"It took two years to get a yes. It took a day to get a no."

Those words have echoed in my mind since a conversation with one of our clients recently.

This is a letter to you who has the power to set the direction – but also a support for you who struggles every day to drive change with too few resources.

For all the sustainability managers out there who are told their work is important – but do not receive the tools to succeed. This is for you too.

You who lead the sustainability efforts in a company know exactly what I am talking about. In the role of sustainability manager, you are not there to maintain the status quo. You are there to change. And every step forward requires proof, persistence, and persuasion.

But when priorities suddenly shift? Then a single board decision is enough to dismantle years of work – in a day.

I have seen it happen.

At a company we work with, the sustainability team spent over two years building internal processes, involving the organization, and structuring sustainability reporting according to CSRD. After the Omnibus decision, management backed down – in a single meeting.

It is almost always the change leader who has to bear the burden of proof. The one who says "we continue as usual" rarely has to present a business plan. The one who says "we can do better" must always do so.

That is why so many good ideas never get a fair chance. Not because they are bad – but because the road there is longer, lonelier, and often underfunded.

Pausing sustainability efforts comes at a cost

When sustainability work loses momentum, it's easy to think you can catch up later. But it doesn't work that way.

You don't start over from zero later. You start over from minus.

What you have invested in – time, money, trust, momentum – will not come back.

What is the real business case for doing nothing?

The real value does not arise from the reporting itself – but from having data in place that allows you to make better business decisions.

When you have the data in place and start seeing the opportunities for your business, then the strategic work begins. Just like with financial reporting, it's not about the numbers themselves, but about what you choose to do with them.

That's why your sustainability managers need more than minimum requirements

I know many of you have given your sustainability managers a tough assignment.

They must keep track of regulatory requirements, collect data from the entire organization, engage management, and at the same time drive business value.

It is a task that requires both resources and mandate. To go from cost to value, you need time, energy, budget, and a clear distribution of responsibilities.

Impact is not linear – it is exponential.

The companies that manage to continue when the report is finished, that dare to ask the question "what do we do with this knowledge?", are also the ones who will win businesswise in the long run.

My message to you as CEO

• Dare to give your sustainability manager more mandate than the minimum requirement.

• Dare to give your sustainability manager the right resources to go from reporting to value creation.

• Dare to question whether it is really smart to "pause and wait".
  
  

Perhaps the real risk is to do nothing at all.

Your sustainability managers deserve more than compliance.

The question is: do you dare to fully invest in what they can actually contribute?

Maria Svantemark, CEO and co-founder of SustainLab