The Context: 2025-2026 Sustainability Insights

2025 produced some seismic shifts in the sustainability landscape — accelerating progress in some areas and stalling developments elsewhere. Those that have successfully navigated the highs and the lows of the past 12 months emerge more committed and focused on the actions that matter.

Download the full report to access expert insights, actionable priorities and strategic guidance for 2026 and beyond.

 

Key Findings: Five Trends That Shaped Corporate Sustainability in 2025

In 2025, the global landscape was defined by political and economic tensions. Sustainability professionals felt the impact in five key ways:

1. Regulatory uncertainty affects multiple regions

Longstanding political consensus on many social and environmental issues collapsed, as political parties debated how to drive growth. Net zero goals became contested. In Europe and the US reporting requirements were increasingly seen by some as an unnecessary burden on companies, while in the Middle East they were considered central to regional economic diversification and growth. These contradictory pressures left many companies questioning how best to pursue their sustainability agenda.

2. Commercial drivers take centre stage

Against a backdrop of uncertainty, companies committed to sustainability renewed their focus on resilience and competitive advantage. Sustainability initiatives increasingly needed to demonstrate clear business value and future-readiness.

3. Risk management moves to the forefront

The importance of good risk management moved to centre stage in response to political, regulatory and economic developments. For many companies, a focus on political risk diverted attention from action to reduce environmental and social impacts and respond to longer-term business risks, such as climate change.

4. The AI debate shifts to responsibility

Technology continued to dominate the headlines. Governments heralded AI as key to future growth. But as concern grows about AI’s social and environmental impacts, it fuelled debate about what constitutes responsible AI.

5. Authentic sustainability communication is critical

With growing demand to prove return from sustainability investments, those companies that are genuinely committed to sustainability felt renewed pressure to tell their story with consistency, clarity and authenticity.

 

Why This Matters Now

2026 will separate genuine sustainability leaders from those paying lip service. With the European Parliament still finalising Omnibus proposals and the US administration scaling back sustainability regulation, corporate stakeholders are scrutinising strategies more closely than ever.

The strategic rationale for sustainability has never been more important. Companies must demonstrate how environmental and social considerations integrate into core strategy and operations — or risk being exposed as superficial.

This is the moment for sustainability professionals to prove their value: reducing risk, increasing resilience, and communicating progress with authenticity.

 

What’s Inside The Context: 2025-2026 Sustainability Insights

This comprehensive report from Context provides:

• In-depth analysis of the five key trends that shaped 2025.
• Expert insights on how these trends will impact your sustainability strategy in 2026.
• Action-oriented checklists to help you prioritise and strengthen your sustainability programme.
• Strategic guidance for navigating regulatory uncertainty, managing risk and communicating authentically.

 

Who Should Read this Report

The Context: 2025-2026 Sustainability Insights is essential reading for:

• Sustainability and ESG professionals managing corporate programmes.
• Senior leaders wanting an accessible guide to the latest sustainability trends.
• Investors and private equity managers evaluating how recent sustainability developments
  could affect their portfolio.

 

Download The Context: 2025-2026 Sustainability Insights

Access your copy here and equip your organisation with the insights needed to navigate 2026’s sustainability challenges.

 

About Context

Context is a leading sustainability consultancy with over 25 years of expertise helping companies develop robust sustainability strategies, reporting, and communications. Our team provides expert guidance to organisations navigating the complex and rapidly evolving sustainability landscape.

Want to discuss how these trends impact your sustainability strategy?

Contact Helen Fisher, Managing Director, Context Europe

helen.fisher@contexteurope.com

 

What our sustainability benchmarking revealed

Context’s 2025 Luxury Fashion Sustainability Benchmark provides a clear guide for understanding how leading luxury fashion companies address their most material sustainability priorities through public disclosures.

Who’s leading the runway?

As the founder of luxury fashion house Givenchy once said, “luxury is in each detail”. Here at Context, we wanted to determine whether this extends to the sector’s sustainability reporting.

