Key Safety + Sustainability Trends for 2025

8 minutes04/01/2025

The landscape of workplace safety and sustainability is evolving faster than ever. With new regulations, technological advancements, and shifting consumer expectations, businesses must stay ahead of emerging trends to remain competitive and responsible. From AI-driven safety protocols to cutting-edge green initiatives, the coming year will bring opportunities — and challenges — that demand attention.

This article explores key safety and sustainability trends shaping 2025 and beyond. Whether you're looking to enhance workplace safety, reduce your environmental impact, or future-proof your operations, these trends will be critical to your success. 

7 key trends in safety + EHS management in 2025

Workplace safety is no longer just about compliance, it’s about creating environments where employees feel secure, valued, and supported. Businesses must navigate an evolving landscape of risks, from physical hazards to mental health challenges, all while integrating new technologies and adapting to stricter regulations. 

Safety is coming to the forefront of corporate agendas, with organizations recognizing the profound impact their operations have on employees and communities. Digital transformation, regulatory shifts, and sustainability-driven supply chains will reshape how companies approach environmental, health, and safety (EHS) strategies. 

Here’s a look at the key safety trends shaping 2025: 

1. Health and safety at the top of the corporate risk table: A growing concern among C-suite and management teams about the mental and physical harm their organizations’ activities can cause their personnel and the communities they operate in.
2. Recognition of psychosocial risks: Mental health is already a key issue in occupational health and safety. Companies will realize that stress, overwork, and a lack of appreciation are just as serious as physical hazards. 
3. Digitalization, AI, and data-driven decision-making: The use of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, sensors, and wearables to monitor workplace hazards, track employee health, and ensure real-time compliance with safety protocols will grow. This data will enable proactive safety measures and reduce the risk of accidents. 
4. Regulatory compliance and risk management: Staying ahead of regulatory changes will be crucial as countries tighten regulations on environmental protection, hazardous chemicals, and worker safety. EHS managers will need to stay informed, and ensure their companies are compliant with local and international laws. 
5. Supply chain and the circular economy: Companies are increasingly held accountable for the environmental and safety practices of their suppliers. EHS will play a key role in auditing and enforcing sustainability practices throughout the supply chain. Emphasis on reducing waste through reusing and recycling materials will be a central theme in EHS strategy. 
6. Expanding the change agenda: Companies will move away from top-down safety initiatives and empower individuals at all levels to influence safety and operational outcomes. Organizations will embrace distributed problem-solving, real-time sense-making, and adaptability, over rigid control models. 
7. Emergency preparedness: COVID-19 highlighted the importance of crisis management in EHS. Future focus will include improving business continuity plans, disaster recovery strategies, and resilience in the face of unexpected events. 

7 key trends in sustainability + ESG in 2025

Sustainability is no longer a corporate buzzword; it’s a business imperative. Companies are under increasing pressure to enhance transparency, strengthen ESG strategies, and take meaningful action on climate change, biodiversity, and social responsibility. With stricter reporting requirements and growing stakeholder expectations, businesses must move beyond surface-level commitments and embed sustainability into their core operations. 

From advancements in corporate sustainability reporting to innovations in carbon removal technology, the coming year will bring both challenges and opportunities. 

Here’s a look at the key sustainability trends shaping 2025: 

1. Corporate sustainability reporting: With the first reports under the European Union's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) due this year, businesses need to start reporting as soon as possible.
2. Look to the data: As the focus on transparency requires new depths of detail, it will be timely to evaluate the effectiveness of your IT systems and data organization, collection, management, and reporting. 
3. Expand the remit of your ESG teams: Increased collaboration between Sustainability and ESG teams will be important as these two functions and areas of responsibility not only overlap but merge. This collaboration will likely involve other functions within the business. 
4. Biodiversity and social aspects: Greater responsibilities are falling to businesses for strategies and demonstrable actions in biodiversity and social factors such as labor conditions and human rights. 
5. Look beyond the boundaries of your business: Businesses will be increasingly required to work closer with supply chains. Unacceptable practices at any link within the supply chain will impact partners in it, driving the need for fuller mutual disclosure. Adhering to the principles of the circular economy will further draw organizations into closer collaboration as they explore how to optimize resource use through combined efforts. 
6. Climate risk assessments: Climate change clearly remains a critical issue. Companies will increasingly carry out climate risk assessments and stress tests to evaluate their exposure to physical and transition risks. 
7. Technological innovations in carbon removal field: New technologies such as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) will continue to gain importance alongside renewable energies. 

7 key trends impacting a combined approach to safety + sustainability in 2025

The intersection of safety and sustainability is becoming more complex as businesses face new regulatory pressures, technological advancements, and global challenges. From stricter reporting requirements to the impact of climate change on workplaces, organizations must take a more holistic and adaptive approach to managing risks and responsibilities. 

Here’s a look at the key trends at the intersection of safety and sustainability in 2025: 

1. Regulatory focus: Recent regulatory changes suggest a surge in focus on sustainability through new directives such as the CSRD, which includes changes in non-financial reporting.
2. A holistic approach emerges: Safety and sustainability are becoming intimately linked on both corporate and social levels. 
3. The need to adapt rapidly: New technologies, climate change, migratory movements, political landscape, and ongoing wars are factors that affect all of us. Businesses need to understand and adapt to these broader changes. 
4. Climate change: The adverse weather phenomena suggest special consideration needs to be given to their impact on working environments. 
5. The technological revolution: Artificial intelligence and worker data handling continue to pose unique challenges. 
6. A new labor landscape: In terms of Health and Safety, the foregoing trends lead us to configure a new labor landscape, where age must not be overlooked as a relevant factor when considering new technologies and climate change. 
7. The connection between employee engagement and sustainability: There is an increased need to develop tactics to preserve, assess, and measure the sustainability of employee engagement.  

Opportunities to integrate safety + sustainability

The increasing emphasis on sustainability is reshaping safety management. It is becoming increasingly apparent that ESG criteria contribute to a more robust safety management strategy. 

The main safety issues impacting ESG reporting have traditionally covered areas such as human and social capital, materiality and risk, supply chain management, and transparency. The incorporation of measurements in additional areas such as psychological safety and employee mental health is evidence of the ongoing transformation in running a sustainable and socially responsible business. 

ESG reporting is now also based on how an organization manages serious injury, illness, and fatality (SIF) prevention, physical well-being and work capability, as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

As companies expand their ESG programs to incorporate more goals related to healthy and supportive work environments, it will be essential to ensure the overall safety of employees. A work environment that values physical and mental safety can foster superior worker performance, increase profitability, and decrease operational expenses, all while contributing to sustainability efforts. 

Take a deeper dive into the trends, challenges, and opportunities surrounding the world of safety and sustainability with our new 2025 Safety Management and Sustainability Trends Report. Explore the report to gain critical insights into safety management and sustainability in 2025 and how your organization can navigate the unique challenges and opportunities they present.