What’s Keeping Sustainability Leaders Up At Night?

Sustainability leaders are once again navigating a rapidly evolving landscape, marked by regulatory flux, shifting corporate expectations, emerging AI capabilities and intensified scrutiny of environmental claims. To help teams make sense of this complexity, we have now finalized our annual global corporate survey; it will be in the field over the coming months, with full results published at the end of Q3 2026.

Building on 2025’s survey of 400 senior sustainability decision-makers, this year’s edition delves even deeper into how firms are structurally and operationally responding to sustainability challenges. The goal remains the same: to equip sustainability teams, and the software and services providers who support them, with granular insights into how budgets, priorities and technologies are evolving – and where they are heading next.

What’s new in the 2026 survey?
This year’s questionnaire introduces several important enhancements to reflect emerging priorities, integrating:

• Sharper focus on business outcomes. The 2026 survey has a greater emphasis on business outcomes, examining measurable ROI, data quality improvements, efficiency gains, risk reduction and profitability impacts across sustainability initiatives.
• New analysis of greenhushing. With some firms quietly scaling back public disclosures, we’re assessing the true prevalence of greenhushing and how it affects reporting strategies, reputational risk and stakeholder engagement.
• A deeper look at political and regulatory uncertainty. As global policy turbulence intensifies, the survey explores how organizations are adapting their strategies and investment plans.
• Expanded investigation into data quality challenges. Many firms are maturing their reporting approaches but still struggle with data consistency and granularity. This year’s survey quantifies the continued challenge of data-related obstacles.
• Greater insight into who drives sustainability engagement. After a spike in board-level involvement in 2025, we are probing deeper into which internal stakeholders are shaping agendas and how that influence is shifting.
• Assessment of evolving priorities. Respondents will be asked to identify their current versus future priorities, providing early signals on how corporate strategies are developing.
• Factors beyond climate. With firms facing increasingly multifaceted customer and investor expectations, we examine how they are tackling broader sustainability domains such as water, biodiversity and other complex metrics.
• The rising role of AI. New questions assess how software vendors are embedding AI in their tools and how buyers expect AI to support daily operations and long-term sustainability goals.

Stay tuned: the survey results will be published at the end of Q3, offering a comprehensive, data‑driven view of how global organizations’ sustainability priorities are evolving and shaping their roadmaps for 2027 and beyond.

If you would be interested in taking the survey, hearing more about the questions we are asking, or wish to discuss questions you would like to see in future, please get in touch.