Last week, I blogged about how sustainability staffing has transformed according to the recent Trellis/Weinreb Group report The State of the Sustainability Profession 2024. Today, let’s look at some of the changes in corporate culture impacting ESG/sustainability.
We’ll start with corporate reporting structures and CEO support – which appear to be inversely related:
“The number of high-ranking sustainability executives who report directly to the CEO has risen from 22 percent to 30 percent in the past two years… Forty-nine percent of sustainability leaders report to an executive who reports to the CEO, while only 4 percent of respondents can count several layers between them and the CEO.
The elevated role of the sustainability leader doesn’t stop with the chief executive. Thirty-one percent of respondents report that the board of directors is briefed on an annual basis about the sustainability program’s risks and achievements. Thirty percent brief the board quarterly.”
It is encouraging to see organizational acknowledgment of the sustainability function, but reporting to the CEO doesn’t mean sustainability always gets attention:
“This year CEO engagement is significantly lower than in 2022, falling nine percentage points for those CEOs who were reported to be ‘very engaged.’”
The graph below tells the story.
Source: The State of the Sustainability Profession 2024, Trellis/Weinreb Group
In the current political and regulatory environment in the US, we’ll probably see the numbers/bars shift to the left on average.
CEOs aren’t alone in moderating their enthusiasm – unfortunately, ESG/sustainability professionals are also backing off:
“sustainability leaders are likely rolling back their stated ambitions for fear of being held legally accountable for their outsized ambitions, or to avoid the legal ramifications of not meeting them. In our survey we asked about ‘greenhushing’… Fourteen percent of respondents have started to cut back on the use of terms like ‘green’ and ‘ESG’ in their public communications while 3 percent have completely eliminated the use of those terms.”
The honeymoon for CSOs is over – the work gets harder from here.
Members can read more about issues facing CSOs and staff here.
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