The benefits and challenges of carbon accounting according to sustainability professionals

Amidst a rapidly evolving regulatory environment in the field of sustainability, many businesses are trying to work out their next move. While some details have begun to emerge from the negotiations around the Omnibus Simplification Package proposal – such as the EU Commission voting to postpone CSRD compliance for all companies except for those involved in the first wave – there is still plenty of uncertainty regarding when and how regulation will apply to many businesses. 

But despite this regulatory uncertainty, many businesses are focusing on what they can control and are using carbon accounting to gain a competitive edge. This became clear in Normative’s recent ‘Carbon Accountability Report 2025’, where we asked 150 sustainability decision makers across the EU and UK about their attitudes to carbon accounting, the challenges they are facing and the benefits they are driving, beyond compliance. Here’s what we heard from those sustainability leaders.

How carbon accounting is delivering tangible business benefits

More than half (55%) of the sustainability decision-makers we spoke to say that the competitive advantage they get from accurate carbon reporting is a significant benefit. This is representative of an upward trend. When we conducted the previous edition of the survey in Q3 2023, only 45% of respondents said the same, indicating a shift in attitudes towards how carbon accounting is viewed within organizations. 

So, how are businesses actually using this data in their day-to-day operations? We heard a consistent story from respondents – ESG considerations are playing an even bigger role in wider business decision-making processes than they did in 2023. 

• 86% of sustainability decision-makers state that ESG considerations are involved in deciding which energy suppliers to work with (compared to 76% in 2023)
• 79% say they are involved in new product launches (versus 68%) in 2023

There are so many areas other than these examples, where we are seeing customers apply carbon accounting to the benefit of their wider business, beyond compliance.  What we see clearly here, is that businesses are increasingly factoring ESG considerations into decisions across a range of departments within their business, emphasizing the growing importance of the carbon accounting that underpins this data.

Businesses are showing signs of increasing maturity

The findings shared above contribute towards a landscape where we are seeing businesses making positive progress on their sustainability journeys. A significant step forward that we have tracked in this report is with regards to the numbers of businesses that are now tackling supply chain emissions. 44% of the sustainability decision-makers we surveyed say they are now calculating scope 3 emissions in their business, compared to just 28% in 2023. 

We can also point to 42% of businesses having increased investment in carbon-reducing technologies or initiatives, to demonstrate this growing maturity. However, there are still key challenges that sustainability decision-makers face.

The key carbon accounting challenges according to sustainability professionals

Alongside the growing numbers of businesses that we are seeing tackle scope 3 calculations, 46% say that they find it difficult to engage with suppliers and stakeholders for accurate data sharing . This has proved to be a consistent challenge for sustainability professionals, with 45% identifying this as a challenge in our 2023 survey. 

Related to scope 3 emissions calculations, we can also see that 49% of sustainability decision-makers struggle with ensuring accuracy and consistency in carbon emissions data reporting. To build on this, many are concerned that they don’t have the resources they need to deliver both accurate and timely reporting on their carbon emissions. 63% of respondents told us that they have insufficient staff or technological resources to manage this effectively. 

Similar concerns extend to the capacity businesses feel they have to stay on top of regulatory requirements. Of those respondents who said that their business faces internal carbon accounting challenges, more than half (53%) stated that a knowledge gap in regulatory requirements and ESG frameworks is a key issue. Given that there is so much discussion around potential changes to sustainability regulation right now, filling this knowledge gap with expert guidance is going to be critical to ensure businesses are prepared for compliant reporting, whenever it applies to them. 

If you want to dig deeper into each of these areas and more, click the link below to download the full report.