A majority of business leaders plan on increasing existing sustainability investments at their organization to protect from disruption caused by economic uncertainty and geopolitical conflict, according to a new Gartner survey.

One answer to remaining relevant during a period of disruption may lie in advancing the environmental sustainability of a company's operations by investing in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and climate change mitigation efforts. According to the survey, 86% of executives at organizations with annual revenue of at least $250 million believe investing in ESG programs and initiatives will provide tenacity and longevity amid disruption.

As organizations migrate their workloads to multi-cloud environments and adopt cloud-native architectures like microservices and containers, they're promised and often realize sustainability savings in areas like energy or water usage. Cloud computing often makes up a significant portion of enterprises' carbon emissions, and driving efficiency in data centers and cloud infrastructure is an effective way to lower the environmental impact of enterprises across all industries.

That interconnected nature of business and environmental impact suggests it's in enterprises' best interests to help themselves and their customers operate with a lower impact on the planet, which is a shift in attitude driven by customers, according to 80% of executives who cited the group as top stakeholders pressuring businesses to invest and act on climate issues.

The rising stakeholder desire for climate action and progress on ESG goals is coupled with a focus on essentialism, Gartner VP Analyst Kristin Moyer said. "Economic uncertainty, geopolitical conflict, and escalating materials and energy costs are forcing businesses to reexamine all forms of expenditure."

Moyer is confident, however, that "sustainability enables businesses to cope with disruption," citing new opportunities "to grow while mitigating cost and risk" created by that combination of customer pressure and the business benefits of sustainability.

According to Gartner, 83% of executive agree sustainability activities generated both short- and long-term value for the company, and 80% noted sustainability aided in cost optimization and reduction. The main areas in which executives see sustainability cutting costs are energy consumption, business travel, and customer transactions, the analyst firm reported.

Moyer described this as a "two for one" deal "where sustainability investment supports a business goal like cost optimization" and "significantly enhances the program’s impact by creating a virtuous cycle." Through this process, "executive leaders are achieving both operational and supply chain savings through their sustainability programs," Moyer said.