In brief:

• Explore insights from the PKF Global sustainability client survey to understand how organisations are addressing ESG priorities and non-financial reporting.
• Discover key sustainability challenges, including climate change, human capital and resource management, shaping global business strategies.
• Learn how organisations are integrating sustainability risks into enterprise risk management and compliance frameworks.
• Understand evolving stakeholder expectations driving increased transparency, data accuracy and external sustainability reporting.

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We launched our global sustainability client survey to better understand how organisations like yours are approaching sustainability. The findings highlight key focus areas and challenges businesses are facing today, offering valuable insights to help inform your own strategy.

If you’re navigating similar priorities or looking to strengthen your approach, our specialists are here to support you with tailored services and practical solutions. We invite you to explore the insights and connect with our team to discuss how we can help meet your organisation’s needs.

 

The evolving sustainability landscape and managing risks

As sustainability and non-financial corporate reporting develop, organisations are proactively adapting to meet the needs of both internal and external stakeholders. Investors, regulators, lenders, supply chain partners, customers and employees, along with holistic risk management, continue to drive the sustainability movement worldwide.

As organisations increasingly develop their enterprise risk management initiatives towards a more comprehensive understanding of their business risks, they recognise the importance of sustainability-related risks across their operations and value the emphasis that business partners place on them. Like any key risk, simply identifying and assessing these risks is not enough; effective management – including internal reporting and mitigation – is crucial. Furthermore, external stakeholders, including regulators, seek insights into how companies manage their sustainability risks, just as they do with other risk areas, like cyber risk.

Ultimately, this means that companies need to effectively incorporate sustainability risks and requirements into their current enterprise risk management and compliance programmes.

 

Top sustainability issues

Understanding the context and organisations’ specific sustainability objectives is essential. Respondents identified their top three focus areas as human capital, climate change, and raw materials and resources, followed by community engagement, waste management and human rights. 

 

Overseeing sustainability initiatives

With a growing emphasis on sustainability programmes and related information, companies are more frequently identifying resources to continuously oversee their initiatives and moving beyond one-time issue management towards institutionalised staffing and practices that support comprehensive risk and compliance management. Our survey found that 72% of respondents have either assigned or plan to assign responsibility for their sustainability programme at the operational, management and/or executive levels.

 

Gathering sustainability data

As the need for timely and accurate non-financial reporting grows, companies are implementing systems to enable more robust measurement and disclosure. This includes third-party and in-house systems for calculating greenhouse gas emissions, gathering community engagement information, producing management or external reports, and tracking fuel and water usage.

Implementing controlled systems for reliable sustainability data tracking makes it easier for companies to regularly collect accurate data, identify and respond to trends, manage risks, ensure compliance, support external reporting needs, quickly handle customer and supplier due diligence requests, and keep senior management informed.

 

Reporting sustainability information

External reporting needs continue to grow and can be mandatory or voluntary. While accuracy and completeness are always essential, these qualities become even more important when information is shared outside the organisation. 64% of survey respondents said they currently share sustainability information externally or plan to do so, with the following breakdown:

• 45% currently publish corporate sustainability information
• 44% have responded to stakeholder questionnaires
• 36% have submitted or plan to submit information to a regulator
• 29% have submitted or plan to submit information to a global disclosure organisation such as GRESB, SBTi, CDP, PRI or STARS.

Stakeholder questionnaires are mainly comprised of requests from customers (55%), investors (16%), lenders (16%) and suppliers (12%), highlighting value chain pressures.

While many respondents feel prepared for these demands, a majority (68%) see opportunities for improvement, including developing a programme strategy (30%), addressing external reporting needs (26%), enhancing systems and processes (21%) and better executing their programme strategy (12%).

 

The increasing focus on sustainability credentials

Implementing a sustainability programme and strong non-financial reporting systems is becoming increasingly essential to attract and retain customers, meet supplier due diligence requirements, secure financing and insurance, and comply with regulations. This involves integrating sustainability risk into current enterprise risk management and compliance programmes, while also addressing the unique challenges of this data, including disparate systems, inconsistent metrics and underdeveloped internal controls.

 

Our solutions

Our global sustainability and ESG experts can guide you in your journey to develop and execute a multi-department strategy to meet your unique sustainability programme needs. Find out more by visiting our sustainability and ESG services page here
 
The full results of our global sustainability client survey are available to download here