Sustainability is dead. Long live sustainability!

When a dead king was laid to rest in the tomb and a new one was crowned, it was customary to proclaim: " Le roi est mort, vive le roi. " This was intended to signify that the old era had ended and a new one was beginning.

Fifty years ago, the Club of Rome's The Limits to Growth said it all: unlimited growth on a finite planet is not possible. The Brundtland Commission nailed sustainable development in 1987 and the UN Global Compact institutionalized the role of business in 1999.

That was the beginning of the 21st century of sustainability, including for me. There were dozens of frameworks, models, sustainability communication themes and reporting reference frames. As planetary boundaries loomed, so did the cross-pressure on what really matters in sustainability. Action, results or stories? Finally came regulation - a big promise, overstated expectations.

And the big bang.

The US anti-ESG movement shattered the global ethos and the EU Omnibus uncoupled the flywheel of systemic change. The new era is anything but bright.

Decades of pent-up expectations were loaded into regulation-focused sustainability and the Brussels effect. When everything collapsed, many people's vision of the future of sustainability and their own profession also collapsed.

Resilience is needed in the depths of a midlife crisis.

The old is valuable, but it is unclear in what respect. The future must be done, but the direction is worrying. The house is burning, but the fire hoses are in a knot.

This is the most serious identity crisis in sustainability to date. The old identity, whether it be that of an environmental engineer, a sustainability influencer, a compliance specialist or a sustainability architect, no longer works as it is.

Life doesn't end at middle age. Quite the opposite. But we have to work towards something new. A new identity is a new opportunity to build on experience.

External demands, whether they come from regulation, reporting or stakeholders, are no longer valid at the core of identity. Values and ideology are important, but they do not drive companies, the economy or capital - unfortunately, not even consumers, if money matters.

What is needed instead is a pragmatic realism that speaks to economics, technology, business and risk management from a sustainability perspective. While there is froth on the surface, companies and capital markets continue their course below the surface. They know that the risks of transition will not go away. Unsustainability is reflected in supply chains, insurance pricing and the availability of raw materials, whether we like it or not.

The new identity of sustainability is not built on mission, reputation or regulation alone. It is built on the analysis of risks and opportunities, on sustainable hard value creation. On the fact that sustainability is part of the viability of companies.

Maybe this is where we finally return to the Club of Rome.