Professional services firms lag in digital sustainability efforts: study

FMCG, transportation, and infrastructure sectors are “digital sustainability sceptics.”

Singapore’s professional services firms are more likely to be sceptical about pursuing digital sustainability goals, a study from Schneider Electric showed.

In a report, Schneider Electric found that one-third of Singaporean business leaders are digital sustainability leaders as they strongly support digitalisation as a key driver for sustainability goals.

Meanwhile, 59% are Digital Sustainability Adopters as they do not believe in pursuing digitalisation as strongly, and 7% are sceptics since they disagree or are unsure of digitalisation in supporting sustainability.

Real estate, data centre, automotive, and e-mobility sectors were more likely than peers from other industries to be “Digital Sustainability Leaders"; whilst respondents from the professional services, FMCG, transportation, and infrastructure sectors were more likely to be “Digital Sustainability Sceptics.”

Another result from the study showed that Digital Sustainability Leaders are twice as likely (41%) to have comprehensive and integrated sustainability strategies with policies and targets, compared to 21% of “Digital Sustainability Sceptics.”

Almost two-thirds (64%) of “Digital Sustainability Leaders” also said their businesses have a dedicated sustainability team, compared to only 42% of “Digital Sustainability Adopters” and 18% of “Digital Sustainability Sceptics.”

Digital sustainability leaders are also leading in efforts to track climate change impact compared to their counterparts. They are more likely to use Carbon Foot-Printing (40% vs 34% and 27% respectively), Supply Chain Analysis (38% vs 31% and 15%), and Lifecycle Assessment (34% vs 22% and 18%) than adopters and sceptics.

Digital Sustainability Leaders are also three times more confident in attaining their sustainability goals, with 61% being very confident, compared to 16% of adopters and 8% of sceptics.

The Digital Sustainability Leaders are also working on shorter time goals, with 31% working towards goals set for the next year or less, whilst only 19% of Digital Sustainability Adopters and 8% of Digital Sustainability Sceptics were doing the same.

Over 500 business leaders in Singapore from a range of industries were interviewed between May and June 2023 for the study. They were asked about their perspectives on sustainability and the environment.