Sustainability practitioners face an unenviable task. Delivering on ambitious aims that are becoming increasingly pivotal to an organization’s direction and strategy, integrating across multiple different departments and teams, affecting meaningful change within operations without disruption, and all on budgets that are frequently considered insufficient.   

It’s of little surprise that the role is becoming more multi-faceted and multi-skilled, but also more challenging than ever.   

Amidst a range of strategic imperatives, our research shows that energy and decarbonization continues to stand as the most important for businesses today. A significant majority of respondents said their organization placed decarbonizing operations among their top three sustainability strategies today, with nearly half (47%) stating it to be their leading objective.   

While the approach to decarbonization is undoubtedly holistic, investments in renewable energy and increasing the efficiency of existing operations appear to be the two most popular approaches today, with success being measured in reducing core emissions first and foremost.   

Sustainability reporting is also of significant importance, identified as a priority by 46% of respondents. Here we see the use of tools and technology to automate specific tasks related to the reporting function as strategically important, alongside integrating corporate disclosures across the business.  

Outside of these two core objectives, our research also highlights how organizations are approaching other sustainability imperatives, such as waste and the circular economy, human rights and social issues, and nature and biodiversity.

Workforce diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) targets remain critically important to organizations despite a much-publicized backlash to the practice in specific markets. Recycling is a critical component to efforts addressing waste, and many different practices are emerging in this area, specific to business demands and outputs. Strategies for nature and biodiversity are even more split, with 10 specific initiatives being identified by at least 20% of respondents.   

Alongside sustainability strategies, our research also reveals how companies are preparing their workforces for the years ahead. Reskilling or upskilling existing employees appears to be a more popular approach than hiring new employees with required skillsets, with external specialists and consultants also set to play a key role.   

Sustainability budgets would, however, appear to be something of a pinch point. Around 40% of respondents said their organization’s sustainability budget was too low for a company of their size. While a majority (73%) of respondents said budgets would increase over the next three years, more than half of those said spending is expected to increase by 10% at most over those years.  

These conclusions identify a clear direction of travel in the immediate term, pointing to how businesses today are prioritizing action to become more sustainable. But our research also hints at the hurdles to come, be they budget-related or in identifying specific strategies in areas more difficult to make immediate gains in, as well as new and enhanced skills required to deliver on sustainability strategies.