Joel Makower, Chairman and Co-founder of Trellis Group (formerly GreenBiz Group), returns to Sustainable Nation for a wide-ranging conversation on the state of corporate sustainability in 2026. Joel shares findings from Trellis's just-released State of the Sustainability Profession report, digs into why companies are "saying less but doing more," and offers a candid assessment of where the profession is headed. Topics include green hushing, the resilience of sustainability teams, the retreat of CEO engagement, the complexity of net zero targets, and the long-term promise and short-term costs of AI. If you work in sustainability, this is essential listening.

Topics covered:

• State of the sustainability profession in 2026 and the Trellis biennial report
• Why companies are pulling back on sustainability language while continuing the work
• CEO engagement trends and the impact on sustainability budgets and teams
• Whether the sustainability professional is becoming irrelevant
• How the profession is evolving toward finance, legal, and risk alignment
• The failure modes and complexity behind net zero target revisions
• AI's paradox: accelerating sustainability solutions while increasing environmental impacts
• What sustainability professionals need to let go of and fight harder for