The drive towards net zero, which years ago was thought to be impossible, is now central to the aims of the business world. Most of the biggest organisations in the world have goals set, timelines published and commitments communicated. The real test now lies in execution. Procurement is at the heart of the efforts to turn these sustainable goals into a reality.
The Forbes Research 2025 State of Sustainability Survey, which included over 1,100 global executives from companies with at least US $ 500m in revenue, revealed that 79 % of companies now have a CSO.
The survey found that 43 % of leaders will work with their CSO, which represents more than double the previous year’ s figure.
With this comes the target of addressing Scope 3 emissions, which tend to make up the majority of companies’ carbon emissions. Procurement teams are often the ones tasked with turning the lofty promises into outcomes which can be quantified.
While it is still very much a sustainability challenge, many also see it as a commercial one. Customers are often swayed by a company’ s efforts to be green. This has made it a procurement problem,
76 March 2026