Corporate leaders seek help on sustainability compliance, new Enhesa report finds

Brussels, 30 April 2024 | Press release – Corporate leaders are struggling to keep pace with the growing list of sustainability reporting and compliance requirements their businesses face, and as a result, many are re-thinking their approaches to environmental, sustainability and governance (ESG) risk management. According to a new report from Enhesa, the leading provider of regulatory and sustainability intelligence worldwide, a combination of fast-moving disclosure and reporting requirements, constantly changing global regulatory frameworks, siloed data, and responsibilities within each business and growing pressure from multiple external stakeholders is causing many business leaders to seek specialized help navigating the complexity. 

The new report, Navigating Corporate Sustainability in a Rapidly Evolving Landscape, is based on two surveys of more than 900 senior corporate leaders, along with a series of 20 in-depth interviews, conducted in partnership with Savanta, the leading data and market research company. 

Following are some of the report’s key findings: 

• The Regulatory Landscape Keeps Shifting: For multi-national companies, staying on top of shifting regulation, legislation, and best practice across different geographical regions is a challenge, and many companies fear that missing a new rule or regulation could prove costly. 

• Regulators are Just One Constituency among Many Key Stakeholders: Regulations are not the only drivers of organizations’ sustainability strategies. A variety of stakeholders — including investors and customers — are also requesting that compliance obligations are met, which creates new challenges, particularly for multinational corporations. 

• Lack of Consistent Regulatory Tracking Mechanism: Sustainability compliance reporting is challenging for businesses given the numerous frameworks, reporting standards, and regulations. Accordingly, leaders say they are in need of tools that can help teams to keep up with new regulations efficiently, with two-thirds (65%) of companies agreeing that a compliance tracking solution is helpful. 

• Europe as a Bellwether: Many multi-national companies view Europe as the standard bearer for sustainability regulation, with many business leaders using standards like the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) as a harbinger of future regulatory framework. 

• Cumbersome Processes Create a Compliance Lag: Many organizations are relying on a combination of internal effort and a range of separate external consultants and legal firms to monitor for regulatory changes, which is time-consuming, costly, and often inconsistent — especially when it comes to transforming requirements into actions. 

• Data Needed for Reporting is Hard to Access: While much of the data needed for sustainability compliance and reporting is already being collected as part of existing environmental, health and safety (EHS) requirements, companies with distributed EHS management operating models find it difficult to gather and utilize the data they already have to identify potential knowledge gaps. 

“For companies operating in multiple jurisdictions, navigating this ongoing evolution of sustainability regulation is vital to their success, but keeping track of the ever-changing regulatory requirements, standards, frameworks, and best practices across different geographies can be impractical, due to cost and the breadth of language skills and domain skills required,” said Peter Schramme, CEO of Enhesa. “As regulators, investors, and customers have all come to expect sustainability compliance from these companies, the stakes are high, and businesses need to find ways of staying vigilant about new legislation while not letting sustainability compliance overwhelm their core competencies.”  

To download your copy of the whitepaper, please visit https://www.enhesa.com/resources/whitepapers/market-insight-navigating-corporate-sustainability-in-a-rapidly-evolving-landscape.

About Enhesa

Enhesa is the leading provider of regulatory and sustainability intelligence worldwide. As a trusted partner, we empower the global business community with the insight to act today and prepare for tomorrow to create a more sustainable future – positively impacting our environment, our health, our safety, and our future. Navigating the fast-changing compliance and sustainability landscapes, we help them understand not just what they should do (first), but also how to do it. Both in their unique business and anywhere in the world. Now and in the future. Website: enhesa.com

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