Study shows implementation deficit in sustainability

Although the topic of sustainability is already a high priority in nine of ten companies, more than half of them have delayed achieving CO2 neutrality and developing a climate-neutral IT function until the next decade. This is the result of the current “IT & Sustainability – Maturity Index 2023”. For the study, the market research company PAC surveyed 150 IT and business decision-makers from the automotive industry, manufacturing sector and logistics sector on behalf of Lufthansa Industry Solutions.

Norderstedt, June 6, 2023 – “The EU Green Deal requires companies to act in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. Even small and medium-sized industrial companies can no longer ignore the topic of sustainability,” says Stephanie Hackenholt, Product Owner Customer Sustainability at Lufthansa Industry Solutions (LHIND). “And it is clear that it will not work without digital technologies that can support and expedite the required measures,” adds the sustainability expert Hackenholt. But where do industry and logistics stand currently? In order to find out, LHIND and PAC launched the “IT & Sustainability – Maturity Index 2023”, which this year produced a score of 6.3 on a scale of “0” (immature) to “10” (mature).

What does not look so bad at first glance is more thought-provoking when looking at the sub-indices. For example, the survey shows that although the topic of sustainability already enjoys a high level of importance in the companies with a value of 7.4 in the "importance" sub-index, implementation - measured in the "strategy" sub-index - lags behind with a value of 4.6. Half of the respondents (54 percent) aim to achieve CO2 neutrality for their own company by 2040, while 35 percent do not aim to achieve this goal until after 2040. Many companies therefore need more time than they would like in order to make their company climate neutral.

Many companies remain vague when its comes to sustainability

“There appears to be a significant discrepancy between the general decision to become more sustainable and to implement clearly defined goals,” says LHIND consultant Hackenholt. Only four out of ten companies have already adopted sustainability targets, the achievement of which is to be measured with concrete key figures. The rest have strategically opted to remain vague or are still making plans in this regard.

“There appears to be a significant discrepancy between the general decision to become more sustainable and to implement clearly defined goals.”

Stephanie Hackenholt
Product Owner Customer Sustainability at Lufthansa Industry Solutions

This implementation deficit is surprising, since nine out of ten companies surveyed deem the “Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive” (CSRD) of the EU – which came into effect at the start of the year – to be one of the most important drivers for this topic. “Most companies have recognized that sustainability pays off,” says sustainability expert Hackenholt. “90% expect competitive advantages, for example, thanks to more efficient use of resources and optimized capacity utilization.” In order to leverage this potential, a clean data pool is essential. Three out of four study participants therefore consider a professional IT tool to be indispensable for creating sustainability reporting. However, more than one third (37%) is of the opinion that their own IT department still does not know enough about topics relating to sustainability.

Green corporate IT still needs an external leg-up

The companies are still struggling to develop an overall sustainable corporate IT function. The majority hope to achieve this by 2040 as well. However, before that can happen, gaps in knowledge must be closed with the help of training, membership of industry associations or new hires. More than three quarters of the companies (77%) want to work together with external consultants. “The development of a green corporate IT function is a challenging task,” says Stephanie Hackenholt. “By reducing the CO2 footprint in their department, IT managers can make a substantial contribution to climate protection within the company and thus ensure an overall higher level of maturity for the organization.”

The entire study can be downloaded here.