A lack of regulatory guidance is preventing companies from investing more in environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives, according to a new survey.
The survey by risk management firm Alcumus included more than 600 companies across the UK, the US and the EU. The survey found that 49% companies currently feel deterred from investing more in ESG.
This is mainly due to a lack of technical understanding and guidance from regulators. These two were the two main reasons and were cited by 77% and 73% of the respondents respectively.
The increase in hybrid working, difficulty in accessing data across organisations and supply chains, and a lack of necessary tools and technology also hinder ESG reporting according to 45%, 43%, 38% and 29% respondents respectively.
Despite the various ESG challenges, the survey also found that 90% of companies now adopt ESG considerations in their corporate strategy, while 67% invest in systems and technology to obtain data and make progress in ESG initiatives measurable.
The trend is more pronounced among larger companies with 250 staff or more. Among these, 94% adopt ESG and 71% have invested in systems and technology to capture data.
Moreover, the findings showed that ESG is having a ‘large’ or ‘very large’ impact on 65% of the companies surveyed, rising to 73% among larger firms. M