Section 5:
Workplace sustainability
Sustainability matters — but many don’t know how it’s managed
Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) reporting and Sustainability have received increasing prominence over the past 5 years. Many businesses must now adhere to ESG reporting requirements, with governments adopting specific reporting frameworks.
In the UK, the government has formally endorsed the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), which affects large organisations in the private sector.
As part of the EU, the government of Ireland has implemented the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Companies within the scope of the directive must report on a double materiality basis.
With this background, we wanted to learn about our survey respondents’ understanding of sustainability and ESG.
According to the results, 63% of respondents in the UK and Ireland work at companies that have environmental and sustainability goals, but this was more common in the UK than in Ireland. 34% of overall respondents say their business operates under an ESG framework – but this drops to just 26% in Ireland.
Results showed that 29% of workers do not know what is meant by ‘ESG framework’, breaking down to 27% in the UK and 37% in Ireland.
In a positive turn, 76% of UK and Ireland workers see it as important that employers actively work to reduce environmental impact.
We also noted that just over half of workers in the UK and Ireland believe it is important for non-financial data to be included in financial reports, while a relatively large portion does not feel strongly either way.
Summary of Section 5
- ESG frameworks are slightly more common in the UK, while many Irish workers are unfamiliar with them.
- The vast majority of workers in the UK and Ireland see it as important that employers actively work to reduce environmental impact.