Strategic Focus: Organizations And The Rise Of ESG
Kim Knickle
Access this research
Access all Corporate Sustainability Leaders content with a strategic subscription or buy this single report
Need help or have a question about this report? Contact us for assistance
Executive Summary
A growing number of firms are taking steps to improve their ESG and sustainability performance, setting ambitious goals and ensuring alignment with standards and frameworks. However, recent greenwashing accusations illustrate the gap between ESG commitments and action, and showcase firms’ limited integration of ESG principles into business operations. In this light, this report offers an overview of firms’ diverse ESG strategies and the organizational challenges holding back ESG and sustainability progress. Our study provides seven recommendations to help firms embed ESG into their businesses, to drive long-term value generation.Firms' Approaches To ESG Range From Compliance To Leadership
ESG Integration Faces Data, Skills And Organizational Challenges
Seven Steps To Integrate ESG And Ensure Sustainable Business Value Creation
Figure 2. ESG Maturity Framework
Figure 3. Executive Moves Into ESG And Sustainability-Related Positions
Figure 4. Decision-Makers Responsible For Funding ESG Strategies
Figure 5. Seven Actions To Strengthen ESG Integration
About the Authors
Elisa Molero
Senior Analyst
Elisa is a Senior Analyst at Verdantix, specializing in supply chain sustainability. Her research covers 100 vendors in the supply chain sustainability market, supporting buye...
View ProfileKim Knickle
Research Director
Kim Knickle is a Research Director at Verdantix, bringing more than two decades of analyst experience to the evolving world of sustainability. Her current research spans ESG a...
Other related content
The sustainability market is shifting fast – and not always in the direction anyone expected. Regulatory rollbacks and expansions, geopolitical realignment, and tightening budgets ...
Upcoming / 08 September, 2026
Utilities are managing billing, CRM, customer engagement and DER operations across separate systems designed for a one-way energy model, which is now expiring. In the UK, National ...
Upcoming / 03 September, 2026
The reporting burden has shifted. So has the opportunity. CSRD, ESRS, and a growing wave of global assurance requirements have pulled sustainability data into the same governance m...
Upcoming / 17 September, 2026
CDP's decision to bring in private equity backing marks more than a change in ownership. It may represent a turning point in the evolution of the sustainability market itself. The ...
03 August, 2026
In July 2025, Oregon became the first US state to launch an extended producer responsibility (EPR) programme for packaging. One year later, its Plastic Pollution and Recycling Mode...
28 July, 2026
The sustainability market is shifting fast — and not always in the direction anyone expected. Regulatory rollbacks and expansions, geopolitical realignment, and tightening budgets ...
23 July, 2026