UK organisations are feeling overwhelmed by the strain of sustainability reporting, with ‘legislation lethargy’ on the rise as they tackle the labyrinth of new and existing reporting legislation.
Commissioned by facilities management firm Mitie and carried out by Opinium, the research surveyed 500 sustainability decision makers from organisations around the UK to understand how businesses are feeling following growing reporting legislation.
The findings suggest that complexity may be hindering effective reporting, with over half (55%) of respondents considering current sustainability reporting requirements overly complicated. This confusion is translating into uncertainty, with nearly two-fifths (38%) unsure about the specific content required in their reports.
The rising workload of reporting is also clear, as nearly half (46%) of respondents already report to at least three different ESG frameworks. This burden is even greater for heavily regulated sectors like professional services, finance, healthcare, and technology, where some organisations report to as many as eight frameworks.
“Reporting requirements have intensified in recent years and the legislation labyrinth is here to stay,” said Catherine Wheatley, Head of Data Science and Energy Services at Mitie.
“For sustainability leaders this means grappling with multiple reporting frameworks, stricter multi-jurisdictional regulation, and the intense scrutiny of stakeholders who expect to see reduction targets and their progress in the public domain.”
When asked what existing frameworks are currently reported on, Government-established frameworks in the UK, like the Carbon Reduction Plan (CRP) (29%) and the Energy Saving Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) (24%), were the most commonly reported options.
But emerging international standards are gaining traction, with nearly 20% of respondents indicating plans to report against both the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) and the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) in the future.
But whilst concerns about how to report are clear, UK companies are also showing concern around the potential consequences if they were to report insufficiently.
A significant portion (60%) of decision-makers are worried about reputational damage, while a smaller proportion (20%) identify the fear of greenwashing accusations as a major concern. On top of that, a substantial number (59%) are worried about the financial implications of insufficient reporting, such as fines, reduced profits, and shareholder loss.Mitie hopes to help in this area, the UK based firm launched its new managed carbon reporting and reduction service, called ‘Emissions Intelligence’, in partnership with Salesforce to empower organisations to be more confident in their emissions reporting and improve their efficiency, as well as increase the transparency of their progress towards net zero goals.
