Public opinion on climate is changing in a way that matters for every large asset-intensive organization. Across 31 countries, Ipsos finds that people still think businesses must act on climate change, but they feel more powerless as individuals and expect clearer leadership from companies and governments.
Three dynamics stand out in the latest Ipsos People and Climate Change 2026 report. First, in all 26 countries tracked since 2021, the share of people who feel individuals must act "now" has declined. Second, 57% globally say businesses will be failing employees and customers if they do not act on climate change. Third, support for the energy transition is becoming conditional: half of respondents want governments to keep energy prices low even if emissions rise, yet 55% also support paying more for energy if it delivers genuine independence and resilience.
For maintenance, facilities, and sustainability leaders, this shift creates a practical challenge. Stakeholders are not asking for broader statements; they want visible delivery: fewer incidents, fewer resource losses, and proof that infrastructure is ready for more extreme conditions. This is exactly where Nextbitt’s platform brings value, by connecting asset management, resource consumption, and ESG data in one operational environment.
Climate change is now ranked as the top global risk for the next decade by both risk experts and the public, yet only 32% of people believe authorities are well prepared for the changing climate. That gap between perceived risk and perceived preparedness is where many enterprises are most vulnerable — and where a structured resilience approach, supported by Nextbitt’s asset and maintenance intelligence, can close the distance.
Risk experts and the public mainly worry about very tangible outcomes: damage to infrastructure and property from extreme weather, and the disruption that follows. For multi-site organizations managing thousands of physical assets, that damage often comes through familiar failure modes: overloaded HVAC systems during heatwaves, drainage failures during intense rainfall, or power distribution issues during storms.
Nextbitt enables teams to move from reactive responses to anticipatory resilience. By consolidating asset registers, maintenance history, and condition data, the platform helps leaders identify which sites and systems are most exposed to climate-related stress. Workflows can be prioritized based on criticality and probability of failure, not just on static schedules. For example, facilities teams can increase preventive tasks on cooling systems ahead of forecast heatwaves or adjust inspection routines for roofs and drainage in high-risk regions.
This approach does more than protect equipment. It gives executives auditable evidence that the organization understands its exposure and is taking measurable steps to manage climate risk, which is increasingly expected by boards, insurers, and regulators.
Ipsos data shows that 74% of people worry about rising energy costs, and 63% believe their country relies too heavily on foreign energy sources. At the same time, support for renewables and non‑carbon power remains high when framed around reliability, affordability and security. That balance between cost and carbon is now central to energy decisions inside large organizations.
Operations leaders sit at the front line of this tension. They manage the systems that consume the most energy — HVAC, lighting, manufacturing lines, data centers — but they often lack a single view linking asset performance, consumption, and service quality. This makes it difficult to compare scenarios such as running existing equipment for longer versus investing in more efficient alternatives.
Nextbitt creates that missing layer. By integrating metering data, maintenance events, and asset hierarchies, the platform provides a live picture of how energy is used across buildings and processes. Leaders can identify which assets contribute most to both cost and emissions, test different maintenance or replacement strategies, and track the real impact of changes over time.
For example, a portfolio manager might see that a small group of older chillers drives a disproportionate share of consumption and unplanned downtime. With Nextbitt, they can compare the cost of continued repairs against replacement with higher‑efficiency units, including the effect on energy spend and corporate emission trajectories. This turns energy‑transition debates into concrete, data‑based decisions that finance, operations, and sustainability teams can align around.
Despite inflation and political pressure, the Ipsos/Public Inc. Conscious Consumer Index rose from 38% to 40%, indicating that more people now factor social and environmental aspects into purchases. Around half of consumers in North America report switching products for ethical reasons in the past year, and 40% say they have boycotted or “buycotted” a brand.
These behaviors are supported by another clear finding: people still want to hear about companies’ impact, but they do not always trust what they hear. In the US and Canada, 62% of consumers want information about company impact, yet around three in four say they have low trust in ESG communication. That confidence gap puts pressure on every sustainability claim made by service providers, landlords, and infrastructure operators.
Nextbitt helps close this gap by grounding ESG narratives in operational evidence. Because the platform records work orders, inspections, asset replacements, and utility consumption within a unified data model, organizations can link every major sustainability statement back to traceable actions and metrics. Instead of general claims about “green buildings” or “responsible maintenance,” leaders can share concrete indicators such as reduction in unplanned equipment failures, lower energy intensity per square meter, or avoided water losses.
This level of detail matters when serving climate‑conscious tenants, clients, or passengers who are increasingly comparing providers on both performance and principle. With reliable data at their fingertips, commercial and sustainability teams can communicate with more clarity and respond quickly to requests for evidence from customers, lenders, or rating agencies.
Ipsos’ Reputation Council highlights a notable shift: only 21% of senior communicators now prefer to speak out on potentially divisive issues, and 80% expect brands to be more careful in ESG communications. Yet most agree that ESG is reshaping how businesses operate, and that weak performance now carries material consequences.
This creates a new operating model for ESG: less about public campaigns, more about embedded practices and robust reporting. Silence on its own, however, carries risk. Consumers may assume inaction; employees may feel their efforts are invisible; regulators and investors will still demand evidence. The answer is not louder messaging, but better documented impact.
Here, Nextbitt acts as a practical backbone for ESG reporting in asset‑heavy organizations. It centralizes operational data needed for disclosures aligned with frameworks such as CSRD, GRI, and ISO standards, while preserving the audit trail from field activity to board‑level indicators. Maintenance records, condition assessments, and resource‑use trends can be aggregated into ESG dashboards without losing the underlying detail needed for assurance.
For example, a sustainability team preparing climate‑related risk disclosures can use Nextbitt data to show how many critical assets have climate resilience measures in place, how inspection coverage has increased in high‑risk regions, and how these actions relate to incident rates. This gives internal and external stakeholders confidence that climate and ESG claims are backed by verifiable practice.
Across 31 countries, 48% of people disagree that it is “too late” to do anything about climate change. At the same time, the perceived responsibility to act is shifting away from individuals and toward institutions. Governments and companies are expected to make the transition feel achievable, fair, and well managed through visible delivery.
For enterprise leaders, this is not only a social expectation; it is a core operational question. Extreme weather is affecting asset lifecycles, insurance availability, and regulatory obligations. Energy‑system volatility is reshaping procurement strategies. Customers and employees are assessing organizations on how they respond to these pressures in practice, not only in policy.
Nextbitt supports this response by uniting asset management, maintenance planning, resource monitoring, and ESG reporting in a single, integrated environment. With this foundation, organizations can increase climate resilience, support the energy transition, and communicate impact with confidence, all while protecting service continuity and cost control. Climate fatigue may be growing, but the demand for capable, trustworthy action from companies has never been clearer — and the most prepared organizations are already turning that demand into a strategic advantage.
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