Closing the sustainability valuation gap

Building on the themes of KPMG New Zealand’s report Financial quantification: from climate risk to value creation, this report from KPMG International explores a critical issue facing organisations today from a global perspective. Thatwhile sustainability is well understood at the executive level, it is not yet consistently reflected in financial decision making. Recent KPMG research shows that although most executives are familiar with their sustainability strategy, only a small proportion apply robust quantification methods to assess financial impact.

This gap limits organisations’ ability to embed sustainability into capital allocation, valuation and strategic decision making.

What insight can looking overseas provide Aotearoa? For our export-heavy economy, the executive understanding of sustainability strategy, metrics and performance is varied across our key trading partners. Executives across Europe and the UK are relatively well informed, whilst their counterparts in the US, Australia and China, are markedly less so.