The following is an opinion piece posted on the Sustainability Online portal.
Across Ireland and the UK, sustainability now sits firmly on board agendas. Targets are set. Net-zero ambitions are announced. Reporting frameworks are strengthened. The intent is clear.
What is less clear, in many organisations, is how those commitments translate into consistent action once the board paper is closed.
Recent Irish data illustrates the tension. In EY Ireland’s 2025 State of Sustainability survey*, 73% of respondents say sustainability is embedded in how business priorities are set and 69% say environmental and social factors are used to assess organisational performance.
Yet while 37% report having a science-based net-zero goal, only 26% express strong confidence in achieving it. That gap between ambition and confidence is not about awareness. It is about delivery.
This is not unusual. A GlobeScan/Salesforce study of senior professionals** found that 67% believe sustainability is very important for commercial success, but only 37% say it is very integrated into the core of their business.
In other words, it is valued strategically but not always embedded operationally.
When sustainability is important but not integrated, it competes with every other pressure of the working week: margin protection, staffing constraints, client deadlines and short-term performance targets.
The pattern mirrors wider findings on execution. PMI’s global research, published in December 2025, reports that only half of projects meet a modern definition of success, with 13% failing outright and 37% only partially delivering expected results.
Read the rest of the column here.
