The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) was a voluntary framework that guided companies to disclose climate-related financial risks. Despite being disbanded in 2023, its framework and recommendations are widely adopted in today's climate disclosure regulations.

Built from the recommendations of TCFD, IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) S1 & S2 aim to create a unified, global framework for sustainability-related financial disclosures and eliminate the confusion caused by a fragmented landscape of overlapping ESG standards.

On 16th April, ISTEP hosted a podcast-style webinar addressing the hot topic of sustainability professionals burning out. Most people in the field of sustainability are here because they care deeply, and when the problem they are trying to fix is this big and this urgent, it can feel like the weight of the world is on their shoulders. But sustaining your own well-being is essential to making the impact you wish to create. The session focused on sharing practical ideas for what to do when it all starts feeling like too much.

Many sustainability professionals face this challenge. When sustainability is framed primarily through disclosures, targets, or risk avoidance, it often struggles to compete with priorities tied directly to revenue, growth, and competitive advantage.

Winning C-suite support requires a shift in how sustainability is positioned and communicated. Building a compelling business case for sustainability is one way to win them over.

Surveys are the most commonly used tool for gathering supplier sustainability data. "Survey Fatigue" refers to the situation where suppliers feel overwhelmed or disinterested due to high volumes of surveys they receive, often combined with poorly designed questionnaires.

It often leads to low response rates, incomplete submissions and inaccurate data, affecting data quality. It hinders sustainability decision-making and weakens supplier relationships. To receive high-quality data and build collaborative supply chains, organisations need to rethink how they design and deploy supplier surveys.

Explore the resources below to learn how to reduce survey fatigue and design more effective ESG surveys to improve both data quality and supplier engagement.

As ESG reporting regulations tighten globally, organisations are increasingly expected to ensure transparency not only within their own operations, but across their supply chains. This has led companies to ask more of their suppliers than ever before: deeper data, policy alignment and transparency. However, for many suppliers, the request could feel like a mountain they are not equipped to climb.

Suppliers often face invisible challenges that make ESG data collection and reporting time-consuming, confusing and difficult to prioritise.

Before requesting data, sustainability professionals need to understand the realities suppliers are operating within. This resource page helps you view the supplier's perspective, identify where they are getting struck and provide shortcuts needed to turn 'compliance' into 'collaboration'.

Despite mounting political pressure and government pushback, the majority of US companies are holding firm on sustainability. Not out of idealism, but because the business case has never been stronger.

The EU and the US are on very different paths when it comes to ESG regulation. The EU has built a centralised, mandatory framework that applies to all companies operating within its borders, including non-EU parent companies. The US, in contrast, operates in a fragmented system. Understanding these differences is essential as it helps companies navigate both markets.

On 24th February, ISTEP hosted a webinar on "Using AI for Sustainability Tasks". We have all heard that AI is everywhere, but for many sustainability professionals, the jump from hearing about it to actually using it feels like a massive leap.

Whether you are feeling "left behind" or lost on where to start, the session was designed to break the myth that you need to be a tech genius to leverage these tools. We also explored how sustainability professionals can effectively leverage already existing free tools and make AI into their virtual teammate.

While we have all heard that supplier risk analysis provides insights that can help us prevent and mitigate risks before they arise, it is a task many of us have put off since it seems daunting. The webinar hosted by ISTEP on 27th March aimed to break down this complex process, providing participants with a clear structure to help them get started. The session focused on building a decision-ready view of supplier risk, aligned with TCFD and IFRS expectations.

California's SB 343 is a landmark law that aims to end the era of 'aspirational recycling'. For years, the chasing arrows have been used as a generic marketing tool for recycling. This regulation changes the game by prohibiting the use of any recyclability indicators on products or packaging unless they meet strict, data-driven criteria.

This is a massive step forward in the fight against greenwashing. By strictly defining what qualifies as recyclable, the law eliminates misleading labels and ensures that only materials truly processed by California’s infrastructure can be marketed as recyclable. In addition, it also prevents recycling streams from contamination.

It is important to note that SB 343 does not ban the sale of non-recyclable products; it simply bans the "lie." If a product cannot be recycled in practice, it can no longer carry the symbol that suggests otherwise.

