What Is Net Positive?Key Barriers and How Companies Can Overcome Them
Article | 2025-7-28
10 minute read
"Net Positive" is more than a buzzword. It's a blueprint for future-ready business. It challenges companies to move beyond reducing their environmental and social footprint and instead become active contributors to a better world. Many business leaders already understand the value of this approach. Yet despite widespread recognition of its benefits, few companies have achieved Net Positive outcomes. What stands in the way? The biggest obstacles often come from within.
What does “Net Positive” mean?
Being Net Positive means that a company gives back more to society and the environment than it takes. This includes reducing emissions, adopting renewable energy, promoting inclusive employment, and investing in local communities.
Today, businesses are expected to grow in a way that also benefits society and the planet. This is no longer a "nice-to-have" strategy, but a business imperative. Organizations that embrace Net Positive thinking are more resilient, innovative, and aligned with the expectations of investors, customers, and employees.
To explore how companies are progressing toward this goal, Fujitsu’s Net Positive Index, developed and researched by Economist Impact, surveyed 1,800 executives and decision makers across five key industries—Retail, Manufacturing, Mobility, Financial services, and Energy & Utilities—in 17 countries.
The findings are compelling: Companies that lead in Net Positive are more likely to be on track to achieve their revenue, profit, and market share goals, and are also tracking ahead on investor confidence.
Yet the majority of companies still struggle to move the needle. The question is: why?
Organizational structure is key to why net positivity is not progressing
Executives widely recognize the value of going Net Positive. So why aren't more companies achieving it?
The answer lies in organizational design and priorities. Leaders see the benefits, but internal systems, structures, and mindsets often act as brakes.
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Despite this broad understanding, execution is inconsistent. What’s preventing companies from turning ambition into action? A deeper look into the top five organizational barriers shows that three out of five are internal. This indicates that companies must focus inward to move forward.
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Meanwhile, common assumptions such as skill gaps or lack of leadership support appear less frequently as barriers, suggesting that the root challenges lie not in people, but in how organizations are set up and run.