The luxury fashion industry sells timelessness, quality, and craftsmanship. It should have a great sustainability story to tell. We analysed the publicly available sustainability reporting of 10 of the world’s largest fashion companies, including Burberry, Chanel, LVMH and Kering, to find out how they manage and talk about key environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. We found most companies missed the opportunity to fully disclose their impact on people and planet.

Overview

The luxury fashion industry yields significant cultural and economic influence globally. With its growing consumer base and access to emerging materials, luxury fashion can scale more sustainable business models and drive change across the wider sector. But beneath its shiny surface lies a less glamorous truth: the sector faces significant social and environmental challenges, including growing greenhouse gas emissions,¹ the presence of potentially toxic ‘forever chemicals’,² labour rights issues,³ and allegations of cultural appropriation.⁴

As regulatory scrutiny intensifies, investor expectations rise, and consumers become more discerning, sustainability reporting in luxury fashion has moved from a communications exercise to a strategic necessity. It underpins trust, signals regulatory readiness and helps catalyse long-term value creation across the sector.

Context’s 2025 Luxury Fashion Sustainability Benchmark provides an independent assessment, based on publicly available disclosures, of how leading luxury fashion companies identify, manage and report on their most material sustainability topics. Rather than assessing sustainability performance and progress data, the benchmark evaluates the quality, depth and consistency of public sustainability reporting to understand how well these companies are responding to the increasing external appetite for sustainability information.

By analysing 10 of the world’s most influential luxury fashion companies, the benchmark offers a clear picture of current reporting maturity across the sector, and what credible leadership looks like as expectations continue to rise.

Download the full report: 2025 Luxury Fashion Sustainability Benchmark.

Why sustainability reporting matters in luxury fashion

Luxury fashion is often perceived as more sustainable than high-street or fast-fashion brands due to its emphasis on quality, craftsmanship, and exclusivity. But this is not always the case. The sector faces complex sustainability challenges, many of which are embedded within vast global supply chains.

The wider fashion industry is estimated to account for up to 8% of global carbon emissions and ranks as the world’s second-biggest consumer of water after agriculture.[1] The sector also faces ongoing criticism around labour conditions, with some suppliers being paid as little as €4 an hour for up to 90 hours a week to reduce production costs.[2] Chemical use is another area of concern — harmful compounds in garments can pose risks to human health.[3]

As the luxury fashion market is projected to grow from approximately €234 billion in 2025 to €310 billion in 2030[4] stakeholder expectations regarding the management of environmental and social impacts are rising. Investors are seeking comparable, decision-useful impact data, and new regulations such as the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulations are raising the bar for the depth, consistency, and assurance of sustainability disclosures. Consumers too are increasingly factoring environmental and social considerations into luxury purchasing decisions.[5] Transparency is essential for luxury fashion companies to meet regulatory expectations and strengthen stakeholder trust amidst an evolving landscape.

Methodology

The Luxury Fashion Sustainability Benchmark examines how well companies:

• Identifying material issues. How the company’s sustainability strategy and reporting address its material topics.
• Managing material risks and opportunities. How the company manages its sustainability issues.
• Tracking progress. How the company monitors and reports sustainability progress.
• Reporting progress. How the company shares progress through sustainability reporting, based on selected themes.
• Communications quality. How well the company communicates about sustainability.

Together, these criteria provide a holistic view of sustainability reporting maturity across the luxury fashion sector.

Benchmark scope and audience

Context’s Luxury Fashion Sustainability Benchmark aims to understand how well leading luxury fashion companies identify, manage and report their work on key sustainability areas. responds directly to this shift in expectations. Drawing on more than 25 years of experience supporting companies with sustainability strategy, reporting and communications, we analysed the sustainability reporting of 10 global luxury fashion companies to find out who is leading the runway when it comes to sustainability.

Who the benchmark is for

This benchmark is designed for:

• Sustainability and ESG professionals within luxury and fashion companies.
• Investors and analysts seeking insights into reporting quality and disclosure practices.
• Researchers, communicators and consultants.
• Anyone with an interest in the luxury fashion space.

