When it comes down to industry sectors, retail and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies are currently leading the way to net zero readiness, in comparison to logistics and hospitality industries, who for now remain behind.

The research assessed the hospitality, FMCG, manufacturing, logistics and retail sectors, comparing each industry’s knowledge and progress in areas such as emissions measurement, science-based target setting, supply-chain engagement and the implementation of decarbonisation strategies.

The top five industries which are on a good pathway to net zero:

• Retail and FMCG: Strongest so far in strategic plans and governance

• Manufacturing: They have progress where technology and investment align, which is beneficial

• Logistics and Hospitality: These two industries are most in need of accelerated support and coordinated action

The Retail and FMCG sectors emerged as the most strategically advanced. This may be driven largely by multinational brands with formal science-based targets, established ESG governance, along with increasing pressure from investors and consumers where there isl a huge demand for sustainable products but also evidently pressures of the rising cost of those products.

George Curtis, CEO of Carbon Neutral Group says: “To continue their progression in 2026, Retail and FMCG brands need to pair sustainability with quality, convenience, value, and trust, it’s crucial that C-suite members keep their sustainability commitments they have promised consumers throughout, to keep that reliability and trust going.“

Large retailers have also made significant progress in reducing operational emissions through renewable energy procurement, energy efficiency and fleet electrification. When it comes down to it, the FMCG companies are leveraging supply-chain engagement to accelerate emission reductions. However, these sectors will still face challenges in translating top-level commitments into consistent supplier-level action, particularly among small and medium-sized businesses.

When reviewing reports, Carbon Neutral Group, found that the manufacturing sector showed moderate to high readiness, particularly among energy-intensive producers investing in renewables, electrification and efficiency upgrades.

Where capital and infrastructure is available, manufacturers are demonstrating tangible emissions reductions, meaning the industry’s overall pace is constrained by high upfront investment requirements and asset lifecycles.

George Curtis, CEO of Carbon Neutral Group continues: “Teaming up with a Carbon Consultancy, really helps industries that are lagging behind, it allows us to deeply understand the company’s emissions profile but really enables us to advise the business on quick wins to reduce their footprint whilst creating longer term plans. The longer term plans could range from, reviewing suppliers, products and services and the associated footprint, through to how the business travels and commutes.  Any changes in these areas will need a longer time to implement and for the business to feel the benefits of change“.

Despite the logistics industry critical role in global supply chains, it remains one of the least net-zero-ready sectors. While awareness is rising and pilot projects around alternative fuels and efficiency are increasing, it seems adoption is inconsistent and emissions tracking remains a little broken.

The Hospitality sector ranked lowest overall in being net zero ready. Although the sector’s awareness is improving and industry bodies are developing shared roadmaps, most operators, particularly smaller venues, really lack data, capital and the expertise required to implement comprehensive decarbonisation strategies.

Food waste, building energy use and supply-chain emissions are key challenges that they are currently facing.

George Curtis continues: “This leads to why it is so important to have regular reviews of your energy use, plan for the seasonal changes and look at ways, where possible, on how you can make reductions in this area. Supply chain emissions can be a real headache for businesses. A suggestion that we tend to make is, make the change when onboarding any new supplier. Asking for carbon information on the products/services that are being bought allows for the carbon footprint for  that supplier to be calculated.  This can be done whilst reviewing the current suppliers, their carbon audits and asking them for their carbon plans for their products and services.“

Achieving net zero requires more than aspirational targets, it demands credible, measurable strategies that drive real reductions. Too often, organisations default to offsetting without understanding the deeper changes they need to make, this can risk confusing stakeholders and slowing down their net zero progress.

For more information, visit: https://www.carbonneutralgroup.co.uk/

Shadi Shadlou: [email protected]

About Carbon Neutral Group:

Carbon Neutral Group is one of the UK’s fastest-growing carbon neutral and sustainability consultancies.  With clients vary from NHS Trusts and NHS organisations to leading Digital Marketing Agencies, Architects and Freight & logistics businesses.  Carbon Neutral Group understands that every business has its unique challenges, and they use their experience to help solve and create a realistic journey to Net Zero that is conscious of time and financial budgets.

