More than half of CEOs at telecom companies say that operating more sustainably is a top priority in the next two to three years, according to the IBM Institute for Business Value's annual CEO study. However, telco CEOs also consider sustainability to be one of the top three challenges in that same time span, the survey found.

IBM surveyed 3,000 CEOs in 40 countries, including 120 telco leaders. In addition to sustainability (43%), telco CEOs' top challenges are cyber risk (73%), regulation (63%), and geopolitical uncertainty (40%).

Most telco CEOs (60%) identified unclear return on investment and economic benefits as the main barrier to implementing sustainability strategies. Sustainability initiatives often require large up-front investments, and the benefits are often realized in the long term.

Other sustainability barriers include a lack of reliable data insights (49%), environmental regulation (49%), technology-related challenges (38%), customer resistance (36%), and investor resistance (33%), according to the survey.

IBM Research compiled an action guide accompanying the survey results that it says will help CEOs implement transformational sustainability.

CEOs should first take personal responsibility for their organization's sustainability efforts by proactively pursuing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and shaping the organization's green narrative.

IBM also encourages CEOs to invest in open, interoperable technologies that allow the company to collect data and innovate at scale. This will allow CEOs to build and maintain a strong technological foundation, according to the guide.

“We have to actually do this together, meaning that we need to integrate so many of the technologies that will drive this revolutionary change toward renewable energies, toward energy harvesting technologies, all of that — that needs to be somehow integrated into other software, into other technology platforms, and so on,” Gartner analyst Annette Zimmermann told SDxCentral in an earlier interview.

CEOs also need to anticipate challenges and remain focused on the outcomes by transparently defining, tracking, and reporting ESG metrics and long-term goals. "Think big, start small, and scale fast to show the value of sustainability and build buy-in from key stakeholders," the guide states.