The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Center for Transportation and Logistics has found that sustainability commitments are strong, but governance gaps and external disruptions prevent execution.
According to the 2026 State of Supply Chain Sustainability Report from the MIT Sustainable Supply Chain Lab, which surveyed 1,810 supply chain professionals across 91 countries, found 83% rate sustainability as important or very important to long-term business success.m
Additionally, 59% of respondents report becoming more committed to sustainability following recent US policy shifts that deprioritise environmental concerns.
Those same organisations are being forced to compromise those commitments, while 68% report that tariff uncertainty has compelled them to delay, scale back, or abandon sustainability strategies.
This is on top of nearly one-third of those surveyed nothing that they have seen tariff-related disruptions actually increase their operational emissions.
Beyond tariffs, more than 80% of respondents across North America, Europe, and Asia agree that ongoing geopolitical conflict is reducing the effectiveness of their organisation’s climate action.
Sreedevi Rajagopalan, director of the MIT Sustainable Supply Chain Lab, said: “Commitment is strong, measurement is expanding, and AI is accelerating.
“What comes next is harder: converting commitment into accountability, operational integration into strategic decision-making, and incremental decarbonisation into genuine transition.”
IntraLogisteX returns to the USA on 15-16 September 2027, bringing together senior supply chain, logistics, warehousing, fulfilment, manufacturing and automation professionals . Find out more
