Sustainability is becoming a much bigger part of how major companies operate in 2026. Businesses are increasingly being judged not only by long-term environmental promises, but also by measurable changes in energy use, materials, waste, water and supply chains.
Several large companies are now turning sustainability targets into detailed programmes covering their everyday operations and products. Their approaches show how environmental goals are becoming more closely connected with technology, manufacturing and business decisions.
Apple is pushing recycled materials further
Apple is continuing to focus on changing the materials used in its products and packaging. Its 2026 environmental progress reporting says 30 per cent of the materials in products shipped during 2025 came from recycled or renewable sources. The company has also reported using 100 per cent recycled cobalt in batteries it designs and recycled rare earth elements in its magnets.
Packaging is another major part of the programme. Apple says it completed its move to fibre-based packaging in 2025, replacing plastic packaging components with paper-based alternatives designed for recycling. The company is also developing recycling technology intended to recover more materials from electronic devices.
The company is also working with suppliers on renewable electricity. Apple says its direct suppliers procured more than 20 gigawatts of renewable energy during 2025, while the company continues to work towards its 2030 carbon-neutrality goal.
Microsoft is linking sustainability with technology
Microsoft is taking a different approach by combining its own environmental targets with data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. The company says it is working towards becoming carbon negative, water positive and zero waste by 2030.
Its recent sustainability work also shows a strong focus on measuring environmental performance. Microsoft reports that it matched 100 per cent of its annual global electricity consumption with renewable energy and achieved a 92 per cent reuse and recycling rate for servers and components used in its cloud hardware.
This approach matters because sustainability increasingly depends on accurate information. Businesses need to know where emissions, water use and waste are coming from before they can make meaningful reductions. Microsoft is developing tools that help organisations collect and analyse this type of environmental information.
Schneider Electric is focusing on electrification
Energy use is another area where corporate sustainability is changing quickly. Schneider Electric’s 2026 sustainability roadmap places electrification and digitalisation at the centre of its approach, with the company aiming to help businesses and other organisations improve energy efficiency and reduce environmental impacts.
The company’s Impact 2030 programme covers its own operations as well as work involving customers, suppliers and communities. Its 2026 progress reporting shows that sustainability targets are being tracked through a formal performance system rather than treated only as a communications exercise.
This wider approach reflects an important change in corporate sustainability. Companies are increasingly looking beyond their own buildings and factories and considering how the technologies they sell can influence energy consumption across the wider economy.
Henkel is bringing sustainability into its supply chain
Henkel announced new 2030 sustainability targets in April 2026 covering emissions, packaging, equality and suppliers. The company plans to reduce absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 42 per cent and Scope 3 emissions by 30 per cent, while maintaining a longer-term net-zero ambition.
Its packaging targets are also designed around circularity. Henkel aims for at least 35 per cent recycled plastic in consumer packaging and says all of its packaging is to be designed for recycling. The company also wants 85 per cent of suppliers to meet defined sustainability standards.
The significance of this approach is that environmental performance is not limited to a company’s own offices or factories. Suppliers, raw materials and packaging can have a major effect on a product’s overall footprint.
IKEA is moving towards a more circular business model
IKEA has made climate, nature and circularity major parts of its sustainability strategy. The company says it is working to halve emissions across its value chain by its financial year 2030 and move towards net zero by 2050. It is also working to reduce dependence on virgin, non-renewable materials.
Circularity means keeping products and materials in use for longer instead of following the traditional pattern of making, using and throwing products away. IKEA’s programme includes work on repair, reuse, recycled materials and product design.
The company’s climate programme also recognises that materials make up a large part of its overall value-chain footprint. That has pushed attention towards lower-impact materials, renewable electricity and changes in how products are manufactured.
Why 2026 is changing the sustainability conversation
The wider business environment is also changing. Sustainability reporting in Europe is becoming more structured, although the rules have been simplified during 2026. In July, the European Commission adopted revised European Sustainability Reporting Standards designed to reduce reporting requirements while maintaining information about climate, biodiversity, human rights and other sustainability-related issues.
At the same time, the focus on credible environmental claims is increasing. New European rules taking effect in September 2026 are designed to make it harder for companies to make unsupported environmental claims and to strengthen requirements around evidence for sustainability statements.
For businesses, this means sustainability is increasingly connected with measurement and accountability. Companies need clearer information about emissions, materials, suppliers, energy and environmental impacts rather than relying only on broad claims about being green.
Some of the clearest areas of change include:
- Greater use of recycled and renewable materials in products and packaging
- More investment in renewable electricity and energy efficiency
- Greater attention to emissions throughout supply chains rather than only within company operations
- More detailed measurement and reporting of environmental performance
The bigger shift taking place in 2026
The examples from Apple, Microsoft, Schneider Electric, Henkel and IKEA show that sustainability is no longer limited to planting trees, reducing office waste or purchasing renewable electricity. Companies are increasingly changing product design, manufacturing, supply chains, technology systems and resource management.
There is also a growing emphasis on measurable progress. The Science Based Targets initiative released its Corporate Net-Zero Standard Version 2.0 in June 2026, with a stronger focus on implementation across operations, value chains and capital allocation.
That shift could have an effect far beyond the companies themselves. Large businesses often set requirements for suppliers, influence manufacturing practices and create demand for new technologies and materials. As a result, sustainability standards adopted by major companies can gradually spread through entire industries.
What this means for the years ahead
The sustainability race in 2026 is increasingly about what companies can measure, change and demonstrate. Recycled materials, renewable energy, circular product design, lower emissions and responsible supply chains are becoming connected parts of broader business strategies.
The companies highlighted here are using different methods, but their programmes point towards the same broader direction: sustainability is becoming more deeply integrated into how products are designed, how energy is used and how businesses manage their supply chains.
As environmental reporting becomes more structured and unsupported green claims face greater scrutiny, companies will have more pressure to demonstrate real progress. For consumers and businesses, that could make sustainability claims easier to examine and increasingly tied to measurable results rather than promises alone.
