28 August, 2026

The FT Business Book of the Year longlist is a useful snapshot of what is occupying the minds of business leaders. Over the years, climate, sustainability and environmental challenges have had their place alongside topics such as technology, finance, politics and leadership. Yet one thing stands out about the 2026 longlist: there is no obvious book on net zero, sustainable finance or corporate sustainability.

Instead, this year’s books focus on AI, cybercrime, logistics, financial crises, media power, energy, development and geopolitical risk. One interpretation could be that sustainability has slipped down the business agenda, but the themes running through the longlist tell a more nuanced story. Books such as Hyperscale, Blood Will Flow, Frontierlands and How Africa Works all touch on environmental, social or economic sustainability, even if they are not framed in those terms.

Three main concerns stand out: power, resilience and infrastructure. The authors are asking who controls AI, capital and information, how societies can withstand disruption, and whether the systems that underpin modern life, from supply chains to energy networks and data centres, are fit for the future.

So perhaps the story of the 2026 longlist is not that sustainability is absent, but that it has become inseparable from broader questions about how societies and economies function. That certainly aligns with conversations we have with clients, and what we learn from the Sustainability Leaders Panel. Sustainability is less performative, and more tied to issues around value creation, risk and resilience than before. Sustainability professionals have long argued (and so have we!) that environmental and social concerns should not be treated as a separate agenda. The 2026 longlist hints that this may finally be happening.

By Emma Alajarin