2025 Supply Chain Sustainability Trends With Tom Raftery, Sustainability and Technology Evangelist

Going into the new year, your customers, investors, and partners all have one thing in common: sustainability is a big concern. As natural disasters rage across the world, people are increasingly committed to preventing climate change—and they expect your business to do its part by reducing carbon emissions. 

Tom Raftery, host of the Climate Confident and Sustainable Supply Chain podcasts, joins Lori on this episode of Unboxing Logistics to share some sustainability trends and predictions going into 2025. 

Trend #1: Electric vehicles (EVs) will become more popular

Living in Spain, Tom has a close-up view of Europe’s environmental regulations. He explains that a variety of factors will combine to make electric vehicles the popular choice in 2025: 

“All of the EV manufacturers who are selling into Europe are … going to be pushing EVs even more next year to make sure they're not hit with fines. When you look at that, and you look at the fact that the costs of EVs keep dropping year on year, you see that for fleet managers, they're far cheaper to own and operate than traditional diesel vehicles.”

Tom concludes, “I think at least here in Europe, but probably even more broadly, the penetration of EVs will ramp up significantly in 2025.”

Trend #2: Artificial intelligence (AI) will take center stage

When it comes to tracking scope 3 emissions, which aren’t directly produced by your business, Tom emphasizes the importance of partnerships, data sharing, and AI tools to organize all the information you collect. 

“You need to be able to report the emissions coming from your suppliers. And that gets rather tricky because it's third-party information. You've got to talk with them ... [and that involves] taking in enormous amounts of data. What we'll start to see is AI helping organizations to work with that data that's coming in … [to] get the insights … [and] make recommendations.”

Trend #3: Sustainable organizations will win over stakeholders

According to Tom, making sustainable choices helps businesses attract and retain both customers and employees. “Your customers will … find you and they'll stay with you more easily if you have a good sustainability story to tell. … It's easier to find good employees … because people want to work for an organization that's doing good things.”

But the benefits of going green don’t end there. Tom explains that other stakeholders, including banks, insurance companies, and investors, also look more favorably at organizations that incorporate sustainability.

The bottom line? “Sustainability has gone from being a nice-to-have to now being a business imperative.”

Links

• Connect with Tom on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomraftery/ 
• Follow Tom on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@tom.f.raftery 
• Follow Tom on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/tomraftery.com 
• Listen to the Climate Confident podcast: https://www.climateconfidentpodcast.com/ 
• Listen to the Sustainable Supply Chain podcast: https://www.sustainablesupplychainpodcast.com/