After a year 2024 marked by an acceleration of practices in terms of transparency and carbon footprint reduction, organizations must now take a step forward: that of fully integrating environmental, social and governance issues into their daily operations.

What are these priority issues for 2025? What challenges await companies in order to transform their ambitions into sustainable actions? So many questions whose answers can be found in this article!

Also see our article presenting The practical guide to the CSR approach

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The 4 essential pillars of CSR

Before discussing the specific features of the year 2025, let's remember that CSR policies are based on four fundamental pillars.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) encompasses a wide range of issues that affect how a company interacts with its stakeholders, including employees, customers, society as a whole and the environment.

The main CSR challenges for companies are economic, social, environmental and governance issues.

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1. Environmental responsibility

It concerns the actions and policies put in place by a company to reduce its environmental footprint.

More than reducing the carbon footprint, 2025 focuses on an approach that encompasses all the challenges of sustainable development, such as the preservation of biodiversity, the sustainable management of natural resources, the reduction of waste and the promotion of energy efficiency.

These challenges are essential to ensure a sustainable balance between economic, environmental and social needs.

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2. Social responsibility

A company's social responsibility is divided into two complementary aspects: commitment to its employees and commitment to communities.

• Commitment to employees: It's about how a company treats its teams, including ensuring safe and fair working conditions, respecting human rights at work, promoting diversity and inclusion, and providing training and skills development. Being socially responsible also means agreeing to open a dialogue between management and internal teams.
• Community Involvement: Businesses are increasingly encouraged to actively engage with the local communities in which they operate, by providing financial support, by sponsoring skills or by providing resources for social initiatives. An issue that, in our opinion, must be developed more than ever by companies. Go to the end of the article to find out more!

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3. Economic responsibility

Responsible purchasing, cost optimization, transparency towards stakeholders... all economic actions that aim to create a CSR policy centered on its ecosystem in order to sustainably transform its economic system.

Being economically responsible also means anticipating risks.

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4. Responsible corporate governance

Governance refers to the set of rules and practices that run and control a business.

The establishment of transparent and responsible governance practices, the guarantee of the independence of the board of directors, the consideration of the interests of shareholders and other stakeholders are some examples that can be applied to meet this fourth challenge.

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The 5 priority issues for 2025

1. Going beyond carbon

While the carbon footprint remains a priority, 2025 calls for a broader approach to environmental impact. Businesses are invited to integrate indicators measuring the use of resources, the preservation of biodiversity, and the management of water-related risks, while adopting a strategy based on the ERC model: Avoid, Reduce, then Offset impacts.

Businesses that own land, such as industrial sites or offices with outdoor spaces, play a key role in maintaining biodiversity. The regulations require concrete actions to avoid any net loss of biodiversity, such as restoring natural areas or integrating responsible agricultural or industrial practices.

By combining environmental ambition and a methodological framework, companies can transform these obligations into opportunities for sustainable differentiation and innovation.

To go further: CSR labels and certifications: everything you need to know to make the right choice!

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2. Adapting to climate change

Adaptation is becoming a central paradigm in 2025. More than risk management, it is a structural change: integrating climate resilience into all business activities. The extreme climate episodes observed in 2024 call for increased preparation to ensure business continuity and the safety of employees.

Good to know: ADEME has launched new open source tools in March 2025 to help businesses diagnose their vulnerability to climate hazards.

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3. Strengthening transparency with CSRD

La CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) concerns companies with more than 250 employees (with a balance sheet greater than 25 million euros and/or a turnover of more than 50 million euros), but also small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) listed on the stock exchange.

Companies will now have to present more detailed extra-financial reporting, integrating dual materiality (financial and impact). This regulation encourages greater transparency towards stakeholders, in particular investors and consumers.

Note: In order to alleviate the reporting burden on businesses, from the Omnibus project, new measures have been announced by the European executive concerning the CSRD.

Following this announcement, the reporting requirements will only apply to large companies with more than 1000 employees, with a turnover of more than 50 million euros or a balance sheet total of more than 25 million euros.

Also, the evolutions also lie in the Two-year deferral (until 2028) reporting requirements for companies that are currently required to produce a report from 2026 or 2027 and listed SMEs with an expected entry into force in 2027.

To find out more about these new measures, you can refer to the European Commission website.

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4. Digitalization of CSR: the example of financial donations

The digitalization of CSR has become an essential lever for companies seeking to optimize their social commitment.

