Sustainability Unlocked: Highlights from KEY ESG’s Q3 Sustainability Summit

Setting the stage: IFRS S1 & S2 driving the future of sustainability strategy

The day opened with a panel featuring Roberta Ravelli (IFRS Foundation) and KEY ESG’s Anne-Marie Schoonbeek, who described how IFRS S1 and S2 standards are shaping the next chapter of corporate sustainability strategy and disclosure. Participants walked away with clear insights on materiality in an IFRS context, how these standards align with global frameworks, and practical steps to get ready for the UK Sustainability Reporting Standard (SRS) rollout in 2026. Roberta urged companies beginning their IFRS S1 and S2 journey to “start by telling your sustainability story”. The goal, she stressed, is not to tick boxes, but to identify the key risks and opportunities facing the organisation and keep a clear focus on long-term objectives.

Effective governance to achieve sustainability objectives

Renske Mackor and Annelies van Tongeren (PwC) presented key findings from the PwC Global Investor Survey, which revealed that 72% of investors consider the management of sustainability-related risks and opportunities a significant factor in investment decision-making. Furthermore, 40% of respondents (the largest single cohort) identified corporate governance as a critical criterion when evaluating potential investments.

Their discussion explored three distinct governance models for integrating sustainability within organisations and underscored the central role of robust corporate governance. Annelies and Renske argued that boards must progress beyond passive oversight, advocating for the systematic integration of sustainability into corporate strategy, resilience planning, and long-term value creation. This evolution, they emphasised, is essential for organisations seeking to maintain competitiveness and investor confidence in an increasingly sustainability-driven market environment.

Customer Spotlight: Building scalable and repeatable ESG processes in international organisations with KEY ESG

The next agenda item was an inspiring customer spotlight session featuring Sarah Schaefer (Wrightbus) and Ayperi Sevinçli (Wittur), moderated by Anne-Marie Schoonbeek (KEY ESG). The KEY ESG customers shared first-hand experiences of building repeatable and scalable ESG reporting processes across multinational operations.

Sarah shared a powerful story of transformation: how Wrightbus, once a company reduced to just 56 employees in 2019 after entering administration, has surged to over 2,300 people today and is generating hundreds of millions in annual revenue. All of this growth unfolded against a backdrop of dialogue insisting that “sustainability doesn’t create value.” Wrightbus has not only proved them wrong – it has demonstrated that when managed correctly, sustainability and value creation can be inextricably linked.

Sarah spoke to her experiences across Unilever, Electrolux and Wrightbus and noted that:

"It’s essential to have the right software platform in place, one that enables a solution and doesn’t pose another challenge. KEY ESG’s intuitive platform and flexible configuration have allowed us to capture detailed, business-wide data and turn it into clear, actionable insights that drive our sustainability strategy.”

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Similarly, Wittur’s sustainability journey has been fuelled by both customer expectations and regulatory momentum. By embedding sustainability as a core business value, Ayperi has championed a robust sustainability management system, empowering “site champions” to independently drive high-quality data collection and reporting across the organisation.

Ayperi noted that

“KEY ESG helps us by providing a unique source of data. Allowing us to spend more time on decision making, rather than on collecting and validating the data.”

Both Sarah and Ayperi closed with a powerful message: you don’t need an army to build scalable, repeatable processes – with the right technology, you can inspire organisation-wide buy-in and make sustainability everyone’s business.

Exploring the interoperability of global frameworks

The regulatory panel, featuring Anna Dauteuil (EFRAG), Sarah-Jane Denton (Travers Smith), Pendar Ostovar (SBTi), and Sebastian Leape (Natcap), explored the interoperability of global sustainability frameworks. The discussion covered the alignment between ISSB and ESRS, with updates on the ongoing EFRAG consultation on ESRS, the SBTi’s role in shaping target-setting for financial institutions and global organisations, and the growing importance of nature-related disclosures, such as the TNFD, in regulatory conversations.

Pendar provided a detailed explanation of the SBTi’s newly released Financial Institutions Net Zero Standard – explaining how the standards provide private equity firms with a robust approach to decarbonise their portfolios and achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Sarah-Jane provided valuable insights into the timeline and compliance expectations for the UK Sustainability Reporting Standard (SRS) and discussed the extent to which it is likely to align with IFRS S1 and S2.