The University of Bath recently hosted the Sustainability Exchange, a forum that brings together industry leaders to share "real-world" sustainability stories. Organised in partnership with ISTEP, the series aims to bridge the gap between academic theory and corporate practice.

The first talk welcomed Lee Sheppard, Director of Corporate Affairs, Policy & Sustainability at Apetito, who shared an inside look at the company's sustainability strategy.

Apetito is a leading global provider of frozen meals and catering solutions, specifically serving the healthcare, education, and social care sectors. As the parent company of the well-known Wiltshire Farm Foods, its model focuses on delivering high-quality, nutritious meals to the most vulnerable populations while leading the industry in environmental and social responsibility.

Under the UK’s ELV regulations, a vehicle manufacturer’s job doesn’t end when the car leaves the showroom. The responsibility follows the vehicle until it is eventually scrapped. It follows the "polluter pays" principle, where the companies putting cars on the road are responsible for making sure they can be recycled safely and for free.

The transition from the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive to the new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) marks a major shift in EU law. Since February 2025, the rules are no longer just 'guidelines' for member states to interpret, but rather a single, mandatory set of requirements applied uniformly across all member states of the EU.

The PPWR aims to:

- Minimise the total quantity of packaging placed on the market

- Lower the reliance on primary raw materials through mandatory recycled content

- Foster a circular economy where every piece of packaging is designed to be recycled or reused.

The EU’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive follows the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) principle. This shifts the legal and financial burden for the proper disposal of electronics away from the public and onto the producers and distributors who put the gear on the market in the first place.

The directive aims to promote the 3 R's of electronic equipment, keep hazardous waste out of the landfills and encourage companies to design products that are easier to repair and recycle from the very start.

Under the UK's battery regulations, your responsibility as a producer, retailer, or distributor doesn’t end the moment a battery is sold. Instead, it covers the entire product’s life, from the initial design phase right through to the final recycling process.

This scheme isn't just about managing waste; it’s about Design Duty. It forces companies to ensure that batteries can be easily removed for recycling and that they all clearly carry the 'crossed-out wheeled bin' symbol. In 2026, this is becoming even more critical as new rules focus on "user-removability," making sure that the tech we put into the market is actually built to be recycled, not just thrown away.

The UK’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) regulations follow the "polluter pays" principle. This means the cost of recycling old tech no longer falls on the local council or the taxpayer, but rather is covered by the companies that put those products on the market in the first place.

Under the UK's packaging EPR laws, the responsibility for treating packaging waste no longer lies with the municipality, but rather with the company that sells the product. It follows the "polluter pays" principle: if your business is the one putting packaging into the market, you are responsible for the cost of it at every stage of its life.

With the regulation already in effect, it is crucial to understand what this means for your organisation, especially as we move into 2026, when the fees you pay will start to depend on how easy your packaging is to recycle.

The UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (UK SRS) are the UK-endorsed versions of the global ISSB standard. While the UK SRS S1 provides a rulebook for all sustainability risks, UK SRS S2 focuses on the specific requirements for climate-related reporting. This harmonised approach reduces the reporting burden for global companies while giving lenders and investors the comparable data they need to assess long-term financial prospects.

With the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) currently consulting on making these disclosures mandatory for listed companies by 2027, transitioning to the UK SRS is no longer just a voluntary option. It is a critical step in future-proofing your business.

The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is a landmark policy that transforms how businesses account for their impact on the world. It requires the largest companies and public-interest entities to report on their ESG performance with the same rigour as their financial accounts.

In today's world, chemicals are used in nearly every stage of apparel production.

Raw Materials: Pesticides used in crop cultivation.

Production: Bleaches, dyes, and printing pastes.

Finishing: Chemical treatments used to achieve specific fabric qualities.

While it is virtually impossible to eliminate chemicals entirely, it is essential to phase out hazardous substances to protect both environmental and human health.

When these substances enter water bodies, they cause severe pollution and threaten aquatic life. For humans, exposure, whether during the manufacturing stage or as consumers wearing the finished product, can lead to skin irritation, cancer, neurotoxicity, and other long-term health issues.

