Beyond the noise: how to build resilience in sustainability

The sustainability regulatory environment is constantly evolving. With continued Omnibus uncertainty, the incoming Sustainability Reporting Standards (UK SRS), which are currently under consultation and expected to be finalised this month and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) on the horizon, simply complying with sustainability requirements is becoming increasingly complex.

For many organisations, these ongoing developments feel like additional administrative burdens in an already crowded compliance landscape, and it becomes increasingly tempting to pull out or hit pause on sustainability commitments.

In recent months, we have seen a stream of banks exiting the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), including UBS, HSBC, Barclays, as well as the exit of all major Wall Street banks. This stream of exits begs the question: is now the time to pull back on sustainability commitments, or is it time to adapt and adjust strategies to better align with commercial goals?

The regulatory reality

Today’s (and tomorrow’s) sustainability reporting landscape demands more than ever before. As well as the increasing reporting requirements, many are facing growing political and social pressures, primarily due to anti-ESG political campaigns. Sustainability has become politicised, meaning its mention alone can be seen to spook investors and partners.

This, alongside many organisations having long-term targets that are quickly becoming outdated and increasingly impossible to reach means it has become more and more tempting to pull out of commitments.

Clarity amongst the chaos

Yet there’s a compelling case to be made that, when done well, regulation and realistic target setting can be a powerful catalyst for strategic transformation, for now and the long term.

The mantra of ‘what gets measured, gets managed’ could not be more true in this instance. As reporting considerations move from peripheral compliance requirements to core business strategy, they begin to influence decision-making at the highest levels. Sustainability reporting can reveal resource inefficiencies and cost-saving opportunities. Environmental disclosures can strengthen climate risk management and stakeholder trust. Social and governance reporting can highlight innovation potential in sustainable business models and improve competitive positioning. This integration creates strategic advantages that extend far beyond regulatory compliance.

In this turbulent environment, the key lies in establishing clarity around your sustainability strategy and ensuring it directly aligns with your commercial objectives.

Rather than retreating, organisations must become more sophisticated in how they communicate with their audiences about complex sustainability topics. If stakeholders are being spooked by political rhetoric or market volatility, this is precisely when your sustainability plans need to demonstrate their commercial value most clearly. The goal is to move sustainability away from being a discretionary topic that can be switched on or off depending on political winds, transforming it instead into an integral component of business strategy that drives measurable value regardless of external pressures.

Whilst the temptation to take what’s seen as ‘the easy route’ and abandon sustainability commitments grows, this would be a catastrophic misstep. The recent exodus from banking alliances isn’t driven by organisations unable to do the work; it stems from initial commitments to unrealistic goals that were never properly integrated into business strategy. Rather than getting swept up in today’s rhetoric, successful organisations will stay the course, recognising that current challenges are temporary whilst the underlying drivers of sustainability remain permanent.

The critical test is simple: if you cannot find genuine value in your sustainability initiatives, the problem isn’t with sustainability itself; it’s with the overall approach. Those who weather this storm by building robust, commercially-aligned strategies will emerge stronger when the political and regulatory dust settles.

Get in touch

If you’d like to discuss this, or any other subject, please get in touch with Katy Fuller, Head of Sustainability, at katy@gather.london

We’d love to know what you think.