The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and Ernst & Young Advisory Services (EY) have published a report urging finance and corporate leaders to strengthen sustainability reporting across ten core areas. The study, titled 'Sustainability reporting: Track your progress – GBA insights', reveals that despite growing regulatory requirements, many organisations are still in the preliminary stages of establishing the necessary reporting infrastructure. The survey data showed that 41% of global respondents and 36% of Greater Bay Area (GBA) participants view the knowledge deficit as a major operational obstacle.
Additionally, 35% globally and 27% in the GBA pointed to the immaturity of the reporting ecosystem, while roughly a third in the first cohort and 31% among GBA participants cited difficulties in understanding stakeholder needs. While compliance and financial assessment drive disclosures across both groups, GBA respondents placed greater weight on risk management, whereas global respondents focus on securing wider non-financial insights. Strategic planning was the primary focus for 44% of global participants.
In contrast, 36% of GBA respondents prioritised external assurance, highlighting regional concern over data credibility, quality and regulatory compliance. To address these hurdles, the report details ten specific actions. Chief among them is moving beyond mere compliance to use sustainability data for strategic resilience, commercial opportunity and long-term performance.
Organisations must prioritise standards relevant to their jurisdictions and supply chains, while capitalising on regulatory guidance, support mechanisms and incentives. Operational resilience requires an end-to-end operational review to identify critical resources, dependencies and cost-related supply risks. Regular, two-way engagement with investors, customers, suppliers, staff and regulators should be institutionalised to improve data quality and governance decisions.
The authors also recommended integrating sustainability and financial data systems, partnering across industries to build capacity and securing flexible access to specialist technical skills. Finally, the report stresses that leadership and accountants must act immediately, warning that delaying implementation will increase the cost of meeting future market and regulatory demands. ACCA Hong Kong chairman Wilson Cheng said: "Nowadays, sustainability expectations are becoming more detailed, and companies are building access to specialised expertise to uphold higher standards, ensuring data quality and aligning sustainability accounting methods.
"Accountants are well positioned to support these efforts, leveraging their strengths in compliance, internal controls and data governance to establish reliable data collection and management systems for sustainability reporting." "ACCA, EY urge action on sustainability reporting" was originally created and published by The Accountant, a GlobalData owned brand.
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