Sustainability survey findings: Uncovering ESG disclosure progress and challenges in four industries

By Melissa Cloniger, Sarah Digirolamo, Robert Kerr, Peter Micca, and Wendy Ralston, Audit & Assurance Partners, and Matt Pelton, Audit & Assurance Managing Director, Deloitte & Touche LLP

Talking points

• Deloitte’s 2024 Sustainability Action Report compiles ESG insights from our latest executive survey.
• Our findings shed light on the current ESG landscape, including data management, disclosures, and compliance.
• The following insights, organized by industry, can allow companies to assess their sustainability progress and future plans.

What are the latest developments in the rapidly evolving world of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures? To answer this question, Deloitte surveyed 250 executives in multiple industries and organized the results into four industry reports: financial services industry (FSI), technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT), life sciences and health care (LSHC), and consumer (including retail and consumer products companies).

What we learned

With the speed of ESG change, we wanted to check in with executives in each industry on the status of their sustainability journeys. Here is an industry breakdown of noteworthy findings from the survey.

Financial services

FSI has been an early mover in ESG disclosure, potentially because of its role reporting sustainability progress to the investment community and financing ESG initiatives. This progress has continued at a steady pace, based on these insights shared by FSI executives.

• Disclosure responsibility: Chief sustainability officers most commonly have management responsibility for ESG disclosures (58%), though for nearly half of FSI organizations (47%), joint responsibilities also lie with chief financial officers.
• ESG progress: Public FSI executives report progress in enhancing their sustainability reporting capabilities and controls, with 55% of respondents having hired new resources and 50% having adjusted their reporting timelines. Meanwhile, 48% of private FSI organizations say they’ve implemented new systems, and 44% new controls. In addition, Deloitte has observed a rise in ESG controllers taking on elevated responsibilities for disclosure in many organizations.
  

Check out the full FSI report

Technology, media, and telecommunications

In the TMT industry, many public and large private companies are prioritizing enhanced ESG disclosure capabilities, as the following findings indicate.

• ESG progress: 85% of TMT companies surveyed have made some amount of progress in establishing a cross-functional ESG working group—with 38% having already established a cross-functional ESG council or working group and 47% in the process of doing so.
• Greenhouse gas (GHG) RFP requirement: Nearly seven in 10 TMT companies (69%) report that their customers often or always request they report GHG emissions as a requirement to respond to an RFP or to do business, making it important for most companies to track and disclose emissions.
  

Check out the full TMT report

Life sciences and health care

The LSHC industry is taking ownership of its ESG goals, citing progress and new opportunities despite persistent data challenges. Here are two LSHC findings from the survey.

• LSHC sustainability progress: On a four-point scale from “no progress” to “significant progress,” nearly a third (32%) of LSHC respondents reported having made “significant progress” toward their ESG goals compared to 25% of general company respondents in the 2024 Sustainability Action Report.
• Data challenges: From pharmaceutical manufacturers to health care providers, data generally plays an important role in a company’s operating structure, often extending even beyond ESG considerations. However, just under half (49%) of LSHC respondents said they lack confidence in data received from vendors, compared to 64% of survey respondents in all industries.
  

Check out the full LSHC report

Consumer

Consumer companies, which also report significant ESG data challenges (87% citing data quality as a top challenge), seem to have nonetheless made steady progress toward ESG goals. Here are two examples.

• Assurance: Nearly a third (30%) of consumer executives said their companies have already completed the evaluation of steps to move to a reasonable level of assurance; another 61% reported that their companies have made progress or at least started the evaluation process.
• ESG progress: Consumer executives say their companies have already taken several steps toward their ESG goals; notably, they have developed a roadmap (46%), refined their operations and processes (45%), and published a sustainability report (43%).
  

Check out the full Consumer report