Companies assessed

The Luxury Fashion Sustainability Benchmark evaluates the publicly available sustainability reporting of 10 global luxury fashion companies.

The companies that ranked as top three were:

1. Kering
2. Ralph Lauren
3. LVMH and Stella McCartney

Other companies reviewed (alphabetically):

• Brunello Cucinelli
• Burberry Group
• Capri Holdings
• Chanel
• Hermès Group
• Prada Group

These companies were selected primarily based on financial scale and market influence, with one company included due to its longstanding reputation for sustainability leadership within the sector.[6]

Key themes and findings

While the full report provides detailed criteria-level analysis and comparative scoring, several themes emerged:

• Disclosing strategy. All disclosed a sustainability strategy but the extent to which the strategy covered the company’s most material issues varied.
• Double materiality. 40% complete a double materiality assessment to define their material issues, with other companies stating they’re in the process of completing one.
• Sustainability governance is well-established at both Board and executive levels, but detailed ESG risk management disclosures are sparse.
• Climate metrics. Companies tend to report more extensive climate-related data, but transparent communication on setbacks or underperformance is limited.
• Nature reporting is slowly on the rise, with half of the companies following the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) guidance and one having SBTN-validated freshwater and land targets.
• Social impact. Disclosure on social issues is weaker than on environmental and governance topics, particularly regarding supply chain workers.
• Reporting frameworks. Most report against at least one sustainability reporting framework, such as Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and/or Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB).

Download the full report

The 2025 Luxury Fashion Sustainability Benchmark includes:

• A detailed results snapshot and comparative scoring across companies.
• A breakdown of luxury fashion’s material sustainability topics.
• In-depth insights across each assessment category.
• Practical, experience-led recommendations for companies at different stages of reporting maturity.

Download the full report: 2025 Luxury Fashion Sustainability Benchmark.

Get in touch

If you would like to discuss the findings or need some support with your sustainability strategy, reporting and communications, please contact:

Helen Fisher

Managing Director, Context Europe

helen.fisher@contexteurope.com.

 

[1] https://smarterbusiness.co.uk/blogs/the-top-5-industries-that-consume-the-most-water/

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2025/jul/24/made-in-italy-is-the-label-just-another-luxury-fashion-illusion

[3] https://clothingresearch.oslomet.no/2025/06/03/from-clothes-to-skin-chemical-safety-in-ultra-fast-fashion-and-luxury-brands-clothes/

[4] https://www.uniformhttps/www.uniformmarket.com/statistics/luxury-clothing-marketmarket.com/statistics/luxury-clothing-market

[5] https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20231108-can-luxury-fashion-ever-be-fully-sustainable

[6] https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2023/12/07/exp-fst-1207010aseg2.cnn

 

The 2025 Sustainability Reporting Guide cuts through the noise: treat reporting as a value engine, not a compliance chore. It maps the shifting terrain—CSRD delays, voluntary frameworks like GRI, investor scepticism, legal grey zones—and argues for sticking with double materiality to future-proof strategy, sharpen risk management, and keep stakeholders engaged. In short: tell a clear story, backed by plans and credible data, that shows how sustainability drives the business.

Then it gets practical. Build a strategy that serves distinct audiences, structure content around material issues, visualise the value chain, quantify benefits, and fix data quality at the source. Run a disciplined process: plan early, use transition periods to level up, engage a cross-functional team, and push distribution so the right people actually see it. The result is reporting that is compliant, compelling, and commercially useful.

Download Guide

Want to know your bioplastics from your blockchain? Check out the fourth edition of our Little Book: (Nearly) everything you always wanted to know about corporate sustainability. 

Including:

• a brief history of corporate sustainability 
• five reasons why sustainability makes good business sense 
• 300+ sustainability terms and definitions 
• how we can support your company’s sustainability strategy, reporting and communications 
• and more.