Insight | Accelerating sustainable action through the Internet of Things (IoT)
Enterprise
In line with this, we’re seeing a shift in focus from planning and talking about Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) targets to actually meeting these goals and demonstrating as much to customers, investors, and the general public. Corporate responsibility is very much growing in breadth and depth.
At the same time, companies are also increasingly accepting that improved ESG reporting and sustainability outcomes are a key driver of profitability and investment.
However, are firms sufficiently equipped to meet ambitious ESG targets, improve sustainability and boost profitability all at the same time? The simple answer is not yet.
Our new report, Accelerating Sustainable Action Through the Internet of Things (IoT), takes a closer look at the key challenges, opportunities and priorities businesses are juggling as they look to improve their ESG reporting and broader sustainability outcomes at pace and scale, and the role that satellite connectivity will play in driving this change.
We surveyed over 1,000 technology and ESG leaders across five key industries that are vital for delivering against the global Scope 1, 2 and 3 decarbonisation agenda – namely agriculture, mining, oil and gas, utilities and transport – and the results were fascinating.
Respondents overwhelmingly agree that the individual elements of ESG are important to senior management within their business. Almost all respondents believe environmental governance is important to their senior team (96%), closely followed by 95% and 94% of respondents who feel the social and corporate governance elements of ESG are also a key priority.
"Corporate responsibility is very much growing in breadth and depth."
Despite a clear desire for most businesses to become more sustainable, respondents believe their competitors are focused on creating ‘green’ business perceptions rather than tangible outcomes.
Three quarters of respondents (76%) doubt their peers’ ESG reporting, highlighting the need for robust, granular data to back up sustainability claims and rebuild industry trust.
Although 81% of respondents agree that IoT solutions can help businesses measure, analyse and report on their ESG progress to build industry trust, only 47% would be happy to share all of their ESG data with third parties over the next 1-3 years to improve industry reporting and benchmarking.
Clearly, work needs to be done to create an environment where organisations feel comfortable sharing ESG insights to facilitate better cross-industry collaboration and drive the sustainability transformation they believe IoT-based solutions can deliver.
“Work needs to be done to create an environment where organisations feel comfortable sharing ESG insights to facilitate better cross-industry collaboration and drive the sustainability transformation they believe IoT-based solutions can deliver.”
Beyond data sharing hesitations, businesses are facing broader challenges when it comes to getting the most from their IoT solutions – including hurdles related to cost, skills gaps, compatibility and - increasingly importantly - access to reliable, always-on IoT connectivity.
All these factors have the potential to keep enterprises from fully realising their sustainability and commercial potential, making the right partnerships with connectivity and sustainability experts even more vital to ensure success.
The huge problems facing society today, from climate change to supply chain issues, are not local to specific cities or countries. They are global. If IoT networks are to play a part in addressing these problems, always-on connectivity is required everywhere, even in the most remote areas where terrestrial connectivity is not readily available.
Respondents overwhelmingly agree that ubiquitous satellite networks play an integral role in the success of IoT initiatives. Almost all businesses (91%) believe satellite connectivity is key to harnessing the full potential of such solutions, particularly as companies increasingly seek to scale their ESG solutions into more remote, off-grid locations globally to monitor and analyse data via central hubs in near real-time.
Ultimately, the message from us is simple. Satellite-enabled IoT networks must become a central pillar in global decarbonisation and sustainability strategies. Doing so will add another powerful tool to our arsenal as we collectively fight to combat climate change and improve broader sustainability at speed.
This report is based on independent research conducted by Censuswide on behalf of Inmarsat, surveying more than 1,000 senior technology and ESG professionals with sustainability decision-making power across a range of businesses sizes (sole trader, 1-9, 10-49, 50-99, 100-249, 250-500 and 500+ employees).
Survey respondents spanned five industrial sectors (agriculture, mining, oil and gas, utilities and transport) and all major continents including Europe, North America, South America, Africa and Asia.
As such, the results are representative of a broad range of businesses at various stages of their sustainability and industrial IoT adoption journeys. Data collection took place in August and September 2022.
Please note, the term ‘ESG’ is used throughout the report to refer to a set of Environmental, Social and Governance-focused criteria and corporate policies that encourage companies to act responsibly and communicate their environmental progress and performance.
The term ‘sustainability’ refers to sustainable business outcomes more broadly, including sustainable business and environmental performance matters. The term ‘business sustainability’ refers to certain measures taken by companies to improve their business performance and business resilience to also deliver sustainable outcomes (e.g. lower carbon emissions and lower business costs as a result of energy efficiency improvements). ‘Environmental sustainability’ implies the responsibility to conserve natural resources and protect global ecosystems (e.g. save fresh water as a result of the use of intelligent tech solutions).