Carbon reduction plans are created following data that is from a carbon audit.  From this we can then understand the clients issues and look to create ways to reduce their clients carbon footprint.  No two carbon journeys are the same so we look to create a tailored solution.  This uses strategic planning whilst combining it with clients capabilities to help them to transition to a sustainable, carbon-neutral future.  As a team, they bring years’ worth of consultancy experience to the market which means that they can help businesses who are at any point in their journey to Net Zero.

(Image: Pexels.com)

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World Enters “Era of Global Water Bankruptcy”;

UN Scientists Formally Define New 

Post-Crisis Reality for Billions

A UN report calls for fundamental reset of global water agenda

as irreversible damage pushes many basins beyond recovery

UN Headquarters, New York – Amid chronic groundwater depletion, water overallocation, land and soil degradation, deforestation, and pollution, all compounded by global heating, a UN report today declared the dawn of an era of global water bankruptcy, inviting world leaders to facilitate “honest, science-based adaptation to a new reality.” “Global Water Bankruptcy: Living Beyond Our Hydrological Means in the Post-Crisis Era,” argues that the familiar terms “water stressed” and “water crisis” fail to reflect today’s reality in many places: a post-crisis condition marked by irreversible losses of natural water capital and an inability to bounce back to historic baselines. “This report tells an uncomfortable truth: many regions are living beyond their hydrological means, and many critical water systems are already bankrupt,” says lead author Kaveh Madani, Director of the UN University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), known as ‘The UN’s Think Tank on Water.’ Expressed in financial terms, the report says many societies have not only overspent their annual renewable water “income” from rivers, soils, and snowpack, they have depleted long-term “savings” in aquifers, glaciers, wetlands, and other natural reservoirs. This has resulted in a growing list of compacted aquifers, subsided land in deltas and coastal cities, vanished lakes and wetlands, and irreversibly lost biodiversity. The UNU report is based on a peer-reviewed paper to be published in the journal of Water Resources Management that formally defines water bankruptcy as 1) persistent over-withdrawal from surface and groundwater relative to renewable inflows and safe levels of depletion; and 2) the resulting irreversible or prohibitively costly loss of water-related natural capital. By contrast: “Water stress” reflects high pressure that remains reversible “Water crisis” describes acute shocks that can be overcome The report is issued prior to a high-level meeting in Dakar, Senegal (26–27 Jan.) to prepare the 2026 UN Water Conference, to be co-hosted by the United Arab Emirates and Senegal 2-4 Dec. in the UAE. While not every basin and country is water-bankrupt, Madani says, “enough critical systems around the world have crossed these thresholds. These systems are interconnected through trade, migration, climate feedbacks, and geopolitical dependencies, so the global risk landscape is now fundamentally altered.” Madani underlines the following four essential points: Water cannot be protected if we allow the hydrological cycle, the climate, and the underlying natural capital that produces water to be interrupted or damaged. The world has an important and still largely untapped strategic opportunity to act. Water is an issue that crosses traditional political boundaries. It belongs to north and south, and to left and right. For that reason, it can serve as a bridge to create trust and unity between and within nations. In the fragmented world we live in, water can become a powerful focus for cooperation and for aligning national security with international priorities. Investment in water is also investment in mitigating climate change, biodiversity loss, and desertification. Water should not be treated only as a downstream sector affected by other environmental crises. On the contrary, targeted investment in water can address the immediate concerns of communities and nations while also advancing the objectives of the Rio Conventions (climate, biodiversity, desertification). A renewed global emphasis on water could help reaccelerate stalled negotiations and potentially reenergize halted international processes. A practical and cooperative focus on water offers a way to connect urgent local needs with long-term global goals. Hotspots

