The Future of Sustainability Reporting: Powered by Generative AI

At Gardenia Technologies, we’ve developed Report GenAI, a generative AI assistant built on AWS designed to transform the sustainability reporting process. In this blog we will highlight the current state of sustainability reporting, common customer challenges in preparing accurate audits and reports, and how Gardenia’s Report GenAI helps customers overcome these barriers to generate sustainability reports faster by up to 75%. 

2024 marked the breakthrough year for generative AI. As IBM’s CEO observes, we have moved from a “run your business and apply AI to help” to a paradigm where enterprises in every industry are looking at how to embed GenAI into their core operations [1, 2]. The technology has demonstrated potential across critical sectors to increase efficiency and drive better outcomes [3, 4]. Looking forward, sustainability reporting is set to be transformed by generative AI, helping organisations discover and transform their data for faster and more accurate disclosures. 

Recent peer studies have shown that organisations adopting generative AI in their operations can increase productivity by 12%, execute 25% faster, and improve quality by 40% [5]. In this post, we will examine the key components in today’s sustainability reporting landscape and how generative AI can be applied to enhance the capacity of sustainability teams and achieve the gains observed across other business functions. 

The Current State of Sustainability Reporting

Sustainability reporting has become a standard part of corporate reporting. Today, close to 96% of the largest 250 companies worldwide report on their sustainability progress through frameworks such as the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), CDP, International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS), and the forthcoming U.S. SEC Climate Change Disclosure [6]. 

Increasing Mandates: Organisations responsible for 90% of global GDP have committed to net zero emissions by 2050. As this commitment grows, so do the demands for more comprehensive, auditable sustainability reporting from regulators, investors, and consumers, Figure 1.

Fig 2. ESG Disclosure Ecosystem In 2025/2026

Expanding Regulation. Regulatory mandates will expand significantly in the coming years. For instance, the EU’s CSRD will require nearly 50,000 companies to report, up from just 11,000 under the previous Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) [7].     

Investor Scrutiny. Investors are demanding more transparency on ESG performance. In 2023, investors representing $130 trillion in assets requested disclosures from over 15,000 companies [8]. These disclosures are made through various disclosure platforms, such as CDP, MSCI, and Sustainalytics [9]. 

Stakeholder Demands. Buyers and customers increasingly require ESG information through standardised ratings and custom surveys, such as those from EcoVadis, which saw a 134% increase in company assessments between 2018 and 2022 [10].

Key Challenges in Current Reporting 

Despite widespread adoption, sustainability reporting faces persistent challenges:

Evolving Requirements. As reporting requirements evolve, organisations often find themselves one step behind in adapting to changes. Reporting mandates can vary based on local government, provincial, country, industry, or stock exchange mandates. 

Lack of Interoperability. Many organisations are required to submit several sustainability reports if they operate in jurisdictions covered by separate regulations. While some requirements are similar, the format and specific data points differ, making the reporting process repetitive and inefficient.

Data Complexity. The number of data points required for a report can be vast [11]. For example, the EU CSRD requires companies to disclose their ESG goals and progress using approximately 1,200 data points across a dozen standards [12,13]. Responses must cover both qualitative and quantitative questions, demonstrating year-over-year progress toward targets and actions the organisation is implementing to meet future goals. Typical questions include: 

• What risks are considered in your organisation's climate-related risk assessments?
• Does your organisation’s sustainability strategy include a transition plan aligned with limiting global warming less than 1.5°C?

The Manual Sustainability Reporting Workflow: A Bottleneck for Progress

The traditional, manual approach to sustainability reporting is both time-consuming and prone to errors. The typical workflow involves several stages, shown in Figure 2. 

Figure 2: Manual sustainability reporting workflow.

The current reporting workflow is a complex, multi-stage process, requiring sustainability teams to: 

1. Understand Reporting Requirements: Sustainability teams must first scope the data needed, often rereading complex guidelines to ensure compliance.
2. Collect Data: Connect with multiple departments to gather required information. This is often unwieldy since each department may have a different process to organise and index the data. This step becomes particularly challenging if contradictory or incomplete information is received.
3. Draft Responses: Manually draft responses to both qualitative and quantitative questions, involving multiple rounds of review and editing.
4. Edit and Review: The comprehensive review process often uncovers inconsistencies, requiring teams to revisit earlier steps, which further extends the reporting timeline.

This cumbersome workflow leaves teams spending more time managing data flow than developing impactful strategies. A recent survey of sustainability decision makers found that 55% observe there is excessive administrative work involved in report preparation, and 70% say the time and resources dedicated to reporting are constraining their ability to deliver on strategy [14].

