Business leaders are dealing with a striking gap between the perception of their company's environmental sustainability progress and reality, according to new research from IBM.

IBM, which recently announced its upcoming role as an Associate Pathway Partner of the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), commissioned Morning Consult to survey 3,250 global business leaders and found less than half of respondents claim to be measuring scope 1, scope 2 and scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, though nearly 60% say they are ready to publicly report on their environmental impact.

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But how can an organization report what it hasn't measured?

Data gaps, by the numbers The research found 55% of respondents think they are ready to report scope 1 emissions, but only 42% claim to be actively measuring that category. Another 61% claim to be ready to share scope 2 emissions data, but just 44% say they are tracking scope 2. For scope 3 (the most difficult category to measure), 45% of business leaders feel ready to report data but just 38% claim to be measuring scope 3 emissions.

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According to Christina Shim, VP of IBM's sustainability software product management and strategy, these gaps can be explained in a few ways. Some of those organizations might have access to tools for measuring emissions that aren't yet deployed or a strategy that just hasn't been implemented.

On the other hand, leadership could be overconfident about their sustainability efforts, which "would be particularly problematic," Shim told SDxCentral. "Those businesses are missing out on the opportunity to proactively manage increasing climate risks, to improve the efficiency of their operations and supply chains and to make progress on their sustainability goals as regulations emerge."

Measurability without metrics? The data analysis also reveals that leaders suggest they're mature in terms of using data for sustainability, but "in the next breath" they recognize a limited use of key performance indicators (KPIs) tied to sustainability. Supplier metrics, for example, are being overlooked by IT leaders. One-third of respondents noted using supplier metrics to measure sustainability outcomes despite a significant number of leaders that believe they're mature in tracking sustainability-related data.

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Ballooned perceptions of sustainability maturity may also be due to the fact that while many companies have become more sophisticated in recent years, the definition of mature keeps evolving. The sustainability data space "is exploding with continued innovation," and "the goalposts of what's possible with data and sustainability keep moving," Shim said.

"It’s quite likely many of the surveyed companies have made a lot of progress with data, but still have a lot of opportunity to collect more and use it to improve their business, reporting and progress on sustainability goals."

While the research and data analysis confirmed that business leadership understands the value of sustainability, "there is still enormous room for organizations to make progress," and "IT leaders should be clear-eyed" about these gaps between perception and reality, Shim said.

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