In the Middle East and North Africa region, high water stress, climate vulnerability, low agricultural productivity, energy-intensive desalination, and sand and dust storms intersect with complex political economies; In parts of South Asia, groundwater-dependent agriculture and urbanization have produced chronic declines in water tables and local subsidence; and In the American Southwest, the Colorado River and its reservoirs have become symbols of over-promised water. A world in the red Drawing on global datasets and recent scientific evidence, the report presents a stark statistical overview of trends, the overwhelming majority caused by humans: 50%: Large lakes worldwide that have lost water since the early 1990s (with 25% of humanity directly dependent on those lakes) 50%: Global domestic water now derived from groundwater 40%+: Irrigation water drawn from aquifers being steadily drained 70%: Major aquifers showing long-term decline 410 million hectares: Area of natural wetlands – almost equal in size to the entire European Union – erased in the past five decades 30%+: Global glacier mass lost since 1970, with entire low- and mid-latitude mountain ranges expected to lose functional glaciers altogether within decades Dozens: Major rivers that now fail to reach the sea for parts of the year 50+ years: How long many river basins and aquifers have been overdrawing their accounts 100 million hectares: Cropland damaged by salinization alone And the human consequences: 75%: Humanity in countries classified as water-insecure or critically water-insecure 2 billion: People living on sinking ground. 25 cm: Annual drop being experienced by some cities 4 billion: People facing severe water scarcity at least one month every year 170 million hectares: Irrigated cropland under high or very high water stress – equivalent to the areas of France, Spain, Germany, and Italy combined US$5.1 trillion: Annual value of lost wetland ecosystem services 3 billion: People living in areas where total water storage is declining or unstable, with 50%+ of global food produced in those same stressed regions. 1.8 billion: People living under drought conditions in 2022–2023 US$307 billion: Current annual global cost of drought 2.2 billion: People who lack safely managed drinking water, while 3.5 billion lack safely managed sanitation Says Madani: “Millions of farmers are trying to grow more food from shrinking, polluted, or disappearing water sources. Without rapid transitions toward water-smart agriculture, water bankruptcy will spread rapidly.” A new diagnosis for a new era A region can be flooded one year and still be water bankrupt, he adds, if long-term withdrawals exceed replenishment. In that sense, water bankruptcy is not about how wet or dry a place looks, but about balance, accounting, and sustainability. Says Madani: As with global climate change or pandemics, a declaration of global water bankruptcy does not imply uniform impact everywhere, but that enough systems across regions and income levels have become insolvent and crossed irreversible thresholds to constitute a planetary-scale condition. “Water bankruptcy is also global because its consequences travel,” Madani explains. “Agriculture accounts for the vast majority of freshwater use, and food systems are tightly interconnected through trade and prices. When water scarcity undermines farming in one region, the effects ripple through global markets, political stability, and food security elsewhere. This makes water bankruptcy not a series of isolated local crises, but a shared global risk that demands a new type of response: Bankruptcy management, not crisis management.” A call to reset the global water agenda The report warns that the current global water agenda – largely focused on drinking water, sanitation, and incremental efficiency improvements – is no longer fit for purpose in many places and calls for a new global water agenda that: Formally recognizes the state of water bankruptcy Recognizes water as both a constraint and an opportunity for meeting climate, biodiversity, and land commitments Elevates water issues in climate, biodiversity, and desertification negotiations, development finance, and peacebuilding processes Embeds water-bankruptcy monitoring in global frameworks, using Earth observation, AI, and integrated modelling Uses water as a catalyst to accelerate cooperation between the UN Member States In practical terms, managing water bankruptcy requires governments to focus on the following priorities: Prevent further irreversible damage such as wetland loss, destructive groundwater depletion, and uncontrolled pollution Rebalance rights, claims, and expectations to match degraded carrying capacity Support just transitions for communities whose livelihoods must change Transform water-intensive sectors, including agriculture and industry, through crop shifts, irrigation reforms, and more efficient urban systems Build institutions for continuous adaptation, with monitoring systems linked to threshold-based management The report underlines that water bankruptcy is not merely a hydrological problem, but a justice issue with deep social and political implications requiring attention at the highest levels of government and multilateral cooperation. The burdens fall disproportionately on smallholder farmers, Indigenous Peoples, low-income urban residents, women and youth while the benefits of overuse often accrued to more powerful actors. “Water bankruptcy is becoming a driver of fragility, displacement, and conflict,” says UN Under-Secretary-General Tshilidzi Marwala, Rector of UNU. “Managing it fairly – ensuring that vulnerable communities are protected and that unavoidable losses are shared equitably – is now central to maintaining peace, stability, and social cohesion.” “Bankruptcy management requires honesty, courage, and political will,” Madani adds. “We cannot rebuild vanished glaciers or reinflate acutely compacted aquifers. But we can prevent further loss of our remaining natural capital, and redesign institutions to live within new hydrological limits.” Upcoming milestones — the 2026 and 2028 UN Water Conferences, the end of the Water Action Decade in 2028, and the 2030 SDG deadline, for example — provide critical opportunities to implement this shift, he says. “Despite its warnings, the report is not a statement of hopelessness,” adds Madani. “It is a call for honesty, realism, and transformation. Declaring bankruptcy is not about giving up, it is about starting fresh. By acknowledging the reality of water bankruptcy, we can finally make the hard choices that will protect people, economies, and ecosystems. The longer we delay, the deeper the deficit grows.”

