A growing ‘regulatory soup’ of ESG reporting legislation and due diligence requirements is one of the biggest risks to supply chain sustainability in 2025, a new report by global assurance partner LRQA has found.
The Supply chain sustainability: Top trends for 2025 report, by LRQA’s software platform EIQ, identifies a number of key challenges for the year ahead, including forced and child labour in unexpected markets (including the US), shifting geopolitical conditions, and regulatory complexity.
‘A complex web’
“While it could be argued that global supply chains have never faced such a complex web of connected challenges, business leaders are faced with a huge opportunity to overcome them by investing in data, advanced technologies and global expertise,” commented Kevin Franklin, chief product officer at LRQA.
The growing complexity of ESG compliance requirements is leading to a broadening gap between corporate ESG ambitions and their ability to meet sustainability commitments, LRQA noted, adding that the impact from the recent backlash against ESG is likely to similarly have an impact.
‘The tendency for businesses to prioritise short-term profitability over long-term ESG resilience is highlighted by the report as being a reason behind the growing gap between ambition, expectation and preparedness,’ it noted.
The trends outlined in the report borrow from LRQA’s work with more than 450 global businesses at both corporate and site level in over 100 countries.
Data-driven decision making
“Our goal in sharing these trends is to guide better data-driven decision-making and inform the design of more impactful supply chain sustainability and risk management programmes,” Franklin added.
“Every responsible business will have its own unique needs, but by placing real-time data and ESG right at the heart of business strategy, leaders can turn the dial from reactive risk management to empowered and data-driven proactivity.”
The full report, which outlines eight supply chain sustainability trends for 2025, can be found here.
