Sustainability Reporting – Why financial professionals are key to future-proofing business

Sustainability reporting has become an essential component of corporate governance. Increasingly, businesses are being called on to understand and disclose their impacts not only on climate, but across the full range of environmental and social issues—such as biodiversity loss, resource use, human rights, and equity. While decarbonisation remains a priority, the broader remit of sustainability now demands attention. Financial professionals—particularly accountants, finance directors, and legal advisors—are uniquely placed to embed this thinking into business strategy and risk planning. Their involvement ensures that sustainability is not siloed, but fully integrated into governance, decision-making, and long-term value creation.

It can be challenging to keep pace with changing ESG requirements. Our Navigating Sustainability Reporting and Taxation 2025 eBook provides an invaluable guide to the latest regulations affecting UK businesses. It explores obligations to report on issues related to people and planet and how this needs to be embedded within corporate financial governance.

Keeping Pace

Sustainability reporting is a rapidly evolving landscape. Staying on top of both current requirements and what is coming down the track is a growing challenge. In the UK, frameworks like the Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR), the incoming Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR), and the consolidation of TCFD into IFRS S2 are pushing for greater transparency around energy use, emissions, and climate-related risks.

Yet the scope is expanding. Future disclosure regimes are expected to include nature-related impacts (TNFD), circularity, and social governance, making it essential for finance professionals to adopt a forward-looking view. This is not just about compliance but using data and insight to guide strategic decisions, manage risk, and build trust with stakeholders.

At the heart of effective sustainability reporting lies the ability to understand and clearly communicate business impacts. The concept of double materiality encourages organisations to look in both directions: not only at how sustainability issues affect financial performance, but also at how their activities impact society and the environment. While it is a formal requirement under the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), double materiality also serves as a powerful strategic tool in helping businesses identify risks, opportunities, and areas where they can create long-term value. Regulators are increasingly seeking this dual perspective to improve accountability, comparability, and trust in disclosures.

Trusted Advisor

The sheer breadth of legislation means that ESG reporting compliance is moving far higher up the corporate agenda and becoming a hot topic of conversation between financial professionals and their clients. What are our obligations and how do we capture and track the data we need to satisfy the regulators? The onus is now on professional advisors to keep their clients ahead of the game.

It is important to recognise that these questions are not only being asked to keep on the right side of the law, but to satisfy supply chain pressures and respond to changing customer demands. It is now widely accepted that adopting sustainable practices helps mitigate risks, reduce costs and build resilient business models.

Taking the Lead

This dynamic regulatory environment means that legal and financial advisors must remain vigilant, continually updating their knowledge to keep pace with new requirements. Legal advisors need to understand the ESG clauses appearing in contracts and agreements, whilst accountants must ensure that financial reports accurately reflect a company’s sustainability performance.

There is nowhere to hide. For many businesses, failure to comply comes at a significant cost. As well as significant financial penalties from regulators, customers and employees do not look favourably on businesses that are not committed to responsible practice. In addition, non-compliance can lead to increased scrutiny from investors, potentially diminishing access to capital and affecting market valuations.

Building Skillsets

The onus is on professional advisors to ensure clients are disclosing the right information at the right time an in the right way. This requires a thorough understanding of both the regulatory frameworks and the practical aspects of sustainability reporting. Part of this involves learning to navigate standards such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the emerging IFRS S2. These frameworks offer a roadmap for measuring and disclosing a company’s environmental and social impacts and are increasingly being integrated into regulatory requirements.

They must be capable of advising on the design and implementation of internal controls for data accuracy and consistency, which is critical for effective ESG reporting. A key part of their role is also helping clients identify the right metrics to measure their environmental performance, be it greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, energy consumption, or waste reduction initiatives. For accountants, this means integrating this data into financial reporting systems to provide a holistic view of performance, while lawyers must be prepared to navigate the legal implications of ESG disclosures, including liability issues and contract enforcement.

Yet to really add value advisors need to take that a step further by helping their clients understand the consequences of non-compliance as well as the benefits of embracing robust governance. Those professionals looking to really add value must not only acquire specialist knowledge of ESG reporting requirements but understand the wider sustainability issues driving the legislation.

Bridging the Gap

Right now, many advisory firms lack the knowledge and expertise to best meet their clients’ needs. A recent report by PwC in association with the Financial Services Skills Commission and the Aldersgate Group highlighted the skills gap. It found that the percentage of green job vacancies in the financial sector increased from 0.26% to 2.2% between 2019 and 2023. Yet 90% of businesses admit that they lack ESG understanding on how to embed sustainability strategy into the core of their organisation.

Help is at hand. Wylde Connections is a trusted sustainability partner for a range of clients wanting to put ESG at the heart of their decision making. Our expert consultants support businesses in proving and demonstrating their sustainability credentials through an ecosystem of services designed to deliver positive outcomes.

For advisory firms we can provide your team with the knowledge and skills they need to drive effective ESG reporting. Our Sustainability Awareness course takes learners through five in-depth modules: carefully designed to cover various aspects of sustainability, from foundational principles to real-world applications. 

In addition, our diagnostic tool Enveglas helps businesses to identify the minimum criteria needed to meet legal and statutory ESG requirements. Enveglas highlights what companies need to do to meet compliance and take the next steps towards putting sustainability at the heart of their business strategy.

The imperative for financial professionals to advise colleagues and clients on ESG reporting has never been more critical. Talk to our team today about how Wylde connections can help bridge your skills gap and improve your value proposition. Book a Discovery Call or find out more at www.wyldeconnections.co.uk