Greenwashing 2.0. - how long is CSRD reporting going to be enough?

As a futurist I cannot help but look ahead. Usually optimistic.

At the moment I see a lot of organizations investing in sustainability. The topic has arrived in the board rooms, is being taken serious now. Companies stop asking for government funding and start to invest while social pressure and scientific urgency increase. There is a lot of positive energy. Is it all good?

Maybe, maybe not. In light of the first CSRD 2024 reporting, many work hard at the moment to collect the data. When the new reporting systems are working and the reports are out in early 2025 they may think: job done!

No, it isn't. It only starts now. Sustainability is not for reporting but for doing.

CSRD consumes so much focus, money and resources at the moment that organizations go slower on the doing. In the light of the deadlines and an overheating planet, this is a mistake.

Yes, 2040, 2050 may seem far away. But it is not: the complexity at hand, surmounting external dependencies (ie. enough green hydrogen) and all the other global crisis looming in parallel will take time to master.

What I fear: CSRD 2024 will give companies a wrong sense of achievement. The public, banks, investors, staff are happy about this pretty and shiny new report. I am waiting for the pictures to appear here in LinkedIn of CEOs and ESR managers proudly presenting their reports. Same for 2025, same for 2026. For how long?

The perfection of CSRS/ESRS and many pages with all the data may not provide but instead hide transparency on what is really going on.

This is the danger of Greenwashing 2.0. The perfection of the CSRD may not drive the intended urgency and doing but instead might prevent it.

Maybe I am wrong. I hope so. But let's be aware of that possibility and aim at "seeing through".

Yes, auditors are tasked with that. But then... this industry had and has its issues and is only learning sustainability itself. Better do it yourself. Time it ticking.

Let's ask: "Nice report, looks really good! But what are you really doing? Where do you really stand? How confident are you that you will be successful with your race to net zero? That you will make all those targets? Will you be on-time? Honestly!"

This honesty needs to dominate. Internally first, at board level. Build your trusted sustainability alliance that includes all board members now. Be honest among yourself first. Because second, it will be requested by others. By your auditors first, then by banks, investors and regulators. They will start asking those questions. Increasingly better and harder. Because it will also get harder.

As you launch more and more sustainability projects, some with new technologies, some affecting your entire organization, some depending heavily on assumptions, infrastructure and subsidies being available, you will start to struggle with resistance, technology failure, resource shortage and dependency shortfalls. Your projects will start to struggle. It's normal. I manage projects since 30 years and have seen all shades of it.

You wished you had more time. But you don't have it as you have planned the projects to complete at the latest possible time: 2040 or 2050. And you made it public and documented your own failure. Oops!

Yes, please complete your CSRD 2024 report. But realize that this is only the starting point of a much harder journey to sustainability. The commitments you make in your report, the targets you set yourself, the measures you plan: they need to happen. On-time, on-scope and better on-budget. For this, you need to be realistic and apply project management best practices. You may have less than you think!

At least in Germany I see too many organizations that are totally under-equipped for mastering a sustainability transformation. Many companies are fascinating and well-deserved decade-long success stories. It always worked well for them. Now they risk being swept away by an avalanche of change that they didn't see coming and are not capable of handling because they missed foresight and didn't train their change muscles.

Start with being honest among yourself. Set more challenging targets internally to buffer for the risks. Create ownership and urgency. Get the right resources. Over-invest now. Set challenging interim targets and milestones. Be brutally honest on status. Act swiftly on misses. The planet and all of humanity will thank you for it.

Sustainability success is project management success. Get on-top of it. Call if you need help.

#ESG #Sustainability #CSRD #greenwashing