Vietnamese enterprises increase investment for sustainable development

Vietnam's Green Impact Gap drops to 41%

The Green IMPACT Gap 2025 report is based on a survey of 4,500 business leaders, published by Schneider Electric at the end of November. The Green Impact Gap Index is a measure of the gap between goals and actions in sustainable development of Vietnamese businesses.

Photo caption — The Green Impact Gap Index has decreased over the years. Illustrative photo

Accordingly, the rate of businesses taking comprehensive action to realize sustainable goals in Vietnam increased by more than 50%, contributing to reducing the Green Impact Gap index to 41%. With this index, Vietnam is currently leading the region in terms of progress, followed by Taiwan (46%), Thailand (47%) and South Korea (48%).

In addition, the report also shows that the perception of the role of sustainable development in businesses is clearly shifting. In 2025, 59% of Vietnamese leaders surveyed considered it a driving force for innovation and competitiveness, up from 55% when the survey began in 2023. Notably, 45% said that sustainability goals help save costs, a sharp increase from 20% after only two years.

In addition, 54% of leaders believe that sustainable development opens up business opportunities and 50% see it as a factor in enhancing brand reputation. These changes reflect a shift from “understanding” to “concrete action” in the business community.

By 2025, 94% of Vietnamese businesses are confident of meeting or exceeding their 2030 climate targets, with 26% reporting they are more than three years ahead of schedule. However, businesses that make general commitments but lack transparency about their progress risk falling short of their targets.

The report also found that, while policy and procedural constraints have decreased compared to 2023, economic uncertainty (51%) and internal budget constraints (44%) remain the biggest obstacles to sustainable development investment.

AI becomes a key tool

Nearly 60% of Vietnamese businesses have applied AI solutions to realize sustainability goals, of which 41% optimize processes and resource usage, up from fourth place among digital solutions last year.

Businesses assess AI's greatest potential to be in optimizing energy consumption (51%), automating data collection (49%) and supporting product design (47%).

The data center sector is the industry with the most change: 60% of leaders identify sustainability as linked to innovation, up 27 percentage points from 2023; 68% prioritize technology applications to reduce emissions in the context of rapidly increasing demand for high-performance computing; 46% of businesses are implementing green IT strategies to reduce carbon emissions.

Meanwhile, the additional report shows that the Utilities sector leads in AI applications for sustainable development (55%), followed by Financial and Professional Services (45%).

Over the next two years, 36% of Asian businesses plan to invest at least $1 million in sustainability, with digitalization being the top priority (45%). One-third of businesses are already actively using AI to advance their sustainability goals.

Mr. Dong Mai Lam, General Director of Schneider Electric Vietnam and Cambodia, commented: “Businesses do not just want to overcome difficulties, they consider sustainable development as a compass.”

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