As we enter this pivotal year, I do so with excitement and a rush of adrenaline. I am privileged to be at the center of a group of leaders who care deeply about the future of our world, hold positions to influence it, and take seriously their responsibility to create the best outcomes for the greatest number of people.

2025 has been a focal point for my entire career – it’s a year that has anchored countless goals, commitments, and initiatives. It has been a cornerstone in many corporate strategies and global initiatives alike, including a critical marker on the path to achieving the Global Goals and increasing ambition under the Paris Agreement.

Arriving at this moment is significant. It offers an opportunity to take stock, to conduct an important accountability check before we gear up to go even bolder in our next five years.

How are we doing and more importantly, what still needs to be done?

A critical juncture

2024 was a year of change and upheaval, with raging conflicts, political instability and environmental crises. These tensions were also layered with advances in AI, questions on misinformation and fake news, and ethical debates around these topics. But this year holds the opportunity to be a turning point – to spark a seismic shift in our approach.

Our planet – and the social, cultural and biological fabric that binds it together – is at a critical juncture. The decisions we make now will have lasting consequences. We need leaders ready to meet this moment and willing to lean into the challenge of building consensus and a global community.

The B Team has always – and will continue to – focus on forward-thinking types of leadership, highlighting powerful examples rooted in empathy, collaboration, and long-term vision. But, like the wider world, we are also at an inflection point.

Leaning in

This is our moment to accelerate efforts, forge new and diverse partnerships, and help deliver a fairer and healthier world.

The B Team Leaders are a global group of motivated and experienced individuals who have come together wanting to define a positive role for business that offers so much more than just profit.

Our Leaders are exploring bold, innovative models to create a sustainable future through their work. Take for instance the Ibrahim Prize showcasing exceptional role models in Africa, Chobani’s hiring and ownership practices, and Ingka Group’s climate footprint reduction while growing its businesses – they all push the boundaries of what’s possible and point toward the policies and norms needed to scale these efforts.

And we need to keep going further.

Supercharging individual efforts

Even the boldest business leader can’t change global systems single-handedly. Just like our B Team Leaders are impressive alone but stronger together, it’s when you also leverage their vast networks to amplify and accelerate progress that powerful change happens.

To achieve real change, we need to incentivize businesses to act and private institutional capital to invest in ways that benefit people and the planet. Subsidy reform, carbon pricing, functional markets, and consistent disclosure and reporting are key to aligning business models with sustainability at scale.

This is a really important focus for this year. Following the underwhelming outcomes of the 2024 global climate change conference COP29 which had a focus on finance, there is a lot to be done to create the systems and incentives needed to scale business solutions.

There are positive signs of change all over the world, showing signals of what is possible in the real economy. But there is much to be done ahead of COP30 in Brazil this year if we are going to generate the levels of momentum we need.

While we are facing critical issues, there is an exciting future of innovation and a better way of doing business ahead. We are more equipped now than we’ve ever been.

The path forward will not be easy, but it is one worth traveling. Let’s get to work.

The Catalyst is The B Team’s monthly newsletter, which showcases ways in which leaders are advocating a better way of doing business. Subscribe to receive updates.