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The Environmental Shift That is Now Standard

When people think about environmental impact, they often picture factories, planes, or city traffic. But individual routines matter too. A traditional office job bundles energy use and emissions into shared spaces: large buildings, daily commutes, centralized heating and cooling, and constant lighting.

Remote work breaks that bundle apart. Working from home doesn’t automatically make someone “greener,” but by 2026, it has fully moved environmental decisions closer to the individual. This shift creates both opportunities and responsibilities.

2026 Snapshot: What Has Changed

• Permanent reduction in daily car trips and fuel consumption.
• More individualized control over heating, cooling, and lighting.
• Increased use of home electronics during the workday
• Greater visibility into personal energy habits

In short: less commuting, more personal choice.

Key Takeaways for the 2026 Workforce

Working remotely can lower personal carbon footprints mainly by cutting commutes, but the environmental benefit depends on how people manage energy at home. Small, intentional changes—like efficient heating, mindful device use, and sustainable routines—add up. Remote work doesn’t eliminate environmental impact; it redistributes it into everyday decisions.

Carbon Footprints: Commutes vs. Living Rooms

For many workers, commuting was the single biggest daily source of carbon emissions. Driving alone, sitting in traffic, or even using public transit adds up over time. Remote work removes or reduces that entirely.

However, home energy use rises during the day. The net environmental impact depends on several factors, summarized below.

How remote work shifts emissions

For many people, the reduction in transportation emissions outweighs the increase in home energy use—especially if they live in energy-efficient homes or take steps to manage consumption.

Learning, Careers, and The Digital-First Economy

Remote work doesn’t exist in isolation from education and career development. In 2026, many people now prepare for remote-friendly roles without ever setting foot on a physical campus. Earning an online degree allows students to build relevant skills while avoiding daily travel, reducing commuting emissions and the energy demands of large institutional buildings. It also aligns naturally with remote work culture, where digital communication, self-management, and virtual collaboration are essential.

For those interested in technology-focused roles, exploring cybersecurity career paths can support both career growth and sustainability goals. With a cybersecurity degree, you can also learn about protecting businesses’ computers and network systems—an increasingly critical need in a digital-first world.

Daily Habits That Quietly Matter

Remote work changes the rhythm of the day. Lunches are cooked at home. Coffee is brewed in personal kitchens. Breaks look different. These small shifts can influence sustainability more than people expect.

A few examples:

• Cooking at home can reduce packaging waste and food transport emissions.
• Flexible schedules make it easier to run errands on foot or by bike.
• Less pressure to “look busy” can reduce unnecessary device use.

On the 2026 flip side, always being home can blur boundaries and lead to higher energy use if devices stay on all day or heating runs longer than needed.

2026 Checklist: Making a Home Office Eco-Friendly

You don’t need a solar roof or a smart home overhaul to make a difference. The biggest gains usually come from simple, repeatable choices.

