The state of sustainability? Healthier than the media would have you believe

Recent headlines paint a gloomy picture for corporate sustainability. Coca-Cola, Walmart, UBS and Microsoft are just some of the companies accused of watering down their climate commitments. But a survey of close to 7,000 company disclosures made to CDP in 2024 suggests that media coverage of individual companies may be missing broader trends.

“I expected to see more companies backing off,” said David Linich, a sustainability partner at PwC, the consultancy behind the survey. “It seemed like there was a mass retreat. But the data showed otherwise.”

PwC used a combination of human analysis and AI to mine the CDP dataset, which Linich said was broadly representative of the larger economy. Here are some highlights:

Not just staying the course, but accelerating

The PwC team found that 84 percent of companies are sticking with climate goals, and 37 percent are increasing them. That includes all 47 companies that saw a change of CEO since setting their target. “None of those companies backed off their commitments,” wrote the report authors.

In fact, companies anticipate more money will be flowing into climate transition projects over the next few years. Capital and operating expenditures on climate are expected to grow by 18 percent and 21 percent, respectively, between 2024 and 2030.

Of the 16 percent of companies who restated targets, half did so for what Linich described as “legitimate” reasons. This group includes companies that set targets without having created a detailed transition plan. Those that have now done so, are still investing but have realized their transition will take longer than anticipated.

One notable question is whether these commitments, which were made in disclosures filed before President Trump took office, will survive a presidency that appears intent on dismantling policies designed to tackle climate change. 

Emission goals are alive

Recent research has delivered worrying prognoses for current emissions targets. An Accenture report published last year, for instance, found that just 16 percent of companies with targets were on track to hit them. The PwC analysis, by contrast, suggests the idea is in good health: Two-thirds of companies are on track to hit their targets for Scope 1 and 2, and  half are on track for Scope 3.

Breaking the numbers down by sector revealed a correlation between ambition and progress. Simply put, sectors that set more ambitious targets are generally exceeding them, while those with more conservative goals are off track. Unsurprisingly, the trend reflects the abatement options open to different industries. Tech companies, for example, can often make a significant dent in their carbon footprints by switching to renewables. Finding a low-carbon energy source for ocean-going tankers is more challenging, as evidenced by that industry’s place in the bottom left of the graph below.

The reason for the difference between the Accenture and PwC findings is not immediately clear, but it’s worth noting that the two used different datasets:. PwC focused on CDP disclosures, while Accenture looked at the largest 2,000 companies by revenue. 

Suppliers step up

One theory of how to spur decarbonization is getting large companies to lead by setting emission targets then encouraging suppliers, many of which are smaller, to follow suit. This appears to be working. In 2020, just under 500 companies set targets, covering around 2.7 billion tons of CO2 equivalent. By 2024, the number of new target setters had surged to almost 1,300. Though the goals covered around 1.1 billion tCO2e, the median annual revenue of target setters fell from $3.8 billion to $1.3 billion.

“The larger companies are encouraging their suppliers, those suppliers are setting targets and creating a ripple effect,“ said Linich. The result was one of the most encouraging highlights of the data, he added. “The reason companies are acting has less to do with factors like regulatory or political reasons and much more to do with business value: My customers are asking for this, and I’m starting to prioritize it more as an organization, because they care.”

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