The following are five trends we expect to unfold during 2018. Yes, you could argue we’re playing it safe — like the typical horoscope or fortune teller, these predictions overall are fairly broad. Nevertheless, expect to see many headlines focused on these topics in the coming year.

More brands will keep on taking stands. We don’t know what the hot-button issues will be for 2018. But the response of many companies to an array of issues in recent years, from public lands stewardship to immigration to supporting LGBT employees, indicates that more companies, and the executives leading them, will increasingly stand up for social causes.

More oil companies will invest in renewables. Watch for more conventional energy companies to take more interest in renewables; after all, there is money to be made. BP, for example, recently purchased a large stake in the solar company Brightsource for $200 million. Investments like that of BP’s make sense: even if the U.S. federal government is focused on fossil fuels, there are still state and local regulations that position renewables as a promising business — and with coal on the fast decline and oil and gas in a three-year price slump, oil and wind power will offer more opportunities for these companies to diversify their holdings.

The Circular Economy becomes more mainstream. Time is running out if society is going to come anywhere close to halting the deluge of plastics ending up in the world’s oceans. And we will see more companies moving away from "zero waste" to systems in which waste is not only recycled, but can be upcycled into a more robust revenue generator.

Read the full article on sustainable business predictions for 2018 by Leon Kaye at TriplePundit.