Only 35% organisations have integrated ESG into leadership KPIs, finds research

Despite rising climate risks for businesses, only 46% of organisations report having an enterprise-wide ESG strategy, and ESG data is digitised, yet processes remain largely manual and siloed, according to Dun & Bradstreet Research Insights.   

The insights are based on written surveys from 100+ ESG leaders across manufacturing, services, and infrastructure sectors, spanning small, mid-sized, large, and very large organisations by revenue.

Respondents include CXOs, senior business leaders, and functional heads, offering perspectives that capture both enterprise-level ESG strategy and on-ground execution across governance, systems, and climate action.

Smaller firms (19%) remain largely compliance-driven, while over half of large (51%) and very large organisations (52%) report formally defined strategies reviewed with targets.

ESG Needs Leadership KPIs, but only 35% of organisations have integrated ESG into leadership KPIs, incentives, and decision-making. Integration rises sharply with scale—from 13% in small firms to 48% in very large organisations.

ESG data is digitised, yet processes remain largely manual and siloed. About 62% of organisations rely on digitally stored data that is still manually collected and updated. This implies disclosure pressure alone does not ensure interoperable or decision-grade ESG data systems.

ESG risk assessments remain mostly reactive and checklist‑driven, rather than embedded as part of core processes. Only 34% report regular and ongoing ESG risk monitoring across suppliers.

Smaller firms are significantly more likely to assess ESG risks only during onboarding -- or not at all. High audit costs and limited supplier participation make multi‑tier ESG visibility difficult to achieve.

Even large organisations struggle to achieve deep supplier transparency. 43% cite high verification and audit costs as the biggest barrier. Decarbonisation depth rises with scale, while smaller firms remain concentrated in early-stage actions.

52% of large organisations report having an integrated transition plan backed by capital allocation. In contrast, over 60% of small firms remain in early exploration stages or Scope 1 and Scope 2 target-setting stages.

Climate risk is still assessed qualitatively by smaller firms, whereas large enterprises embed it into strategic choices. 62% of organisations quantify climate risk to some extent. However, only 20% embed climate risk into capital allocation and strategic planning. Only 11% use strategic business value metrics such as resilience, risk reduction, or market access to measure climate ROI.