The Case for Systemic Transformation

The past week has offered a sobering reminder of the intricate relationships binding climate, business, and society. With the UN now describing recent droughts as a “slow-moving global catastrophe” and another scorching European heatwave driving fatalities in Spain and France [1, 2, 8] while flash flooding in Kerr County Texas saw the water level of the Guadalupe River rise from about 7ft to 29ft in less than four hours (that's almost 7 meters), the vulnerabilities of companies, people, and our entire way of life, have rarely been more exposed. The human tragedy is horrendous, and so is our inability to truly respond to this "once in a lifetime" events that now happen every year.

Our response must go well beyond incremental adjustments. Of course, governments will need to help people right now. But we also need systemic transformation.

Environmental Shocks Meet Market Realities

Beverage industry CEOs, consulted recently in Forbes [3] are deeply aware of the accelerating environmental shocks. Water scarcity, changing consumer preferences, and regulatory uncertainty have rendered business-as-usual obsolete. Companies in this sector are being compelled to look beyond efficiency tweaks and invest fundamentally in resilient supply chains and circular business models.

This is not simply a question of corporate social responsibility. It’s existential. Climate is now a business continuity issue; the latest heatwaves are exacerbating drought cycles and destabilizing agricultural regions. Even temporary shifts in weather, such as the UK’s brief reprieve from heatwaves[4], are cold comfort in a broader context of climate volatility.

Feedback Loops and Tipping Points

What we’re witnessing are not isolated incidents, but feedback loops that threaten to tip critical systems. Water scarcity spikes food and beverage prices, amplifies social unrest, and prompts migration. And it does not help that US trade policy is, how to put this delicately, volatile? Extreme weather erodes infrastructure and compresses insurance markets. Markets respond to these physical risks, often in volatile or self-reinforcing ways.

Notably, energy policy shifts have exposed new vulnerabilities. The rollback of clean energy incentives in the US, described by Forbes as a “massacre”[5] and undoubtedly a major setback for the fight against climate change, risks gutting local economies, particularly in red states dependent on renewables, while also robbing AI-driven climate solutions of the power they require to scale [5]. These are cascading, interconnected impacts: a single political decision echoes far beyond its original intent.

Are Businesses Ready to Act? Or Just React?

Is there any cause for cautious optimism?

Some companies are reassessing portfolios: for instance, the rise of efficient plug-in hybrids, highlighted by the EPA [6], reveals tangible demand for lower-carbon options even as the electric vehicle market experiences uncertainty [7]. Companies like French ride-hailing startup Allocab are moving beyond carbon and embracing a wider sense of environmental responsibility. Yet, one must ask: Are these transformative pivots or merely adaptive reactions? Is the right question which car to buy or whether it makes sense to own a very expensive asset that loses half of its value the moment you buy it, sits idle for 96% of the time, and contributes to both scorching heat and torrential rains.

Sustainability, if it is to mean anything, must be embedded within the system boundaries from from process to product design, from policy advocacy to consumer engagement, from the boundaries of the firm and the value chain, to the nine planetary boundaries, six of which are being transgressed against. 

The companies that will succeed are moving beyond the narrow perspective that has plagued the sustainability space (responsibility = footprint = the damage I do) and are embracing a more holistic perspective (sustainability the world needs right now, the handprint approach). Resilience will hinge on our capacity to hold a long-term, systemic view, and not just a transactional mindset.

Where Next? A Call for Reflective Action

Reflection invites provocation: Are we treating symptoms or addressing root causes? The year 2025’s climate and market disruptions are urgent calls to look beyond quarterly cycles and toward a regenerative, systems-oriented future. They are not just caused by Trump's grand experiment with the world. Climate risk is here. Water risk is real. Biodiversity risk is existential. As scholars and entrepreneurs, it is our responsibility to advance frameworks that reward true handprints — net-positive impacts — and not merely footprints or short-term risk mitigation.

In uncertain times, resilience is not mere endurance but the active cultivation of future value for both business and biosphere.