17 July, 2026

The language we use to talk about sustainability matters.

At its best, it creates a shared understanding of what an organisation is trying to achieve. It can build clarity and momentum, helping people see how their work contributes to a wider ambition. But when the language feels vague, unfamiliar or disconnected from the realities of the business, it can just as easily create confusion and disengagement.

Good Business’s recent 30th anniversary gave us an opportunity to reflect on how the language we use to describe the work we do has evolved. Since 1996, we have seen the conversation move through corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship and corporate responsibility, into sustainability, ESG, purpose and, even, more recently, regenerative business.

Each phrase – and each phase – has reflected a developing understanding of the role businesses play in society, their impact on the world around them and the scale of the challenges they must help to address.

But a trend we’re also seeing amongst our clients is a tendency to look beyond this sort of ‘specialist’ language and instead focus on terms that are already established and resonate throughout the business. These also often serve the all important role of linking the action we might take to respond to environmental or social impacts very firmly to the overall success of the business. Think resilience, security and risk.

Of course, no single term will work equally well for every business or every audience. For some organisations, a new term like “regenerative” may communicate a more ambitious direction. For others, “sustainability” remains the clearest and most widely understood language. And in some cases the key is to focus on specific priorities such as water, energy or nature.

What matters most is what works for stakeholders within the organisation, and therefore helps support better decisions and drive action. The task is to remain focused on impact and use the language that best engages the people who can help deliver it.

The language will continue to evolve. The real test is whether it helps turn ambition into action – and action into better outcomes for people and planet.

By Emma Lindsay