Solving Struggles Every Sustainability Team Faces

Inside the Struggles Every Sustainability Team Faces (and How to Solve Them) 

Sustainability professionals in medium to large enterprises are under pressure to deliver results, but they often encounter recurring obstacles that slow progress. From fragmented data to leadership apathy, these challenges are very real.  

The good news is that they can be overcome with practical strategies and the right tools.  

Below we break down five major hurdles sustainability teams face and how to move past each one, with a focus on solving problems like data paralysis, traceability gaps, poor carbon reporting, and scaling issues that Carbon Central is designed to address. 

1. Siloed Data Leading to Analysis Paralysis 

The Challenge: Many sustainability teams are drowning in data that’s scattered across spreadsheets, departments, and legacy systems. This fragmentation makes it hard to get a clear, actionable picture of the company’s footprint.  

Teams spend weeks chasing data fragments only to end up with inconsistent numbers. It’s no surprise that nearly half of companies still rely on basic spreadsheets to manage ESG and carbon data. This siloed approach often leads to analysis paralysis, with too much disorganised information, teams struggle to make timely decisions. 

How to Overcome: Start by breaking down data silos.  

Conduct an audit of where your emissions and sustainability data lives (finance systems, production logs, supplier portals, etc.). Then, work toward centralising it.  

For instance, consider adopting an integrated carbon management platform that pulls data from various sources into one place. Carbon Central integrates real-time or manual data to track energy use, emissions, and production metrics.  

In practice, one company could eliminate dozens of spreadsheets by linking their energy meters and procurement data into a unified dashboard – freeing the sustainability team to analyse insights rather than manually compile numbers.  

The key is to make data consolidation a priority: when everyone from operations to finance feeds into a central system, you prevent paralysis and empower action. 

2. Lack of Traceability Across the Supply Chain 

The Challenge: For most organisations, the bulk of their carbon footprint lies beyond their own walls – in the supply chain. On average, Scope 3 emissions (value chain emissions) account for about 75% of a company’s overall carbon impact, yet they remain notoriously difficult to track.  

Data from suppliers and partners is often incomplete or non-existent, making it hard to trace materials, verify origin, or calculate product-level emissions. This traceability gap leaves teams guessing and using industry averages. The result is low confidence in reported numbers and the risk of unknowingly greenwashing or missing hotspots.  

Without end-to-end visibility, sustainability teams can’t pinpoint where to focus reductions or prove that products are truly “green.” It’s a frustrating catch-22: you need supplier data for accuracy, but many suppliers struggle to provide it. 

How to Overcome: Achieving supply chain transparency requires both collaboration and smarter systems. First, engage your procurement and supplier management teams – make carbon data sharing a part of supplier relationships. You might start with key suppliers in high-impact categories, helping them understand what data you need and why. Provide clear incentives or support for them to report environmental data.  

Second, leverage technology like digital twins and blockchain for traceability. A digital twin is a virtual replica of a physical process or product; using Carbon Central’s digital twin technology, for example, companies can integrate IoT sensors and supplier inputs to track real-time production data and automatically record emissions at each step. This creates a chain of custody for materials and products, improving supply chain traceability from source to customer.  

In practice, some forward-thinking manufacturers are already using digital twins to monitor their raw materials’ journey and carbon intensity – so they can confidently certify the sustainability of their end products.  

Combine relationship-building with suppliers and invest in systems that capture and link data across the value chain. Greater traceability means you can credibly back up your sustainability claims and identify exactly where to cut emissions or waste. 

3. Unreliable Data and Low-Quality Carbon Reporting 

The Challenge: Sustainability reporting is only as good as the data behind it. Too often, reports end up full of estimates, gaps, or conflicting figures that don’t stand up to scrutiny. 

Teams may find that different business units use different calculation methods or emissions factors, and there may be conflicting standards to navigate (one standard says to count something one way, another says differently).  

All this leads to low-quality carbon reporting that executives and investors might not fully trust. Inconsistent data also makes it hard to compare year-over-year progress or benchmark against peers.  

A lack of audit trail or evidence (e.g. source documents, verification steps) further undermines credibility – one error in a spreadsheet can cascade into a big misstatement.  

How to Overcome: Focus on data quality and verification as much as data collection. Establish clear methodologies and stick to them – for example, align your calculations with the GHG Protocol and decide on a single set of emissions factors for the whole organisation.  

This helps avoid apples-to-oranges comparisons.  

