Inaugural Net Zero Corporate Survey Shows Firms Are Now Acting On Decarbonization Strategies

Inaugural Net Zero Corporate Survey Shows Firms Are Now Acting On Decarbonization Strategies

We’ve just released our inaugural Net Zero Global Corporate Survey, addressing the budgets, priorities and tech preferences of net zero leaders. Based on a survey of 350 respondents across industries and geographies, the report reveals that not only are firms scheduling major investments in decarbonization over the next two years, but they are also grappling with the challenge of decarbonizing core business processes. Verdantix finds that:

• Climate change performance is being used as a competitive differentiator.
  Our survey indicates that firms are most likely to gear climate change strategies towards gaining competitive advantage over industry peers, compared to other motivations. This explains why respondents identified the Science Based Targets initiative as the most important disclosure framework in 2022; organizations are eager to demonstrate decarbonization performance to competitors and stakeholders.
• Firms are prioritizing operational decarbonization over the next three years.
  Organizations are taking their net zero programmes beyond the strategy-setting stage. We found that operationalizing decarbonization – including product carbon footprint reduction, and boosting building and plant energy efficiency - is the top priority for net zero leaders. These initiatives enable firms to market products and services as having a lower carbon footprint than competitors, and thus benefit financially.
• The shift towards real decarbonization is held back by a lack of support from accompanying business functions.
  Despite the fact that improving actual carbon performance is the top priority for net zero leaders, decarbonization is not a straightforward path. In particular, leaders felt that aligning their peers in other functions with net zero strategies – and actual decarbonization activities across departments – was a significant obstacle to net zero success. This extends even to the board level. It is clear that firms must invest in improved cross-functional collaboration to succeed with their decarbonization initiatives.
• Firms will increase investment in digital technologies to aid net zero initiatives.
  Net zero leaders are turning to digital tools to support decarbonization. Organizations anticipate the greatest levels of spend increase on software for carbon accounting, greenhouse gas emissions reduction, and carbon disclosures. Expect the market for net zero digital tools to grow quickly over the next three years, in response to corporate demand for higher-quality carbon data from facilities, assets, and supply chain participants.

Clients interested in reading, or non-clients interested in buying, the entire report can find it here - Verdantix Global Corporate Survey 2023: Net Zero Budgets, Priorities and Tech Preferences.