Textile dyeing is one of the most water-intensive industrial processes in the global supply chain. Beyond high consumption, the discharge of non-soluble chemicals, heavy metals, and the alteration of pH levels in local water bodies pose a severe threat to aquatic ecosystems and long-term water quality. With the UN declaring that the world has moved from a state of 'water crisis' to 'water bankruptcy', it is now more than ever for the textile industry to act to preserve the most fundamental element of life and business.

For years, "sustainability" in fashion has often been reduced to a marketing buzzword, a selling point frequently built on overstatements and vague promises. Today, that "greenwashing" era is coming to a close. As misinformation becomes more prevalent, both consumers and global legislators are demanding a new standard of accountability.

With landmark regulations like the UK’s Green Claims Code and the EU’s Green Claims Directive now in full effect, the risks of using sustainability as a mere ploy have shifted from reputational damage to significant legal and financial liability. For fashion brands, it is no longer enough to merely "sound green" but track supply chains, demonstrate transparency and communicate actual, real progress.

The conversation around sustainability in fashion is shifting. While the EU's landmark Right to Repair Directive currently targets consumer electronics, its ripple effects could be felt across every sector.

As one of the world's most GHG-intensive industries, fashion must look beyond 'what' is produced and focus on how long it remains in circulation. Transitioning from a linear model to a circular repair model is not just an ethical choice; it is a strategic necessity to extend product life cycles and drastically reduce environmental impact.

As one of the world's top 10 most carbon-intensive sectors, the fashion industry faces a critical challenge at the cutting table. Inefficient pattern layouts result in 15%-25% of fabric waste, even before a garment is produced. Globally, this translates to millions of yards of virgin fabric being wasted as scrap, since the cut-offs are often too small to be effectively recycled or reused.

Low-waste pattern making offers a practical solution to this problem. Fashion brands and manufacturing companies can drastically reduce their pre-consumer fabric waste, optimise material costs and lower overall carbon intensity by adopting this model.

In the fashion industry, the most significant plastic crisis is often invisible to the consumer. While shopping bags and sales tags receive the most public attention, the vast majority of plastic waste is generated in the B2B journey. From the factory floor to the distribution centre, garments are packed in layers of single-use polybags and secured with plastic hangers and shrink wrap, most of which are discarded immediately upon reaching their destination.

While plastics are believed to be the most convenient packaging for protecting garments from moisture and dust, the sheer volume of 'single-use' transit packaging is not sustainable.

In many organisations, sustainability training is reduced to passive content, i.e., reading materials, watching videos and answering quizzes. They are designed to tick a box rather than drive behaviour change.

This guide moves beyond generic awareness. It provides a tactical roadmap to audit your current training, identify engagement gaps, and pivot toward a model that turns passive learners into active contributors.

Deciding on the best way to manage waste or selecting materials with the lowest environmental impact can feel like a shot in the dark. As a sustainability professional, are you unsure of where to even begin or how to calculate the potential savings?

The Waste Reduction Model (WARM), developed by the EPA, was created to solve exactly this problem. It transforms complex variables into clear, comparative estimates for GHG emissions, energy savings, and economic impacts. Whether you are weighing the benefits of composting versus anaerobic digestion or recycling versus source reduction, WARM provides the data you need to back up your strategy and build a business case for your initiative.

Multiple terms are used to describe sustainable electricity, but are "Green Power", "Clean Energy" and "Renewable Power" actually the same?

While these terms are often used interchangeably in casual conversation, they represent distinct categories with different environmental implications. For sustainability leads, understanding these nuances is crucial for informed decision-making.

RNG is a purified source of methane derived from organic waste streams such as livestock farms, landfills and wastewater treatment plants. Unlike fossil natural gas, which introduces 'new' carbon into the atmosphere from geological reserves, RNG utilises biogenic carbon that is already part of the short-term carbon cycle. By capturing methane that would otherwise escape into the atmosphere and repurposing it as a 'drop-in' fuel, RNG allows organisations to transition away from fossil fuels using their existing infrastructure, effectively lowering their reportable greenhouse gas inventory.