Are sustainability teams resourced in line with their mandates? Is compliance crowding out strategic work? And are the challenges you face specific to your organisation, or structural across the profession?
Plenty of research looks at what companies disclose. Far less looks at the people responsible for those disclosures. This autumn, sustainability professionals across Europe shared their experience through the 2026 Sustainability Professional Benchmark. On Thursday 10 December, Salacia Solutions and Nexio Projects present the findings for the first time, at a launch event in Rotterdam.
What to expect
The first look at the results: see the findings of the 2026 Sustainability Professional Benchmark before the report goes public. The report covers six themes: team & resources, compliance vs. strategy, data & reporting, supply chain, leadership & influence, and AI & the future of the role.
Benchmark yourself, live: bring your phone, answer a few questions in the room and see where you stand against your peers, on screen, in real time.
Your questions, answered: open Q&A, so you can challenge the findings and explore what they mean for your role.
Lunch with your peers: finish the afternoon with sustainability professionals who recognise the same challenges you do.
The event is for sustainability managers, heads of sustainability, ESG and reporting leads, and the consultants who work alongside them: anyone who has wondered whether their day-to-day reality is the exception or the rule.
Haven’t taken the survey yet?
The benchmark is open until 27 November. It takes about 10 minutes, it’s fully anonymous and it’s completely separate from event registration. You don’t need to have taken part to attend. The more people who contribute, the clearer the picture we can share on 10 December.
This is the first edition of the Green Collar Report, and we’ll run it every year. What we hear in the room will help shape the questions we ask next time.
Keynote: Simon Braaksma
Global Head of Sustainability, Philips · Vice-Chair, EFRAG Sustainability Reporting Board
From the EFRAG boardroom to the Philips annual report
Few people see European sustainability reporting from both sides of the table. Simon Braaksma does. At EFRAG, he helps shape the ESRS and the advice given to the European Commission. At Philips, he reports against those same standards.
Simon began his career in finance, at Citibank and in Treasury at Philips, before moving into sustainability in 2008. Under his watch, Philips came to treat sustainability data with the same rigour as financial data, and its integrated report now carries reasonable assurance, a level most companies are only starting to work towards.
“You can only have reasonable assurance if you have good internal controls.”
On 10 December, Simon opens the launch of the Green Collar Report 2026, reflecting on the findings as both a standard-setter and a practitioner.