In addition, the complex manual workflow can lead to errors. A recent study by the Journal of Accountancy, examining 2,339 sustainability reports from companies in 42 countries, found that approximately 20% of issued reports were subsequently restated to correct errors or revise information [15].

These challenges highlight the need for a more efficient, accurate, and adaptable approach to sustainability reporting. In the following sections, we'll explore how generative AI can address these issues and revolutionise the reporting process.

Why Couple Sustainability Reporting and Generative AI?

Generative AI is uniquely positioned to address customer sustainability reporting challenges by automating repetitive tasks and simplifying data retrieval. By centralising data and using AI-driven automation, organisations can significantly reduce reporting time and costs. 

According to a McKinsey report [12], a cloud-based CSRD reporting solution can enable organisations to meet disclosure requirements 3 times faster with 80% cost savings by adopting an automated data collection strategy. Once a modern data collection and archiving strategy is in place, organisations can leverage generative AI to achieve additional gains seen in peer-reviewed studies [5] through the automated workflow illustrated in Figure 3. 

Figure 3: Cloud-enabled automated sustainability reporting workflow.

In traditional workflows, sustainability practitioners often find themselves buried in spreadsheets and data requests. The cognitive effort to collect, organise and interpret vast amounts of information can be overwhelming. With generative AI, this burden shifts. The AI handles the heavy lifting of data management, allowing sustainability professionals to redirect their energy towards crafting strategies to meet sustainability targets and effectively communicating progress to stakeholders.

Generative AI agents can be dispatched to draft initial responses to reporting questions. For quantitative questions, generative AI agents can perform precise calculations, such as scope 2 emissions from a specific manufacturing process associated with a known percentage of renewable energy supplied to the electrical grid. For qualitative questions, GenAI can provide consistent, well-structured initial drafts, enabling sustainability practitioners to focus on refining content and ensuring accuracy. 

Introducing Gardenia Report GenAI: Sustainability Reporting powered by Amazon Bedrock

At Gardenia Technologies, we’ve developed Report GenAI, an AI assistant designed to transform the sustainability reporting process. Report GenAI enables teams to draft and submit ESG reports in a fraction of the time traditionally required. Here’s how it works:

1. Knowledge Base Integration. We integrate your corporate documents—such as GHG inventories, policies, and previous reports—into a centralised knowledge base. This allows Report GenAI to organise and index information for quick retrieval and analysis.
2. Pre-Fill Reports: Upon logging into the dashboard, users find a pre-filled report generated by Report GenAI, which scans multiple data sources and synthesises the information with relevant reporting guidelines. This automation saves hours of manual work.
3. Review: Each response includes citations, queries, and calculations, making it easy to verify answers and maintain a clear audit trail.
4. Edit & Submit: You can now collaboratively edit the report. Query the AI's responses, request rewrites, or make manual edits as needed. Throughout this process, Report GenAI acts as an on-demand ESG reporting expert, offering guidance and performing additional consistency checks. When you're satisfied with the report, you can submit it, confident that it meets all necessary guidelines and requirements.

Report GenAI is an enterprise grade solution built on Amazon Web Services (AWS) by leveraging large language models provided through Amazon Bedrock. As a validated AWS Partner, Gardenia’s Report GenAI is built with cloud design best practices to support high standards customers demand on security, data governance, and performance efficiency. These practices ensure the data applied in Report GenAI remains as customer confidential data. 

Scaling Accurate Reporting and Enabling Strategic Sustainability Teams

By automating the sustainability reporting process, Report GenAI enables organisations to:

• Report Faster: Reduce the reporting process from months to weeks, or even days.
• Improve Accuracy: Minimise manual errors by allowing more time for thorough review.
• Act on Insights: Spend less time managing data and more time analysing trends and implementing improvements.
• Expand Reporting: Tackle more modules and provide deeper, more frequent updates, making reporting a strategic advantage rather than an administrative burden.

This newfound efficiency empowers sustainability teams to shift their focus from managing reports to driving meaningful change.

Current Limitations and the Role of Human Expertise

While Report GenAI streamlines the reporting process, human expertise remains essential. Complex strategic decisions, novel reporting requirements, and the interpretation of nuanced data still require human judgement. Report GenAI is a tool to augment human capabilities, not replace them. Its outputs should always be reviewed by subject matter experts to ensure alignment with organisational goals and regulatory standards.

Security and Reliability: The Report GenAI Advantage

As AI adoption grows, concerns about data security and reliability are paramount. Report GenAI addresses these concerns through four key pillars:

1. Accuracy: Uses Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) techniques to ensure answers are based on information found in your company's data.
2. Reliability: Flags information gaps instead of guessing, helping identify areas where additional data collection is needed.
3. Explainability:  Cites sources, queries, and calculations for every response, allowing users to trace and verify the accuracy of answers and maintain a clear audit trail.
4. Security: Built on AWS to ensure data security, governance, and reliability best practices are designed into the workload. This includes using Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) for network isolation, applying data encryption in transit and at rest, and using Amazon Bedrock to apply the latest large language models available on the market. 

