Media release

Swiss companies are not sufficiently prepared for climate change

• Almost two thirds of the top 100 Swiss companies state in their public reporting that they analyse climate-related risks
• However, the vast majority of companies are largely unaware of how resilient their organisation is to the changes required to limit global warming to 1.5°C
• Less than a fifth of companies have a transition plan in place. And these transition plans often lack credibility, funding and integration into the corporate strategy.

Zurich, 12 December 2023 Sustainability is increasingly becoming an imperative for Swiss companies. Implement Consulting Group, together with engageability, has analysed how well prepared the top 100 Swiss companies are for climate change as part of the "Climate Change Readiness" study.

While most of the top 100 companies have addressed the new developments in connection with the climate reporting regulation that comes into force on 1 January 2024, future climate-related impacts on markets and supply chains have hardly been factored into companies' strategies. 

The analysis shows that the individual business case is still unclear for a majority of Swiss companies and that the emerging regulatory framework poses various challenges. The study concludes:

• Many of the top 100 companies are very willing to address climate change and include it in their reporting, even before the new regulation.
• The risks and opportunities of climate change are identified, but often not based on climate scenarios and without an assessment of the financial and strategic impact.
• The ability of companies to succeed in a changing business environment due to climate change appears to be low among most companies; only 8 of the 100 largest companies analyse what the Paris 1.5°C target and Switzerland's net zero target would mean for them.
• The impact of climate change on business success is rarely evaluated.
• Companies rarely have plans that take climate change into account as part of their long-term corporate strategy.
• 84 of the top 100 companies report their Scope 1 and 2 emissions, i.e. those from their own operating activities. Of these, 73 have set themselves targets.
• Regarding upstream and downstream emissions, 64 of the top 100 companies currently report part of their Scope 3 emissions, but only 39 set targets for their Scope 3 emissions.

Many companies surveyed on the opportunities presented by climate change believe that actively addressing climate change will help to ensure business continuity and promote product and business model innovation. Two-thirds of the companies surveyed on the challenges of climate change see keeping pace with the increasing burden of regulations related to climate change as the biggest challenge. Manuela Huck Wettstein, leading the study at Implement: "Companies should prepare for climate change for their own good. To do this, it is crucial that companies shift their perspective from looking at carbon emissions alone to adapting to climate change, evaluating their resilience under different future scenarios, and creating a transition plan to prepare for a sustainable future".

Methodology of the study

The study is based on an analysis of publicly available sustainability reports and CDP reports from the 100 largest companies headquartered in Switzerland that fall within the scope of the Climate Reporting Ordinance, which comes into force on 1 January 2024.  The analysis was supplemented by an online survey in which 28 of the 100 largest Swiss companies took part. The study assessed companies' readiness for climate change based on 32 criteria, which were mainly derived from the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)*. The TCFD framework is part of the Swiss Climate Reporting Ordinance. The study was conducted in summer 2023.

About Implement

Implement was founded in Denmark and has offices in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Stockholm, Malmö, Gothenburg, Oslo, Munich, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Zurich and Raleigh. Implement has more than 1500 consultants working with clients worldwide on projects of all shapes, sizes and ambitions. Implement offers a wide range of services, including strategy development, organisational design, change management, digital transformation, operational excellence and corporate sustainability. Implement believes that great organisational impact leads to great impact for humanity. Implement's goal is to catalyse real transformation by bringing analytical capabilities, functional expertise and human insights into play in a way that creates impact.

Contact:

Implement Consulting Group AG
Gutenbergstrasse 9, 8002 Zurich

Manuela Huck-Wettstein
Director of Studies
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Till Weidner
Senior Sustainability Consultant