In a startling revelation about corporate sustainability efforts, only 11% of sustainability professionals express confidence in meeting their environmental targets according to a comprehensive European survey. The findings highlight a growing crisis where ambition dramatically outpaces resources, with teams facing budget constraints, skills shortages, and insufficient C-suite support undermining progress toward crucial sustainability goals.
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Sustainability Teams Stretched Beyond Capacity
The anonymous survey of 450 sustainability professionals across Europe reveals organizations are expecting monumental results with minimal investment. Nearly half (47%) of respondents acknowledged making progress but identified significant risk in achieving targets, while the overwhelming majority work in severely understaffed departments. According to the report published by sustainability platform Leafr, more than two-thirds of respondents work in sustainability departments with three or fewer full-time employees, creating an impossible burden on existing staff.
The data shows sustainability teams are being asked to do more with less—72% have seen their responsibilities expand in the past year, while 91% report being pushed into areas beyond their team’s expertise. This expansion comes despite 14% of organizations actually reducing their sustainability workforce in the same period. As one anonymous professional lamented, “What frustrates me the most is being expected to meet insane targets with insanely little human capital and resources.”
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Critical Skills Gaps Undermining Sustainability Progress
The survey identified specific competency areas where sustainability departments lack essential expertise:
- Supply chain management (40% reported missing this skill)
- Life cycle assessment (38% identified this gap)
- Climate risk assessment (35% noted this deficiency)
These missing capabilities represent fundamental requirements for meaningful environmental progress, particularly as organizations face increasing pressure to address Scope 3 emissions throughout their value chains. The skills shortage creates a dangerous gap between target-setting and implementation capability, with many professionals expressing confidence levels that barely reach double digits.
Leadership Misalignment and Resource Constraints
The crisis extends beyond mere headcount to fundamental misalignment between sustainability targets and organizational support. Many respondents indicated that leadership expectations bear little resemblance to practical realities. One professional noted the disconnect between ambition and feasibility: “Our net zero targets are impossible to hit in line with growth, but we pretend they are.”
This challenge reflects broader organizational issues where C-suite leadership often sets aggressive environmental goals without providing corresponding resources or organizational buy-in. The situation echoes findings from Forbes contributors who have documented similar disconnects between sustainability ambition and execution capability across industries.
Practical Solutions for Bolstering Sustainability Functions
The report outlines several actionable recommendations for organizations serious about their sustainability commitments:
- Knowledge transfer integration: Building skill development into consultancy contracts to enhance internal capabilities
- Scope 3 prioritization: Incentivizing reductions where the biggest environmental impact can be achieved
- Data fidelity focus: Improving data systems to free up sustainability teams from manual work
- Specialized consultancy: Hiring experts for specific topics rather than generalists to maximize lean team effectiveness
These approaches recognize that sustainability success requires both internal capability building and strategic external support. As industry experts note, transformative leadership that aligns resources with objectives is essential for overcoming implementation challenges.
The Path Forward for Corporate Sustainability
Leafr co-founder Gus Bartholomew summarized the imperative for change: “Sustainability teams cannot deliver net zero on their own. They are under-resourced, pulled in too many directions, and forced into compliance work at the expense of impact. Unless leadership, regulators, and investors align behind a pragmatic model that values environmental outcomes as much as financial ones, targets will remain out of reach.”
The findings highlight the growing recognition that sustainability success requires the same strategic resourcing and executive attention as other business priorities. As organizations increasingly leverage technology solutions—according to recent analysis of major tech deployments—the human element remains equally critical. Without addressing the fundamental resource and skills gaps identified in this survey, corporate sustainability targets will continue to represent aspiration rather than achievement.
For additional coverage of leadership challenges in implementing complex initiatives, our network’s analysis of AI implementation requirements reveals similar patterns where technological ambition outpaces organizational readiness. The parallel suggests a broader pattern where organizations must align resources, skills, and leadership support to achieve transformative goals whether in sustainability or digital transformation.
