This year was one of uncertainty in the green tech industry: Climate action and tech have been gaining momentum for some time, but the results of the 2024 election could bring real implications for the sector. In the wake of a second Trump victory, states, municipalities, and companies are now developing strategies to push for green initiatives under a possibly less amenable administration.
Tech Brew talked with green tech experts about what they expect to see in 2025 in terms of industry trends, climate policy, and corporate sustainability.
State power: Despite the election of Donald Trump, voters in seven states backed climate and green tech-focused ballot measures. According to Michael Samuelian, the founding director of Cornell University’s Urban Tech Hub, such wins are a prophecy—and a callback to how city and state climate legislation responded to Trump’s first term.
“What happened the last time we had an administration that was not as focused on climate is that a lot of power, interest, and opportunity came at the local level,” Samuelian told Tech Brew.
He said he expects to see a similar push from cities and states this time around, as they’re “on the front lines of climate change,” and that instead of green tech progress being spurred by federal laws like the Inflation Reduction Act, it will most likely come from state and municipal legislation.
Alekhya Reddy, VP of product at sustainability management platform Optera, also told us that state and local legislation will be more impactful than federal initiatives in 2025, especially in populous states like California and New York, where many large companies operate.
That said, Reddy added that many of the companies she works with are far more motivated by internal goals and sustainability targets than outside factors like legislation and the current occupant of the White House.
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“A lot of our clients, they’re not thinking about the next four years. They’re thinking about the next eight, 10, even 15 [or] 20 years, because their net-zero targets are set on that timeline,” Reddy said. “It’s just a smart business move to think in those time frames based on something as massive and as impactful as climate.”
ESG integration: Speaking of smart business moves, Reddy said many of the companies she’s worked with have incorporated environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices into all parts of their businesses—a trend she thinks will continue.
“In the past…the ESG group has kind of been siloed and put in the corner. And their recommendations have maybe not been taken as seriously in the past,” Reddy told us. “But as climate becomes a business-risk problem, this is getting elevated to the C-suite and [ESG] is collaborating with the rest of the company.”
Debbie Lizt, head of global sustainability at Intuit, said in an email she foresees a “deeper integration of sustainability goals into core business strategies.”
“Companies will look beyond traditional [corporate social responsibility] initiatives and align their business models to achieve both economic and environmental benefits,” Lizt said.
Data and adaptation: And as natural disasters increase, so does the need for more comprehensive data to predict them. Tina Tosukhowong, investment director at TDK Ventures, who specializes in green tech, told Tech Brew she expects that companies will invest in that sort of data to “protect their assets.”
“If we’re not decarbonizing fast enough, we’re gonna see more severe weather patterns that disrupt operations,” Tosukhowong said. “The big data that would help to predict the event and that will help to build into products [to] help mitigate and provide insurance claims and warnings, those [will] be areas that people [will] look into more.”