Compliance must use AI to maximize benefits from sustainability reporting

Global pressure for sustainability reporting is growing. Despite mixed political messages and delays to some regulations, companies are continuing to work towards improving the reports they issue to regulators and other stakeholders, seeing it as a critical business imperative that is important to customers, investors, and employees.

But delays to some elements of the EU’s groundbreaking Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), announced in its series of “Omnibus” simplifications, and political headwinds from the U.S. federal government are raising questions about what companies should do now. Should they delay reporting to see how political impetus develops, or press on regardless?

KPMG’s ESG Assurance Maturity Index, released on Sept. 2, called this a “pivotal moment” in sustainability reporting. It found that companies are pushing forward with sustainability reports, but warned that some organizations in the second wave of CSRD reporting are underestimating the amount of work required to submit meaningful reports.