IBM has officially released its first-ever State of Sustainability Readiness Report 2024, which reveals that more than 88% of leaders are planning to increase investment in IT for sustainability over the next 12 months.
According to certain reports, the stated report was prepared independently by Morning Consult, whereas it was sponsored, analyzed and published by IBM. All in all, the results in this report were reached upon after taking into account the responses of 2,790 business leaders and decision-makers across 15 industries and 9 countries.
Talk about the given results, they revealed how 9 out of 10 surveyed executives agree that AI will positively influence achieving their sustainability goals. Having said so, it was also discovered that almost 56% of organizations are not yet actively using AI for sustainability. The reason behind that is understood to be budgetary constraints, considering a good chunk of survey respondents deemed financial planning as the top challenge to investing in sustainability. This financial aspect can be further contextualized once you consider 48% of IT for sustainability investments are “one-off” rather than funded from a regular operational budget.
Next up, the new report digs into the fact that, in their pursuit of sustainability, surveyed leaders mostly looked to resource efficiency, citing renewable energy consumption, total energy consumption, and recycling as their top 3 KPIs for sustainability outcomes.
On the flipside, though, it was further discovered that measuring sustainability KPIs is a top-three current challenge faced by respondents. In fact, a steady fifty percent business leaders noted that their data to measure sustainability KPIs isn’t mature, something which can make the reporting process even more challenging.
“Whether organizations are looking to begin their sustainability journey or already have experience in the matter, collecting and accurately classifying their data is critical to develop more sustainable practices,” said Kendra DeKeyrel, VP, ESG & Asset Management Products Leader at IBM. “This research shows that business leaders understand the importance of a data-driven approach to sustainability – and are willing to invest in technology to accelerate this process”
Moving on, over half of respondents ended up in agreement over-reporting and compliance being a legitimate challenge for their organization, yet only some (29%) of respondents identified improving accuracy of reporting as one of the top 3 benefits they would most appreciate from implementing new technology.
Another major finding to come out of this survey is rooted in disconnect between top executives and their staff when it comes to sustainability perceptions and expectations. You see, while C-suite executives are more on the optimistic side, their vice presidents and directors don’t quite share that optimism. To sum it up in numbers, while 67% of top executives surveyed viewed their climate resiliency efforts as proactive, the stated figure drops to 56% among lower-level decision makers.
“Businesses see huge potential for AI to boost both their sustainability efforts and their bottom line, and it is exciting to see those incentives aligned,” said Christina Shim, Chief Sustainability Officer at IBM. “Leaders should stay thoughtful about minimizing environmental impacts while adopting AI, but the data shows a lot of opportunity for progress on both sustainability and costs.”
IBM also took this opportunity to share some actionable recommendations that business can apply to make their operations more environment-friendly moving forward. For instance IBM advised these businesses to invest in a technology like generative AI which can provide them the necessary insights to identify opportunities for reducing carbon emissions, as well as creating scenarios and algorithms that can birth sustainable business practices.
Beyond that, IBM also emphasized upon the role data can play to shrink the perception gap between C-suite and lower-level decision makers. You see, business can collect data from across their organization to better understand the difference in perceptions and then use comprehensive data analysis and reporting tools to uncover blind spots and maintain visibility and alignment in every area.
