As 2024 draws to a close, Designit’s Miguel Sabel, Global Director of Strategy and Sustainability is looking to what 2025 could mean for the world of sustainability - where he sees an evolution in conscious consumerism, cleaner solutions winning more investment and consumers taking a stronger stand against manmade environmental emergencies.

Conscious consumerism will be replaced by self-defence
“As a result of the growing direct impact of climate change on people's lives, many will go beyond the selective ethical consumerism defined by brand boycotting or buy-cotting.

“As crises and disruptions approach, people will start to look for ways of more actively defending themselves. Some of those who ignored or even questioned the science and the activists' warnings will now be pulled into the frontline by their own reality.

Cleaner solutions will be the wise choice
“In the polarised context of 2025, some legislators will backtrack on sustainability-oriented regulations and policies. This will affect but not stop the deployment of renewables or the adoption of EVs, as those have become and will increasingly be the investment decisions with the best financial return.

“Mainstream respectability will change places, and some less sustainable investment decisions will be considered irrational and emotionally motivated.

Ruggedization will be increasingly cool
“Consumer decisions influenced by climate change and other manmade environmental emergencies will be more visible trends.

“Those who can afford it will look towards more resilient locations and housing, while the existing gorp-core fashion trend will evolve towards climate adaptation, moving from performative towards necessary. As the urgency of adaptation accelerates, readiness will become a new luxury.

More science will get to market
“There are estimates that some long-awaited cleantech innovations, such as solid-state batteries or alternatives based on cheaper materials, will be introduced during 2025. We will keep hearing about new ones, and we can expect that the journey from basic science to product and service improvement will be shorter if the economic incentives exist.

We will need to broaden our perspective
“In this challenging context, our collective ‘carbon tunnel vision’ will become more acute. Other environmental challenges—such as biodiversity—and the whole social component of sustainability will need to fight for attention, action and funding.

“Activists and scientists must find new ways of engaging with society and collaborating with other, less visible causes.