Over 80% of business leaders globally report being confident that their companies’ reporting processes will meet emerging disclosure requirements, according to a new survey released by industrial products, solutions and technologies company Honeywell.

The results were unveiled with the latest release of Honeywell’s Environmental Sustainable Index. Honeywell launched the index in Q4 2022, with updated releases planned quarterly, aimed at providing insight into how business leaders feel about the progress that’s being made toward their organizations’ sustainability commitments. For the report, produced in collaboration with Futurum Research, Honeywell surveyed more than 750 business, technology, and sustainability professionals directly involved in the planning, strategic development, implementation, or oversight of environmental sustainability goals and initiatives, at companies across multiple regions and economic sectors.

The report also included a new section examining organizations’ approaches to reporting on their environmental and social initiatives and goals, which comes as regulators in major jurisdictions around the world including Europe, the UK and the U.S., among others, have introduced or are preparing mandatory sustainability reporting requirements for companies.

According to the new disclosure-focused section of the survey, 93% respondents said that their organizations have formal plans in place for reporting on their progress towards meeting sustainability goals, and 82% said that they were “somewhat” or “extremely” optimistic about meeting sustainability reporting requirements that may emerge over the next 12 months. More than three quarters of respondents also said that it is “somewhat” or “extremely” convenient to produce a report on sustainability progress that meets requirements.

The report also unveiled an increase in the proportion of companies planning to grow spending on environmental sustainability initiatives over the next 12 months, rebounding to 86% from 83% of respondents in the prior quarter’s survey. Each of the environmental categories saw increases in planned investment, with the strongest growth in Emissions Reduction, with 85% planning to increase spend in this area, compared to 81% in the prior quarter. 86% planned to increase investment in Energy Evolution & Efficiency (85% prior quarter), 81% planned increases in Pollution Prevention spend (79% prior), and 84% for Circularity & Recycling (82% prior).

Only 1% of respondents reported plan to decrease investment over the next 12 months on environmental sustainability, compared to 3% in the prior quarter.

Despite the planned increase in spending intentions, respondents appeared slightly less confident in achieving their sustainability goals. 74% of respondents reported that they were optimistic about achieving their 2030 sustainability goals, down 3 percentage points from the prior survey, and lower across all categories, with the biggest decline in the Energy Evolution and Efficiency category, which fell to 70% from 75%.

Evan van Hook, Chief Sustainability Officer at Honeywell, said:

“The latest Environmental Sustainability Index confirms that large global companies are continuing to stay on pace and invest in technology and staff to achieve their environmental sustainability goals. Sustainability is top of mind for leadership, and they are activating top-level staff to increase involvement and traction toward goals.”

Click here to access Honeywell’s 3Q 2023 Environmental Sustainability Index.