A majority of companies subject to CSRD or ISSB disclosure requirements say that pressure from a variety of stakeholders including investors and customers to provide sustainability reporting and data has continued to increase over the past year, despite regulators in some areas pulling back on mandatory disclosure requirements, with most also increasing investments in sustainability reporting capabilities, according to a new report by global professional services firm PwC.
For the report, Global Sustainability Reporting Survey 2025, PwC surveyed nearly 500 executives and senior professionals across 40 countries, at companies that have, or expect to, report under the CSRD or ISSB frameworks. Of those surveyed, 36% said that their companies have already published sustainability statements under either the CSRD or ISSB, while another 41% plan to report under CSRD, and 23% plan to report under the ISSB.
The new survey comes as mandatory sustainability reporting has begun in several jurisdictions globally, including for large companies under the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), while simultaneously regulators in several jurisdictions are looking to reduce reporting burdens, such as the U.S.’ SEC looking to abandon its new climate reporting rules, and the EU’s Omnibus process which will delay reporting for many companies, remove smaller companies from the scope of the regulation, and reduce reporting datapoints.
Even as regulators recalibrate, however, over half of the companies surveyed by PwC reported that they continue to experience growing pressure to provide sustainability reporting and data, from both internal and external stakeholders, and only 7% reported that pressure for sustainability reporting had actually decreased over the past year.
Notably, of those companies planning to report under CSRD, while 40% said that they will postpone reporting in line with the new EU expectations, an equal number said that they plan to proceed with sustainability reporting on their original timeline, whether under the CSRD or an alternative framework like the ISSB or the GRI.
The growing pressure to provide sustainability data, and plans by many companies to proceed with their reporting plans comes as the vast majority of companies that have already started to report said that they derived value from the exercise beyond compliance, including 28% gaining “significant value from the data and insights collected for CSRD and ISSB reporting, and only 5% reporting getting no additional value.
Similarly, despite the regulatory pullback, the majority of companies continue to increase their investments in sustainability reporting. According to the survey, 66% of companies reported increasing the amount of resources devoted to sustainability reporting over the past year, and 65% have increased senior leadership time, compared to only 6% of those reporting decreasing investment in sustainability reporting.
Examining the toolset being used by companies for sustainability reporting, the survey found that while spreadsheets remained the most common technology, used by 87% of respondents (down slightly from 88% last year), there has been a significant increase in the use of other technologies, with 65% of respondents reporting now using centralized sustainability data storage, up from 45% last year, 63% using carbon calculation tools, up from 53%, and 53% now using disclosure management tools, compared with 42% last year. Additionally, the report found a sharp increase in the use of sustainability management software, at 37%, compared with only 23% last year, and the use of AI for sustainability reporting more than doubling to 28% from 11%.
Nadja Picard, Global Reporting Leader at PwC Germany, said:
“Leading companies are using sustainability data to their advantage – not just for reporting but to inform strategic and operational business decisions, on everything from supply chain transformation to corporate investment. But there’s a great deal of untapped potential, which companies can unlock by combining AI and centralised data storage to drive efficiency, resilience and innovation.”
Click here to access the survey.
