The new study by Oracle and Pamela Rucker, CIO Advisor, Instructor at Harvard, titled “There is no Planet B: How business and technology can help save the world,” found that regardless of where people live, they are demanding more progress on environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria and expect companies to make changes in this direction. More than 11,000 consumers and business leaders from 15 countries were surveyed, and they believe that technology is the solution to achieve the desired goals.

The research findings are based on a survey conducted by Savanta, Inc. between February 25 and March 14 that asked about consumer and business leader behaviors toward sustainability and social efforts, as well as expectations for AI and bots in ESG efforts.

Companies must step up their sustainability and social efforts

The events of the past two years have raised awareness of the need to step up sustainability and social efforts more than ever, and companies are being called upon to step up their efforts.

• 93% of people say that sustainability and social factors are more critical than ever, 80% that the events of the past two years have caused them to change their actions.
• 94% think that society has not made enough progress. 42% believe that people have other priorities, 39% believe this is the result of a preference for short-term benefits over long-term benefits, and 37% believe that laziness and selfishness take precedence over action to save the planet.
• 45% believe that meaningful changes for sustainability and social factors can only be made by business.
• 78% are frustrated and disappointed by the lack of progress by companies to date and 89% are no longer waiting for promises to support ESG but for action.
• 84% think companies would make more progress toward sustainability and social goals with the help of AI, and 61% even think bots will succeed where humans have failed.

Stigma and operational challenges hold companies back

Business leaders know that sustainability efforts are critical to business success and even trust bots more than humans to drive sustainability and social efforts:

• 92% believe that sustainability and ESG programs are critical to their organizations’ success. For 40%, their brand is strengthened; 39% expect increased productivity and 38% expect new customers.
• 91% of business leaders face significant barriers to implementing sustainability and ESG initiatives. The biggest are: obtaining ESG metrics from partners and third parties (35%), lack of data (33%), time-consuming manual reporting processes (32%).
• 93% of business leaders would trust a bot over a human to make sustainability and social decisions. They would be better at: collecting different types of data without error (43%), making rational and unbiased decisions (42%), and predicting future outcomes based on past metrics/performance (41%).
• Business leaders believe that people are critical to the success of ESG initiatives and better at implementing change based on stakeholder feedback (48%), providing others with the information needed to make decisions (46%), and making strategic decisions based on context (42%).

Companies that don’t engage in ESG could lose customers and employees

• 94% of people want to get involved in sustainability and social factors to live healthier lives (50%), save the planet for future generations (49%) and help create more equality in the world (46%).
• 70% of people would be willing to walk away from brands that are not committed to sustainability and social development, and 69% would even leave their job for a brand that puts more emphasis on these efforts.
• If organizations can clearly demonstrate the progress they have made, people would be willing to pay a little more for their products and services (87%), invest in them (83%), work for them (83%).

Business leaders understand the importance and urgency: 91% want to increase their investment in sustainability.

Pamela Rucker concludes:

“The events of the past two years have put social and sustainability initiatives under the microscope and people are demanding material change. While there are challenges in addressing these issues, businesses have a huge opportunity to change the world for the better. The results show that people are more likely to do business and work for organizations that act responsibly toward our society and the environment. This is an opportune time. While thinking has evolved, technology has also evolved and can play a key role. to overcome many of the barriers that have held back progress.”

Translated from Oracle publie une nouvelle étude sur l’IA et les critères environnementaux, sociaux et de gouvernance