A practical checklist for greener remote work

• ☐ Set a consistent thermostat schedule for work hours only
• ☐ Use natural light whenever possible
• ☐ Power down monitors and equipment when not in use
• ☐ Choose energy-efficient bulbs and devices
• ☐ Avoid printing unless absolutely necessary
• ☐ Bundle errands to reduce extra trips

These habits not only reduce emissions but often lower utility bills—a rare win-win.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is working from home always better for the environment?
Not always. The benefits depend on commuting distance, home energy efficiency, and daily habits. For most people with long commutes, remote work reduces emissions overall.

Does remote work increase electricity use?
Yes, typically during the workday. However, targeted use at home is often more efficient than powering large office buildings.

What’s the biggest eco-friendly change remote workers can make?
Reducing unnecessary heating, cooling, and device use during the day usually has the biggest impact.

Do hybrid workers still see environmental benefits?
Often, yes. Even working from home a few days a week can significantly cut transportation emissions.

By 2026, remote work has reshaped environmental challenges. By shifting control from centralized offices to individuals, it turns sustainability into a daily practice rather than a distant policy goal. The real impact comes from awareness: when people notice their energy use, they can change it. Small decisions, repeated every workday, quietly add up to something meaningful.

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The post Is ESG dead? first appeared on ESG Foundation.

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So what? He’s right and it’s not good enough. There was relief that a deal was agreed given it could have completely fallen apart a day earlier. Important decisions have been made on boosting climate adaptation funds and protecting rights in a green economy. But limiting global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels is increasingly unlikely when

• delegates failed to come up with a roadmap on ending deforestation;
• there was no mention of fossil fuels in the final summit text; and
• the US elected not to send a delegation.

Cut to the chase. Brazil, which hosted the fractious summit in the city of Belém, published a draft text on Tuesday that referred to a roadmap to phasing out fossil fuels. It was designed to build on Cop28, location of the first agreement to explicitly mention a transition away from oil, gas and coal. That text wasn’t binding, but in climate negotiations language matters.

Cutting room floor. By Friday the Cop30 draft had removed any mention of fossil fuels, even though its inclusion was supported by the UK and dozens of other countries. The final agreement followed all-night talks and merely nodded to the “United Arab Emirates consensus”. It did, at least, reiterate that the 1.5C target requires “deep, rapid and sustained” emission cuts.

Good luck with that. Ani Dasgupta from the World Resources Institute said that “intense lobbying from a few petrostates weakened the deal”.

Not naming names. Leading the charge were Russia, China and Saudi Arabia. They were arguably emboldened by the absence of the US, the top oil producer and consumer.

For the record. Donald Trump has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement and recently called climate change the “greatest con job” in history.

Woodchucked. Also excised from the final text was a roadmap to the end of deforestation, which was a major goal of Cop30. The summit had been deliberately hosted in the Amazon to focus minds on the role of trees in tackling climate change.

Scant comfort. Brazil softened the blow by unilaterally announcing the creation of the roadmap and launching an investment fund to compensate nations that preserve tropical forests. Both were taken outside the UN process. It also committed to a fossil fuel roadmap, which will

• similarly sit outside the UN;
• proceed under the leadership of Colombia and the Pacific Islands; and
• report back to Cop after dialogue that includes an international conference in April.

The problem is that the US would probably block any global agreement that follows.

Take a bow. There were some things to celebrate. Countries agreed to a so-called just transition mechanism, a plan to protect human rights when moving to a green economy. This is the result of hard-fought campaigning by the Global South, including Indigenous groups.

Progress of sorts. The final text also trebles adaptation finance to help poorer nations deal with a warmer world, another good thing. But the 2035 deadline was initially 2030, and the goal of roughly $120 billion a year is well short of the $300 billion target set at Cop29.

Unvarnished truth. Many countries were also unhappy at the indicators adopted to measure progress on adaptation. Sierra Leone’s climate minister said the list was not the one “crafted by experts”. He dismissed its contents as “unclear, unmeasurable, and in many cases, unusable”.

Beyond Cop. For all the small wins and sinewy multilateralism, countries have still not come up with national climate plans that will come close to keeping the world within 1.5C of warming.

