Among the key takeaways from Novata’s “2025 State of Sustainability Report”* are the following:
Nomenclature—While North American companies in particular are more likely to refer to their sustainability and ESG initiatives using “sustainability” nomenclature (69%), 54% still use the “ESG” acronym. This compares to Europe, which uses both terms about equally, and the rest of the world, which favors “ESG.”
Priorities—The top three most commonly cited sustainability or ESG priorities across all companies are GHG emissions measurement and reduction (40%), sustainability or ESG data management / data quality (39%), and regulatory compliance and reporting (33%).
However, looking at variations between Financial vs. Non-Financial sector respondents, Financial sector respondents most often rank sustainability or ESG data management / data quality as their top priority (44%), followed by ESG risk management or governance (34%), and GHG emissions measurement and reduction (33%).
Pain points—Nearly half of survey respondents cited difficulty collecting data from suppliers or partners as their most significant obstacle to sustainability data collection, while 45% cited data accuracy and quality, with manual processes identified by 36% as a challenge to data management.
Structure—While 79% of companies represented by respondents have a dedicated sustainability function, 31% of those consist of a single role, as shown here:
Nearly half have a dedicated team (48%), while 12% use a mix of in-house and external support.
Budget—About half of respondents have a dedicated sustainability budget, while others draw from multiple departments. Organizations with larger budgets (> $100K) (for those organizations that have them) are more than twice as likely as those with lower budgets to dedicate dollars to in-house experts or staff. More generally, companies represented by respondents spend the most on ESG data platforms or technology/tools, followed by external consultants or providers, in relation to their sustainability or ESG efforts.
* The report is based on an August/September 2025 survey that garnered feedback from 247 sustainability professionals across company types, sizes, and sectors (37% Financial Services), with 36% representing North American companies.
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This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!