Sustainability as an economic and competitive factor

PAC IT & sustainability – maturity index 2023

By now, the sustainability topic has become an economically relevant factor and competitive advantage – beyond legal requirements. Challenges, such as reducing emissions that are harmful to the climate and polluting substances, increasing the use of renewable energies, improving supply chain transparency and ensuring adequate and equitable working conditions therefore increasingly make it onto the agenda of the surveyed companies.

The PAC study “IT & sustainability – maturity index 2023”

For managers and companies, sustainability is a decisive factor in their governance and strategies. Almost all surveyed companies confirm organizational embedding of sustainability aspects in the company or plans to embed these aspects organizationally and to implement them in processes. The company's own IT is assigned a major role in implementing and executing the sustainability goals. However, the topic’s great importance has not yet led to passing ambitious strategies or implementing specific measures to the same extent.

Study on sustainability on behalf of LHIND

Based on select sub-indexes, the PAC study “IT & sustainability – maturity index 2023” documents the status of developing a sustainability strategy in surveyed companies or industries, and the role of IT in the ESG transformation (ESG: sustainability in the environmental (E), social (S) and governance (G) areas).

The study was prepared by the market analysis and consulting company PAC (Pierre Audoin Consultants) on behalf of Lufthansa Industry Solutions (LHIND) and was published in May 2023. In it, 150 IT and business decision makers in production and logistics companies provide information on their sustainability-related strategies, specific measures for ESG data recording and processing, and their choice of tools used for this purpose. The surveyed companies employ between 251 and 5,000 staff members and come in equal part from the automotive industry, other manufacturing companies and the logistics sector.

        The study PAC “IT & sustainability – maturity index 2023” shows, among other things:

                Why no company can ignore the topic sustainability/ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) any longer
When exactly do the companies or company IT plan to become CO2 neutral?
Which sustainability KPIs are recorded at the companies?
Which IT tools are used for sustainability monitoring & controlling and what are the greatest challenges in these areas?
How common suppliers’ sustainability reports and ESG scores are already, and much more.

Now download the entire study on sustainability free of charge as a PDF! (in German only)

PAC study “IT & sustainability – maturity index 2023”
pdf, 3 MB

In the PAC study “IT & sustainability – maturity index 2023” learn the current importance of the sustainability topic in medium-sized companies, the sustainability goals they have set for themselves – to some extent beyond legal requirements – and the role that IT is assigned in their implementation.

Key Findings

You can read all survey results and their derivation in the PAC study “IT & sustainability – maturity index 2023.” We have condensed the most important findings for you below:

Almost 74 percent of surveyed companies are already recording sustainability data because: An increasing number of legal regulations require companies to advance and disclose sustainability-related aspects and measures (among these, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz, LkSG) etc.).
94 percent of surveyed companies prepare a sustainability report or plan to do so – almost half without regulatory pressure, of their own motivation, and: Some of these reports on sustainability or supply chains are already generated with tool support.
67 percent perform a risk assessment of their suppliers’ sustainability.
Sustainability is increasingly recognized as an economic necessity (increased energy costs) and is being established as a differentiating factor with regard to customers, employees and investors.
The sustainability of the companies can be achieved by IT, conversely, IT itself must become more sustainable but: Almost 37 percent consider their IT department’s sustainability knowledge to be suboptimal or poor.
The low quality of available data and the different requirements for data sources are still a big challenge for companies.
The degree of automation in processing sustainability-related data still offers potential for optimization.

Explained in brief: Sustainability – ESG

Sustainability – ESG is understood here as a triumvirate of Environmental, Social and Governance, ESG in brief. ESG is an assessment metric for a company’s sustainability, which is shown in (short-term to long-term) key performance indicators that allow for measuring ecological and social areas of governance.

Now download the entire study free of charge as a PDF! (in German only)

PAC study “IT & sustainability – maturity index 2023”
pdf, 3 MB

In the PAC study “IT & sustainability – maturity index 2023” learn the current importance of the sustainability topic in medium-sized companies, the goals they have set for themselves – to some extent beyond legal requirements – and the role IT is assigned in implementing these sustainability goals.