressure passes. It's the capacity to remain anchored while pressure compounds.

"When leaders operate in a state of permanent exhaustion or reactivity," Polman writes, "judgment does not fail all at once—it thins. Boundaries soften. Values blur. Decisions are made faster, with less care."

For CSR leaders, this has specific application. The political noise around ESG and sustainability is unlikely to quiet in 2026. The temptation to dramatically scale back, or to chase the latest framing that seems politically safer, will be constant.

But the professionals who will emerge strongest from this period are those who maintained conviction while adapting their approach. The business fundamentals haven't changed—if anything, they've strengthened. What's changed is the need to articulate those fundamentals more clearly, to build programs with demonstrable dual value, and to connect CSR strategy explicitly to business outcomes that leadership already cares about.

The programs worth defending are those with clear business logic and genuine impact. Skills-based engagement survives budget scrutiny precisely because it's defensible on multiple grounds simultaneously. It serves employees. It serves communities. It serves the business.

What This Means for You

If you lead CSR at your organization, here's how to position for the opportunity 2026 represents:

Audit your portfolio for dual ROI.

Which of your programs can demonstrate both business value (employee development, retention, engagement) and social impact (measurable capacity-building for partners)? These are your strategic assets. Programs that can only claim one or the other are vulnerable.

Shift measurement from participation to outcomes.

Stop counting hours and start documenting what changed. What capabilities did employees develop? What specific challenges did you help partners solve? What can you demonstrate to a skeptical procurement team at a potential customer?

Build internal allies beyond the CSR function.

Your natural partners are in talent development, leadership programs, and HR strategy. When your programs credibly serve their objectives, you gain advocates with direct lines to executive leadership.

Deepen rather than broaden.

Fewer, more substantive partnerships beat scattered check-writing. Deep engagements produce the kind of outcomes you can document and defend. Surface-level philanthropy produces annual reports that satisfy no one.

Connect your work to the B2B differentiation story.

Your sales and business development teams increasingly need sustainability evidence to win contracts. Position yourself as a resource for them. When CSR becomes a sales enabler, executive priority follows.

The Case for Cautious Optimism

The caution in "cautious optimism" is warranted. The political headwinds are real. The regulatory environment is uncertain. Budget conversations will be difficult.

But the optimism is equally warranted—perhaps more so. The business case for sustainability has never been clearer. CEO buy-in has never been higher. B2B purchasing behavior is shifting in ways that reward genuine impact. The green economy is growing twice as fast as the conventional economy.

For CSR leaders who can translate their work into the language of business value, who can demonstrate real outcomes rather than just activity, and who can maintain conviction while adapting their approach, this moment represents an opportunity to claim strategic influence that the function has long sought.

The data suggests 2026 won't be a year of retreat. For the CSR leaders who read it correctly, it may be a year of arrival.

If you want to nerd out on these topics or explore partnerships to scale up global skills-based volunteering programs at your company, please do get in touch.

Sources: Bain & Company, "The Visionary CEO's Guide to Sustainability 2025"; HSBC, "Sustainability Pulse Survey" (December 2025); BCG & World Economic Forum, "CEO Guide to Growth in the Green Economy" (December 2025); Tim Mohin, "A Cautiously Optimistic 2026," Sustainability Simplified newsletter (January 2026); Paul Polman, LinkedIn newsletter (January 2026).