The majority of business leaders (76%) in major industries doubt their peers’ Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting, according to a new study by global, mobile satellite communications company, Inmarsat.
The findings come from a new research report titled ‘Accelerating sustainable action through IoT’ commissioned by Inmarsat. It includes the views of over 1,000 senior technology and ESG decision-makers across agriculture, mining, transport, utilities, and oil & gas firms.
The survey asked professionals about their perceptions of ESG and whether they believed data provided by ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) solutions could help improve reporting transparency.
Respondents reported concerns about their peers’ ESG priorities, with 80% saying they believe their competitors are more focused on perception rather than achieving tangible sustainability outcomes.
Although there is scepticism around the motivations of their peers, most business leaders have faith in their own initiatives: with 81% convinced their company is more sustainable than their competitors.
Lack of data driving lack of trust
The results suggest that a lack of foolproof data, and the willingness to share it, is undermining trust and slowing progress on business sustainability. This follows a similar trend in the financial market, with investors struggling to find companies reporting data “decision-useful”.
Positively, however, many believe data collected via IoT solutions is critical to building trust (81%) and improving ESG outcomes overall (82%).
Four in five respondents plan to increase their use of IoT solutions over the next 12 months to measure and understand the impact of their sustainability initiatives more accurately. A similar proportion reported they are already seeing a return on investment from IoT tools used to improve sustainability (78%).
While the majority (83%) agree they could be doing more to effectively leverage IoT solutions to produce ESG data, engrained resistance to data sharing creates an additional barrier to progress.
Less than half (47%) said they would be comfortable sharing all their ESG data with third parties to improve industry reporting and benchmarking over the next 1–3 years, reinforcing that improving trust will be key to achieving better outcomes.
Jat Brainch, chief commercial and product officer, Inmarsat said: “You cannot manage what you cannot measure, so it is heartening to see so many organisations looking to IoT to assess and improve ESG reporting.
“To demonstrate progress, however, businesses must overcome their reluctance to share useful data and have the confidence to publish meaningful insights. Otherwise, they risk undermining genuine collaboration on sustainability and overshadowing the real progress being made. There is no quick fix, but creating methodical benchmarks based on actionable data, and sharing the results, will play a critical role in re-establishing trustworthy ESG reporting”.
