Legislation and business action towards sustainability most important to ESG leaders

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Legislative actions, standardisation of sustainability-related disclosures, the COP15 biodiversity framework, and business actions are recognised as pivotal sustainability developments over the last 12 months.

Asia Pacific's sustainability leaders view legislation and business action towards sustainability (14%) as the most significant positive development in the ESG (environmental, social, and governance) space over the last 12 months. This is followed by sustainability disclosure standards (11%) and renewables and carbon-related developments (10%).

This emerges from the latest GlobeScan and the SustainAbility Institute by ERM research, which surveyed over 500 sustainability professionals from corporate, government, academia and non-profit sectors across 63 countries between March and May 2023. The research also found experts looking for evidence of positive impacts, along with aspirational goals and a sense of genuine purpose, in the realm of sustainability.

For APAC leaders surveyed, integrating sustainability into the business model and strategy ranked as the most important drivers for corporate sustainability leadership (27%), which is consistent with counterparts' views from Europe, as well as North and Latin America. Evidence of impact and action (17%) and setting ambitious targets (16%) are also key factors in demonstrating leadership.

Among the APAC organisations called out for their corporate sustainability efforts, Mahindra & Mahindra rose from third place last year to clinch the top spot as the region's corporate leader in sustainability. City Developments Ltd. and PTT Global tie at second place, while Tata has dropped from leading the pack in 2022 to fourth place. Other notable corporate sustainability leaders include: Charoen Pokphand Group, Samsung, Swire, Toyota, Kao and SCG.

Overall, across global findings, it was found that 93% of sustainability experts continue to rank climate change as the most urgent challenge. Deforestation was included in the survey for the first time in 2023 and already ranked among the top five most urgent issues (86%). Other issues ranking consistently high in urgency over the past five years include biodiversity loss (86%), water scarcity (86%), and poverty (80%).

Mark Lee, Director of the SustainAbility Institute by ERM said: "The bar for sustainable business continues to rise, and corporates will need to keep pushing boundaries to maintain their status as leaders." 

Globally, sustainability experts point to a range of new sustainability legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and EU Green Deal (mentioned by 25%), disclosure standards (13%), and the COP15 biodiversity agreement (10%) as most significant. Other highlighted developments include recent action and commitments by businesses (9%) and the rise of green financing (7%).

Chris Coulter, CEO of GlobeScan noted: "Government is back when it comes to sustainability! Stakeholders point to new legislation and disclosure rules as the most important breakthroughs in the sustainability agenda in the past year."

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