Most readers will need little persuading that sustainability is a hot topic for business leaders. This heat comes from a number of factors, including: the risk of fines and reputational damage from non-compliance with sustainability regulation; falling revenues if customers’ growing environmental and ethical expectations are not met.

While many thought that the pandemic might knock ESG approaches off course as companies and investors went ‘back to basics’, it seems that the opposite has happened. Three quarters of all investors surveyed said they’re now more likely to divest shares of companies with poor ESG performance post-pandemic.

The words regulation and opportunity don’t typically appear in the same sentence, but the scale and depth of new sustainability rules can offer forward-thinking businesses the chance to gain advantage.

From pandemic reset to green revolution, sustainability is growing in importance and deserves its place at the heart of your operations. But how do you go about that? While 2020 will always be the year of the pandemic, 2021 may...