In 2023, one-time online donations registered a significant increase of 12.3% compared to 2022, and now represent 30% of donations collected, compared to 20% in 2019. This trend shows the growing importance of digital tools in fundraising, and makes the processes more accessible and measurable.

“Between 2010 and 2021, the amount of donations alone declared to the French tax services by individuals was multiplied by 2 and that of businesses by 2.3”
‍Le Monde

Financial donations are increasing, but we need to go even further. Chez Komeet, we understood it well. This is why we have developed a donation collection module, directly integrated into the employee engagement platform. The combination of the donation of time and the donation of money generates a significant double impact for associations.

Discover Komeet's donation solution, to facilitate the financial donation of businesses to associations!

Request a demo

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5. Diversity, Inclusion and Gender Equality

Professional equality between women and men remains a major challenge for 2025, with a wage gap of 9% between women and men in equivalent positions and equal skills in France (Ministry of Equality between Women and Men).

This imbalance, while advances have taken place, reflects structural barriers, such as sexism, the glass ceiling, and workplace discrimination. Companies must put in place concrete actions to fight against these inequalities, in particular through awareness-raising programs, training and fair remuneration policies.

At the same time, the issue of the inclusion of people with disabilities and LGBTQIA+ people is becoming crucial for a real transformation of work environments. Inclusion is not limited to mere representation, but also involves ensuring equitable access to professional opportunities, a safe and respectful work environment, and policies adapted to the needs of all.

Indeed, the hiring of people with disabilities fell by 6% in 2023, but efforts to keep these employees in place increased by +4%
‍AGEFIPH

Moreover, although progress has been made, the company remains the third sphere of discrimination for LGBTQIA+ individuals, after the family and the Internet (stream).

These figures demonstrate the need for concrete actions to build inclusive and respectful work environments. This includes appropriate policies, increased awareness and ensuring equitable access to professional opportunities for all.

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And societal commitment in all of this?

What if one of the challenges of social commitment in 2025 was also and above all to focus our efforts on actions that really matter?

Chez Komeet, we consider that social commitment cannot be a simple one-off approach: it is a constant challenge, because associations face permanent needs. These structures, often at the heart of social and environmental challenges, need regular and sustainable support. This is why businesses have a key role to play in meeting these expectations in a coherent and structured manner.

As experts in corporate social commitment, we have had the opportunity since 2017 to participate in the creation of numerous engagement programs in structures of various sizes.

At Komeet, we are convinced that, in order to have a real impact on associations, it is best to make choices. The question is no longer to scatter around too varied causes for fear of not being able to involve your employees in your engagement program.

Choose a limited number of associations and/or ideally A great cause and support it all year round through all the levers that can be activated (financial sponsorship, skills sponsorship and in-kind sponsorship). Organizing our strategy in this way is for us the assurance of carrying out concrete actions that will be of real interest to the beneficiary audiences.

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What is important in order to meet these CSR challenges?

Instead of starting from a rigid theoretical framework, start by listening to what really matters to your stakeholders: employees, customers, partners. What are their concerns?

For example, your employees might want more extensive remote work initiatives to reduce their carbon footprint, while your customers might be interested in the sustainability of your products.

Once these priorities have been identified, set quantifiable and realistic goals and implement concrete actions. For example, instead of a vague “reduce our emissions”, commit to reducing your transport emissions by 20% within three years through solutions like electric transport.

Finally, transparency is crucial. Publish clear and accessible results, not just a dense CSR report that is not easy to read. Even better, organize meetings or webinars to talk directly with your stakeholders and show your progress.

The objective is to make your CSR approach both tangible and in line with the real needs of the people you serve. In short, it is much more than a check box — it is a lever for federating and innovating.

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Perspectives for businesses: towards a global impact

The year 2025 offers a unique opportunity for companies to become leaders of change in CSR. This means going beyond one-off initiatives to integrate concrete actions at all levels, in order to meet current social, environmental and economic challenges.

Future challenges, such as adapting to climate change, reducing discrimination, and promoting inclusive environments, require an ambitious vision and measurable commitments.

The objective is clear: to transform ambitions into tangible results, which will benefit not only businesses, but also society and the planet.

Businesses that are fully committed to this transformation will not only gain credibility and attractiveness, but will also contribute to a more sustainable and equitable economy.

Do you want to make your company an actor of change? Learn how our solutions can help you meet these challenges and maximize your lasting impact today.

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