Black Sun Global & CEN Group recently hosted a webinar, exploring what investors are looking for when it comes to sustainability in 2026. The webinar explored how sustainability is shifting from a broad ESG reporting exercise to a more commercially focused agenda centred on value creation, operational resilience and stakeholder trust. There were also discussions around how businesses can tighten disclosures, improve engagement and make their sustainability communications work better across reporting, investor relations and digital channels
A key message was that investors have not stopped caring about sustainability; they are asking fewer, more targeted questions that are increasingly linked to company-specific risks, future cash flows and valuation. Chris Dyett, CEN CEO, explained this as a quieter but more sophisticated phase of investor scrutiny, with sustainability teams in investment firms becoming smaller and more focused.
The discussion also showed how sustainability expectations now extend beyond investors to customers, supply chains, ratings agencies and occupiers of real estate. Examples included supplier requirements around embedded carbon, sustainability scores and transition targets, plus evidence that sustainability criteria are now a major factor in corporate occupier decisions.
Regulation was presented as a simplifying force when handled well, because materiality can help businesses reduce noise and focus on the issues that really matter. This can be seen with the evolving frameworks such as CSRD, and IFRS sustainability standards, all of which push companies toward clearer responsibility, better data, stronger strategy and more explicit cost and progress tracking.
The webinar placed strong emphasis on treating sustainability disclosure as a communications ecosystem rather than a single PDF. Companies need consistency across annual reports, websites, investor materials, internal communications and customer-facing content so that stakeholders do not receive conflicting signals.
There was also a strong AI angle. 60% of all online searches are now “clickless”, so businesses need accessible HTML content, structured data, descriptive titles, summary boxes and properly optimised PDFs if they want their message to appear accurately in search and AI-generated summaries.
Businesses should start by identifying the sustainability issues that are genuinely material to value creation, resilience and competitiveness. That means reviewing existing data sources such as employee surveys, AGM questions and stakeholder feedback, then using direct engagement and social listening to understand what matters most to investors, customers and other groups.
They should then streamline disclosures so that reporting focuses on the issues that are both strategically important and decision-useful. In practice, that means reducing boilerplate, strengthening the link between sustainability and financial outcomes, and making sure governance, AI, data privacy and transition-related topics are covered clearly where relevant.
Finally, businesses should improve digital accessibility and searchability. That includes adding an online reporting layer, using structured data and meta tags, ensuring PDFs are accessible, and aligning all content so that AI tools and search engines can surface a consistent, accurate version of the company’s story.
For most businesses, the best immediate actions are to:
In short, sustainability is still important, but the winning approach is now sharper, more commercial and more integrated into core business strategy.
If you would like to understand how Black Sun can help, please contact:
Bob Crosbie-Dawson, Head of Business Development
bcrosbie-dawson@blacksun-global.com
About Black Sun
Black Sun Global is a stakeholder advisory and engagement agency that's been driving transformation and positive change for ambitious brands for more than 20 years. With deep expertise in disclosure and reporting, ESG, sustainability, and digital engagement, we reshape how organisations connect with customers, investors, employees, and the wider world.
We are trusted partners to some of the most influential global organisations, sparking innovation and sustainable performance through our strategic insights, partnerships, and proprietary technologies.
As founders of the Positive Change Group, we are on a mission to create a new kind of stakeholder relations partner. Our world-class specialists work closely with executive leadership teams to protect reputations, inspire trust, and promote responsible business practices - building resilience and long-term value in a rapidly changing world.
For more information, please visit: www.blacksun-global.com
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