What’s more… One word that made it into the final text was “overshoot”, which was used to refer to this threshold and specifically to the world that lies beyond. It draws closer by the day.

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The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) today warns that the UK’s legally binding climate targets are under threat, as a new report, Leading the Pathway to Net Zero: Transforming Management and Leadership for a Sustainable Future, reveals a critical management and leadership skills gap stopping organisations from turning net zero ambitions into action.

The research, spanning organisations across the UK economy, highlights a fundamental “say-do” gap in the net zero transition: while nearly three-quarters of managers (74%) say sustainability is a priority for their employers, one-third (33%) lack confidence in their organisation’s readiness to deliver the necessary change.

The management and leadership skills deficit

The report also shows that the net zero challenge is managerial, not just technical. Over half of managers (57%) in organisations with a net zero plan report lacking clarity on what is expected of them, leaving strategies stuck on paper instead of translating into practical day to day action. At the same time, demand for green-skilled management has soared by 69% between 2015 and 2024, highlighting the urgent need for capable leaders to drive what will be complex organisational changes.

Closing this skills gap is not just about hitting climate targets, it’s also a business imperative as organisations are increasingly required to demonstrate their sustainability commitment for procurement opportunities and in the face of consumer demand for businesses that behave responsibly when it comes to their environmental impact. The CMI research also shows that investing in management can boost organisational performance by 23%, demonstrating that skilled managers are also essential to improved productivity.

Professionalising the Green Transition

The report concludes that the UK cannot achieve net zero without upskilling leaders at all levels, from the C-suite to frontline managers. Successfully navigating the transition requires professionals capable of systems thinking, change leadership, and clear stakeholder engagement.

Ann Francke OBE, CEO of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), said:
“The transition to a sustainable, net zero economy is one of the greatest challenges and opportunities of our time. This transformation will reshape the labour market and redefine how we all work, and at the heart of that change are managers and leaders with the skills to turn sustainability ambitions into tangible actions. 

“This report highlights the scale of the challenge ahead, exposing the widening management and leadership skills gap that risks slowing our progress. To achieve lasting impact, we must develop managers who can lead sustainably, embedding environmental responsibility, resilience and innovation into everyday business decisions. Doing so well will benefit rather than burden the bottom line – so it’s a win for everyone.“ 

Martin Baxter FISEP, Deputy Chief Executive of the Institute of Sustainability and Environmental Professionals (ISEP), added:
“There is an urgent need to embed green skills across a wider range of different professions beyond environment and sustainability specialists, from finance and engineering, to accountancy and procurement. This research by the CMI highlights that skills gap extends to people in leadership and management positions as well – who are facing growing levels of responsibility and accountability for achieving net zero and sustainability goals more broadly.

“At ISEP we are seeing more and more evidence that the success of any organisation in improving performance in areas like carbon reduction can be directly linked to management being visible champions and proactively leading efforts to support sustainability. And the best way to ensure this happens is for managers to have knowledge and skills developed through training and qualifications.”

CMI Sustainability Leadership Qualifications

To address this gap, CMI has launched a new suite of Sustainability Leadership Qualifications (Levels 3, 5, and 7) designed to build green management competencies across careers. These qualifications enable managers to:

• Implement strategy: Translate high-level net zero plans into clear, measurable operational targets.
  

• Lead change: Build the professional confidence to manage complex, systemic change and resistance effectively.
  

• Professionalise the workforce: Equip organisations with a quality-assured pathway to develop managers capable of delivering on ESG commitments.

About the Chartered Management Institute (CMI)

The Chartered Management Institute is the professional body for managers and leaders. We have a membership community of over 230,000 aspiring and practising managers and more than 150,000 people are currently studying on one of our management and leadership programmes. Our Royal Charter defines our charitable mission as increasing the number and standard of professionally qualified managers and leaders.

Further information:

Izzy Pougatch, Senior Account Executive, Atalanta +44 (0)7712 256399

www.atalanta.co

(Picture credit: Pexels.com)

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