Risilience global survey points to growing corporate investment in net zero and nature goals

This article is provided by BRC Associate Member, Risilience.

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The Climate and Nature Report 2025 reveals the world’s largest businesses are redirecting capital at scale to support their net-zero transition, despite challenging headwinds.

Commissioned by Risilience and independently conducted by Censuswide in August  2025, the Climate and Nature Risk Report polled senior sustainability and finance  executives across the US, UK and Europe on how global businesses with an annual  turnover of $700m to $50 billion+ view climate and nature risk – and where it lands on the corporate business agenda.

The world’s largest businesses are redirecting capital at scale to support their net-zero transition, with an average of more than a third of all capital expenditure (36%) now aligned to sustainability goals, despite challenging headwinds.

More than half of organisations (52%) now have a detailed net-zero roadmap, while nearly a third (30%) are currently developing theirs, and the majority (88%) report increasing investment in net-zero strategies, despite ongoing geopolitical and economic volatility. Three quarters of decarbonisation plans include a return-on-investment forecast, a sign that companies are moving from ambition to financially quantified execution, though challenges remain in standardising metrics.

“Capital allocation is the clearest signal of intent,” said Dr Andrew Coburn, CEO of Risilience. “When over a third of corporate CapEx is being aligned with sustainability goals, it shows businesses are no longer experimenting with net zero – they are embedding it into strategy, governance and finance. The leaders are those who are moving from ambition to quantified, finance-grade execution.”

Industries in focus: an analysis of the initiatives that are being prioritised in organization’s transition plans, and how strategic use of climate risk analytics varies from sector to sector.

The report includes analysis of where climate and nature risk lands on the retail business agenda and includes industry insights:

Theme 1 – Changing nature of climate risk

• Urgency: While retail ranks lowest across industries, retail is still high – 89% say urgency to act has increased
• Risk embedding:
  • Climate risk integration: present, but retail lags on embedding climate into enterprise risk management (ERM)
  • Nature risk embedding: lowest of all sectors (32% embedding at scale)
• Tools: Sector-specific transition models most critical (42%), retail shows reliance on tailored industry modelling
  • But retail is lighter on ERM-embedded tooling, creating a gap between modelling and enterprise integration

Theme 2 – Hitting net zero

• Roadmaps: No explicit number given, but retail isn’t highlighted as a leader here
• Quantification strength: Known for being strong at quantifying enterprise value impacts of net-zero actions

Theme 3 – Budgeting for net zero

• Governance: Decent board-level governance, but less ROI clarity than peers
• Climate data use: More used for regulatory disclosures than for deep board/executive decision-making or P&L impact

Theme 4 – Quantifying climate impact

• Financial modelling maturity: Retail leads on enterprise value quantification (42%), making it the strongest industry in that dimension
• Barriers: Integration challenges with financial systems/tools highest in retail (32%), showing technical bottlenecks

Theme 5 – Nature risk

• Plan adoption: 78.2% have a nature risk plan, placing retail among the higher sectors
• But embedding is weaker than planning – retail is more disclosure/reporting-driven than integration-driven

Summary for retail

Retail is strong on modelling and quantification (enterprise value, sector-specific transition models), but lags on embedding climate/nature into ERM systems. Disclosure strength and consumer-facing reporting are clear, but operational/financial integration is weaker.

“Climate and nature risks are no longer abstract sustainability issues, they are real financial risks,” said Risilience CEO, Dr Andrew Coburn. “Companies that act decisively to quantify these risks, embed them into governance and financial systems, and align incentives across their supply chains will build resilience and competitive advantage in the face of economic and political challenges. Those who fall behind will face mounting pressure from investors, regulators, and the market as expectations continue to accelerate.”