Companies Need To Get Serious About Materiality

The days of the aspirational, marketing-driven corporate sustainability report are dead. In their place, consumers, investors, and regulators now expect companies to have some serious and verifiable substance behind their sustainability claims. The problem is: A large number of companies are failing.

According to a recent IBM study, although 95% of companies have environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) goals in place, only 10% have made significant progress toward meeting them. What’s more, only 2-in-10 consumers say they trust the statements companies make about environmental sustainability.