The Future of Sustainability Reporting

As reporting requirements increase, businesses must look for ways to simplify the process while maintaining accuracy and compliance. Generative AI offers the potential to make reporting more efficient, accurate, and strategic—turning what was once a burdensome task into a competitive advantage. However, successful AI adoption requires high-quality data, human oversight, and clear metrics to track value.

By integrating AI thoughtfully, companies can transform sustainability reporting into a powerful tool for driving environmental and social impact.

To learn more about how Report GenAI can revolutionise your sustainability reporting, visit the Gardenia website or find us on AWS Marketplace.

[1] IBM. Generative AI and the new enterprise reality. IBM Think; 2024. Available from: https://www.ibm.com/think/insights/generative-ai-enterprises

[2] McKinsey & Company. The state of AI in 2023: Generative AI’s breakout year. McKinsey Digital; 2023. Available from:  https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai

[3] International Bar Association. The future is now: artificial intelligence and the legal profession. London: IBA; 2023. Available from: https://www.ibanet.org/document?id=The-future-is-now-artificial-intelligence-legal-profession

[4] Chambers and Partners. Chambers artificial intelligence guide 2024. London: Chambers and Partners; 2024. Available from: https://practiceguides.chambers.com/practice-guides/artificial-intelligence-2024

[5] Srivastava SB, Zheng M, Cheng J, Zhang TX, Anderson E. How generative AI redefines knowledge work: Evidence from legal professionals. Cambridge (MA): Harvard Business School; 2023 Aug. Working Paper 24-013. Available from: https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/24-013_d9b45b68-9e74-42d6-a1c6-c72fb70c7282.pdf

[6] KPMG International . KPMG survey of sustainability reporting 2022: Global trends. KPMG; 2022. Available from: https://kpmg.com/xx/en/our-insights/esg/survey-of-sustainability-reporting-2022/global-trends.html

[7] PriceWaterhouseCoopers. The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) [Internet]. PwC Latvia; 2024. Available from: https://www.pwc.com/lv/en/about/services/sustainability-services/the-corporate-sustainability-reporting-directive-CSRD.html

[8] CDP. CDP Media Factsheet March 2023. CDP; 2023. Available from: https://cdn.cdp.net/cdp-production/comfy/cms/files/files/000/007/666/original/CDP_Media_Factsheet__March_2023.pdf

[9] Deloitte. Sustainability - How to start defining your sustainability IT and data requirements. Deloitte Switzerland; 2023.  Available from: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/ch/Documents/risk/ch-deloitte-sustainability-how-to-start-defining-your-sustainability-IT-and-data-requirements-2.pdf

[10] EcoVadis. EcoVadis Index: Companies of all sizes and performance levels continue to make significant strides on their sustainability journeys. EcoVadis; 2024. Available from: https://resources.ecovadis.com/news-press/ecovadis-index-companies-of-all-sizes-and-performance-levels-continue-to-make-significant-strides-on-their-sustainability-journeys

[11] Bloomberg Professional Services. Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) fact sheet. McKinsey Digital; 2023. Available from: https://assets.bbhub.io/professional/sites/10/CSRD-Fact-Sheet.pdf

[12] McKinsey & Company. Cloud-powered technologies for sustainability. McKinsey Digital; 2023. Available from: https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/business%20functions/mckinsey%20digital/our%20insights/cloud%20powered%20technologies%20for%20sustainability/cloud-powered-technologies-for-sustainability.pdf

[13] CDP. CSRD Corporate Q&A. CDP; 2021. Available from: https://cdn.cdp.net/cdp-production/cms/policy_briefings/documents/000/005/a87/original/02_CSRD_Corporate_Q_A_External_Final.pdf?1623133188

[14] edie Newsroom. Survey: Reporting admin 'distracting' corporate sustainability leaders from more impactful work. edie; 2024. Available from: https://www.edie.net/survey-reporting-admin-distracting-corporate-sustainability-leaders-from-more-impactful-work/#:~:text=The%20majority%20of%20those%20polled,highlighted%20as%20a%20major%20burden

[15] Chen PC, Ballou B, Grenier JH, Heitger DL. Sustainability Assurance’s link to reporting quality. Journal of Accountancy; 2019. Available from: https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/content/jofa-home/news/2019/oct/sustainability-assurance-link-to-reporting-quality-201919354.html