03-25-2026IMPACT COUNCIL

Sustainability is dead—long live purpose

Embedding purpose in products and services helps companies outperform those that don’t.

[Photo: Getty Images]

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of top leaders and experts who pay dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership, and more.

In business conversations today, there’s generally an eye roll when someone brings up “sustainability” or “ESG.” Once a favorite of investors, boards, and marketers, sustainability has been politicized, deprioritized, and in many cases quietly shelved.

At the same time, a new headline dominates: AI. AI is the strategy, the investment thesis, the growth promise. It’s exciting…and it should be.

But amid the whiplash, we’ve stopped talking about something far more long-lasting: purpose. Even at the most recent meetings of global leaders in Davos, energy and climate played a role, but purpose took a backseat. And that’s a problem.

ESG is not purpose. AI is not purpose. Purpose is a human-centered commitment rooted in vision and values that answers a simple but essential question: Why? It is intentional, strategic, and foundational to trust and longevity. In an era when AI will accelerate everything from content to competition, purpose may just be the most powerful and differentiating commitment a company can make.

As a popular saying notes: Digital technologies don’t erase values; they amplify them. So if sustainability has become politically fraught and AI is becoming operationally inevitable, it raises a bigger question: What actually matters long-term?

FROM GREENWASHING TO GREENHUSHING

Over the past two years, many companies have quietly pulled sustainability out of the spotlight. Teams........

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