Sustainability leaders say budget and resources are biggest hurdles to progress

Survey reveals ESG professionals at UK companies feel ‘gaslit’ and hindered by ‘Chief Anti Sustainability Officers’

Sustainability teams in the UK say they are woefully understaffed, with budget and resource constraints cited as the main things stopping firms meeting their environmental and social goals.

Three quarters of senior sustainability managers believe their teams are either severely or very under-resourced, according to a major survey released this week.

Leafr, a UK-based supplier of green freelancers, interviewed 50 top-tier sustainability leaders and surveyed a further 400 to find out how they were feeling about progress at their firms.

It found that, while most (80%) of participants believe their companies are serious about sustainability, their commitment “often clashes with the reality of under-resourced teams”.

“This resource gap severely hampers the ability to drive meaningful change and achieve ambitious sustainability goals.”

Another three quarters of respondents said they didn’t think their companies would hit their net-zero targets

Only 11% feel their efforts are fully integrated into the broader business – more often (in 35% of cases) respondents felt their initiatives were completely misaligned with the rest of the business.

“Many feel they are positioned as transformation teams but are treated as risk teams, leading to feelings of being undervalued and gaslit by their organisations,” said Leafr, noting that less than 40% of sustainability leads report directly to the CEO or board.

Participants complained of being dismissed by senior executives.

“The title of CASO (Chief Anti Sustainability Officer) was mentioned multiple times,” Leafr noted, referring to board-level individuals that resist ESG initiatives.

Nearly 90% believed leaders were not fully aware of the potential fines and business risks associated with non-compliance with sustainability rules.

“This lack of awareness at the top levels is leading to last-minute panics and unrealistic expectations, undermining the effectiveness of sustainability strategies.”

The respondents came from major multinationals, large and mid-sized enterprises and SMEs across the UK, in the following sectors: Advertising & Marketing, Agriculture, Built Environment, Construction, Consulting & Professional Services, Energy, Financial Services & Insurance, Government, Non-Profit & Public Sector, Groceries, Logistics & Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Retail & Consumer Goods, Technology and Travel & Hospitality.