Next, implement a system of checks: automate validation where possible (flags for outliers or missing data) and conduct internal audits of the numbers before external reporting.  

Many companies are now moving towards compliance-ready reporting by using software that enforces consistency and creates an auditable trail of every data point.  

Additionally, don’t shy away from external verification for critical data – a third-party audit can greatly boost confidence in your reports. Finally, be transparent about uncertainties; if some data is estimated, say so and explain improvement plans.  

High-quality reporting isn’t about perfection, it’s about reliability. When leadership and stakeholders see that your numbers are traceable and accurate, they’ll be far more likely to support sustainability initiatives.  

In fact, improving ESG data management and reporting is viewed as a top way to integrate sustainability with business goals – it creates trust that sustainability efforts are based on solid evidence, not hype.  

4. Stalled Digital Solutions That Won’t Scale 

The Challenge: Many sustainability teams start small pilot projects or use basic digital tools for tracking – only to hit a wall when trying to scale up. Perhaps you’ve built a clever spreadsheet model for one facility’s emissions but replicating that across dozens of sites is a nightmare.  

This difficulty scaling digital systems means sustainability efforts can’t grow at the pace the company or regulators now demand. It’s frustrating when the ambition is there, but the tools can’t keep up with the complexity of a larger enterprise.  

Teams often feel stuck maintaining manual processes that are not sustainable (pun intended) for the long term. Plus, when systems don’t scale, data gets lost in transition, and the whole organisation struggles to standardise its approach to sustainability. 

How to Overcome: Design your sustainability data architecture with the future in mind. That means moving away from ad-hoc tools toward solutions that are robust and enterprise-ready. Consider a platform approach: instead of one-off tools for each task (energy, waste, etc.), look for a unified sustainability platform that can handle multiple data types and grow with you.  

Aim for automation wherever possible: if you add a new production site, the platform should be able to automatically start pulling in that site’s sensor data or utility data once connected. Another tip is to use modular digital twins for each project or asset – this way, each part of your business has a digital replica that can plug into a larger whole, rather than a tangle of spreadsheets that each require manual attention.  

Ultimately, scaling successfully often comes down to internal alignment: ensure management understands that investing in scalable tools now will save a lot of headache later.  

5. Culture Clashes and Leadership Apathy (Avoiding the “Greenhushing” Trap) 

The Challenge: Even with the best data and tools, sustainability initiatives can stall if people aren’t on board. Many sustainability leads struggle with a lack of engagement from senior leadership or other departments.  

In some cases, executives express support for climate goals in public but then fail to provide the budget, team, or authority to execute – leaving sustainability teams in a perpetual uphill battle. This leadership apathy (or in some cases, outright resistance) can lead to a weak sustainability culture internally.  

Employees may see sustainability as just a PR exercise and not integrate it into their everyday decisions. Moreover, greenhushing has emerged: companies intentionally downplaying or not communicating their sustainability progress.  

Why? Often fear of criticism or regulatory scrutiny. In fact, one in four businesses do not plan to publicise their climate targets, worrying that speaking out might invite accusations of “greenwashing.” The result of such silence is a demoralising one – without open dialogue and visible commitment, momentum fades and even genuine achievements go unrecognised. 

How to Overcome: Building a strong culture and getting leadership buy-in are critical. Start by framing sustainability in terms that matter to top executives: risk reduction, innovation, and ESG value creation.  

Rather than broad promises, present concrete business cases – for example, how investing in energy efficiency or low-carbon technology will save money or open new markets. When leaders see sustainability as tied to business success, they are more likely to champion it.  

It’s also helpful to identify an executive sponsor who genuinely cares about sustainability and can influence peers.  

Equip that sponsor with compelling data (here’s where high-quality reporting helps again) and success stories from competitors to make the case that action is urgent and beneficial. 

Celebrating small wins publicly can combat greenhushing – for instance, if a division hits a waste reduction milestone, share it in the company newsletter or town hall. Transparency builds trust: be honest about challenges but also share successes to keep everyone motivated.  

To avoid the trap of silence, leadership should be guided to understand that not communicating can be as risky as over-communicating.  

Remember, culture change doesn’t happen overnight, but every step – whether it’s a CEO including sustainability metrics in quarterly reports or a manager empowering their team to suggest eco-efficient improvements – adds up. By aligning leadership focus with sustainability goals and encouraging a speak-up culture instead of greenhushing, you turn apathy into genuine engagement.