Sustainability: proof over promises

In the current sustainability landscape, sweeping corporate pledges are no longer enough. Investors, regulators, and consumers all want organisations to provide concrete proof that they’re delivering on their promises. And they want that evidence to be measurable, verifiable, and transparent.

 

Too often, however, corporate sustainability reporting relies on high-level averages and estimates rather than hard evidence from the ground. This leaves claims open to doubt, or worse, accusations of greenwashing. To maintain trust and drive real progress, businesses need to demonstrate impact consistently supported by independent validation.

 

This is no small task in a volatile market where regulations are shifting, supply chains face disruption, and timelines are rarely clear. For example, the EU’s decision to delay the implementation of reporting requirements under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive was meant to buy businesses time. Instead, it added more uncertainty, with businesses now facing a moving target when it comes to planning for compliance and reporting.

 

In such an environment, demonstrating progress credibly becomes even more essential. Companies can reduce uncertainty by grounding their sustainability claims in verifiable data and transparent measurement systems.

 

To provide credible proof, organizations need reliable tools that measure, verify, and communicate outcomes with transparency. This means using trusted data sources that connect business actions to measurable impacts such as carbon storage, biodiversity, or water regulation - and ensuring those results are independently validated and easy to understand.

 

 

Why credibility matters

The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) standards are being adopted across  36 jurisdictions worldwide, 17 have finalized requirements and others are preparing implementation. This signals a clear global shift: sustainability reporting is becoming a baseline expectation and a critical component of long-term business success.

 

Credibility in sustainability reporting goes beyond presenting numbers, it’s about the integrity, transparency, and independence behind them. Companies need to disclose not only how their activities affect nature, but also how environmental changes can influence their long‑term financial resilience. Such transparency enables them to understand and manage these interdependencies - protecting value, reducing risk, and strengthening future business stability. With growing pressure from disclosure frameworks, regulators, and consumers, the question isn’t if organizations need credible proof - it’s how they deliver it.

 

This need for reliable, resilient reporting is already shaping business behaviour. Findings from Workiva’s 2025 Executive Benchmark on Integrated Reporting illustrate this shift. In a survey of 1,600 global leaders, 85% stated that they plan to proceed with sustainability disclosures regardless of regulatory changes, and 97% agreed that strong reporting provides a competitive advantage. The message is clear: proof pays off.

 

 

Gaps and challenges in sustainability data

While corporate sustainability commitments have surged, proving the real impact behind them remains a major challenge. Reports too often lean on abstract modelling rather than verified data from specific projects, making it difficult to link results to authentic change for people, communities, and ecosystems.

 

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) highlights this viability gap. It showed that fewer than 40% of companies have a full picture of their emissions across the value chain, particularly Scope 3, which often accounts for the largest share of their footprint. Without this traceability, metrics risk appearing abstract, opaque, or even misleading.

 

Independent monitors raise similar concerns as the latest Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor assessed 20 of the world’s largest corporations and found none had a fully credible climate strategy. Most were rated poor or very poor, with even ambitious organisations failing to match the scale and speed needed to stay within the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C trajectory.

 

The investment landscape reflects the same tension. The World Investment Report 2024, shows sustainable finance markets grew in 2023, but signs of slowdown remain, with credibility concerns holding momentum back. And while the global green economy rebounded, reaching US$7.2 trillion in market capitalization, trust still lags far behind ambition.

 

 

Credibility in action

Credible proof must meet four key criteria: it must be quantifiable, repeatable, comparable, and understandable. Encouragingly, the systems to deliver this are taking shape.  Frameworks, such as the CSRD, TNFD, ISSB, and IFRS, alongside sector-specific tools, are helping to make supply chain data measurable, transparent, and verifiable.

 

Equally important, credible proof enables better business decisions. When companies understand how their operations effect forests, they can target resources where they deliver the greatest impact rather than spreading efforts too thin. This is why initiatives such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and the UN Principles for Responsible Investment put robust, data-driven risk management at the heart of future strategy.

 

However, compliance is only a tool - what matters more is an organization’s actual impact on nature. Credible reporting should show how businesses both affect and depend on nature while supporting healthy ecosystems, accounting for natural capital, managing resource risks, and promoting sustainable production. Standards for ecosystem services, for example, provide structured ways to quantify impacts on carbon, biodiversity, soil, water, recreation, and community benefits.

 

Practical solutions are already emerging: FSC’s Verified Impact, for instance, enables the verification of measured outcomes in these areas within FSC-certified forests. A key advantage is that its metrics are audit‑ready, reducing the need for additional validation that’s often required when using third‑party supplier data.

 

Highlighting such verified results - whether in hectares of forest conserved, species protected, or community projects supported - helps businesses demonstrate their contribution to resilient ecosystems. This is not only vital for the planet but also for companies themselves, as it reduces risks to resources and reputations while building trust with regulators, investors, and consumers.

 

 

Now is the time for action

As markets become increasingly complex and expectations rise, integrating sustainability and financial data has become mission critical. CFOs and CSOs who take a unified approach can build organisations that are resilient, transparent, and future-ready.

 

In today’s world, sustainability can no longer be measured by ambition alone. What matters is credibility: the ability to demonstrate, with reliable and transparent data, that commitments translate into measurable impact.

 

By being transparent and sharing credible proof of their actions, organizations can show how they are helping to protect forests, preserve biodiversity, and strengthen the communities and ecosystems on which both society and business depend. 

 

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Maria Wowro is Climate & Ecosystem Services Programme Manager at FSC, a non-profit membership organisation that provides a certification tool to enable sustainable management of forests

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and Sakorn Sukkasemsakorn