For the past few years, conversations around climate and sustainable investing have felt a bit stuck. Instead of emerging opportunities around battery life or renewables, focus has been fixed on investment blacklists and other political issues.

As a result, heading into this year’s Climate Week it was hard to escape the feeling that some of the energy had moved away from the New York version of the event. There are now Climate Weeks all over the world, from Mexico City to Zurich, Baku and Yeosu, with a bunch in between. The London event has taken particular prominence.

Having now attended, the sense of decline was misplaced. The conversations I witnessed and participated in pointed to a smaller but more engaged audience. There’s a lot to be excited about when it comes to climate (there’s a lot to be worried about too, but that’s for a different blog).

It’s easy to characterize sustainable investing as still tied up in conversations over concessionary returns or the proper place of the E, the S, and the G in their strategies. The key takeaway from Climate Week is that sustainable investing, and climate solutions generally, are perhaps the leading industries when it comes to developing new and innovative solutions.

A few key points:

• Corporates still care. C-level leaders from companies including Delta Airlines, Siemens, Amazon and, of course, Patagonia, all spoke at different events. The days of greenhushing may not be completely over, but they are coming to an end.
• So do investors. A new Ceres assessment of the 50 largest North American investors found that a significant majority remain committed to climate action. For example, about three-fourths continue to allocate capital to climate action.
• The next phase of opportunities is currently being defined. One pleasant surprise coming out of this year’s event was the interest in talking about natural capital. Several financial companies (including some of our clients) have been beating that drum for a while now and it seems that at least some Climate Week attendees heard, and they’re following up. This is one among many emerging focus areas worth thinking about if you’re an investor or corporate.

There’s not much value in telling the last story. While some investors might focus on issues around concessionary returns or challenges from politicians, industry leaders are looking at what’s next. When it comes to communications strategy, the next set of successful companies are going to follow suit.