Looking ahead to 2026: How to move from sustainability reporting to drive business transformation

Sam Preece (Xynteo) led a workshop on sustainability reporting in 2026 and beyond. He challenged participants to see reporting not as a compliance exercise but as a lever for business transformation. Discussions surfaced some of the following learnings:

1. Leverage the power of AI to enable improved data collection, benchmarking and report generation, allowing more time for decision making and taking action. KEY ESG leverages AI to streamline data collection and reporting processes so our clients can drive further impact.
2. The challenges of Scope 3 calculation and how to address them, and how this then enables you to build an emissions baseline and set SBTi net zero targets. KEY ESG’s platform automates the calculation of many of the Scope 3 categories for our clients to streamline that calculation process as much as possible. Our close partnership with the SBTi enables knowledge sharing and facilitates improved target setting.
3. For B2B organisations, sustainability activities need to be spoken about in the language which resonates with your audience – “value protection” is a term which resonates with this audience.
4. For B2C organisations, successfully showing correlation between employee retention and ESG aligned organisations has helped to create buy-in.
5. Lastly, sustainability reporting within your organisation should ultimately be framework agnostic. KEY ESG enables our clients to report across multiple frameworks seamlessly, identifying alignment across the frameworks and removing the duplication of reporting tasks.

Participants came away with tangible learnings and practical takeaways of how to build processes and get setup to move from compliance to business transformation in 2026.

KEY ESG’s Platform Overview

KEY ESG’s co-founders rounded off the morning with an overview of KEY ESG’s platform capabilities, and a demo of how it is uniquely built to address the challenges and opportunities expressed by industry practitioners in the room.

KEY ESG is designed to be:

1. Configurable and flexible

To cater for every business’ unique structure and data collection requirements. KEY ESG’s platform is built to empower the business user and enable sustainability teams deliver data-driven insights to gain buy-in across the organisation.

2. Interoperable across multiple frameworks

As regulations continue to evolve, KEY ESG’s platform stays in-line with the changes so businesses don’t have to worry. Moreover, with its interoperable framework setup, KEY ESG removes the need for repeated reporting tasks and duplicated efforts.

3. Enabled by public API in and API out

Get started from day one with KEY ESG’s API integrations which enable organisations to stream data in and out of the platform automatically. Generate real-time reports in any BI application of your choosing with KEY ESG’s API out.

4. Human support powered by 24/7 AI agents

Access instant and advanced support and sustainability guidance from our in-house specialists, powered by 24/7 AI agents.

Conclusion: from compliance to strategic value

The Q3 2025 Sustainability Summit underscored a common theme: the shift from compliance to strategy. Across all panels and workshops, participants heard that the next phase of sustainability reporting will not only be about meeting standards, but about using them to drive resilience, innovation, and long-term value.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. What is the KEY ESG Q3 Sustainability Summit?

‍The Q3 2025 Sustainability Summit, “Sustainability Unlocked,” was a one-day event held on 11 September 2025 in Central London. It brought together sustainability, compliance, legal and finance professionals from sectors including private equity, infrastructure, technology, manufacturing, retail and food & beverage to share insights on the future of sustainability reporting, governance and regulation.

2. Which sustainability reporting standards were a key focus?

‍The summit highlighted IFRS S1 and S2 standards as the foundation for the upcoming UK Sustainability Reporting Standard (SRS) rollout in 2026. Speakers explained how these standards define materiality, align with global frameworks and guide companies in building long-term sustainability strategies.

Other regulatory frameworks in the discussion were the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the California Climate Disclosure Regulation, the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) and the ESG Data Convergence Initiative (EDCI).

3. What practical lessons came from the customer spotlight sessions?

Wrightbus and Wittur shared how they built scalable, repeatable ESG reporting processes. Key takeaways included:

• Use the right software platform to capture accurate, organisation-wide data.
• Empower site champions to drive high-quality data collection locally.
• Focus on decision making rather than manual data gathering.

4. How do global sustainability frameworks interoperate?

Experts from EFRAG, Travers Smith, SBTi and Natcap explored alignment between ISSB and ESRS, the SBTi’s new Financial Institutions Net Zero Standard, and the growing role of nature-related disclosures (TNFD). The UK SRS is expected to align closely with IFRS S1 and S2.

5. What are the next steps for companies preparing for 2026?

Organisations should:

• Leverage AI to streamline data collection, benchmarking and reporting.
• Address Scope 3 emissions calculations to build a robust emissions baseline and set SBTi net-zero targets.
• Communicate sustainability in terms of value protection for B2B audiences and employee retention benefits for B2C audiences.
• Treat sustainability reporting as framework agnostic, focusing on strategic value beyond compliance.

6. How does KEY ESG’s platform support these goals?

KEY ESG provides:

• Configurable, flexible data collection to fit any business structure.
• Interoperability across multiple frameworks, reducing duplicated reporting tasks.
• Public API integrations for real-time data streaming and BI reporting.
• 24/7 AI-powered support to guide sustainability teams and accelerate decision making.

7. What is the main takeaway from the summit?

The overarching message is a shift from compliance to strategy. Sustainability reporting is no longer just about meeting regulatory standards - it is a powerful lever for business transformation, resilience and long-term value creation.

8. When is the next KEY ESG Sustainability Summit?

KEY ESG hosts bi-annual Sustainabilty Summits, and the next one will be in March 2026.