As sustainability leaders navigate 2026, they face mounting pressure to deliver accurate, timely, and actionable ESG insights despite an increasingly fragmented global regulatory landscape.

According to Gartner’s 5 Trends Shaping Sustainability Strategies in 2025 report, “accelerating ESG data maturity is critical to addressing regulatory fragmentation, as organizations without a unified data foundation lack a holistic view of sustainability performance, increasing inefficiency and risk while limiting their ability to meet evolving compliance requirements and integrate ESG outcomes into the business.” 1


The IFS Cloud 25R2 release directly answers this challenge with new Sustainability Management capabilities designed to streamline data orchestration, enhance reporting accuracy, and increase confidence in sustainability decision making.

Automated Narrative Generation: Turning ESG Data Into Actionable Insight

A standout enhancement in this latest release is the automated generation of KPI narrative commentary. Instead of manually interpreting documents and sustainability data, IFS now uses AI to automatically create consistent, high quality qualitative insights.


According to Gartner, Inc., most organizations still struggle with manual ESG reporting, resulting in data gaps, slow response times, and compliance risk. The report1 emphasizes the need for “technology powered data orchestration” to increase accuracy and availability of ESG data.


By reducing manual interpretation and accelerating insight generation, IFS supports the shift of moving away from time consuming, manually driven processes toward smarter automation that improves ESG data transparency and maturity.


This automation not only shortens reporting cycles but also helps sustainability teams own their narrative, a key Gartner, Inc. recommendation for building trust and mitigating greenwashing risks.

Expanded Scope 3 Management: Addressing One of Sustainability’s Biggest Pain Points


The Gartner report1 identifies Scope 3 emissions as one of the most difficult and business critical areas for organizations to manage, noting that supply chain emissions are often dramatically higher than direct emissions and increasingly subject to regulation and investor scrutiny.


IFS Sustainability Management expanded Scope 3 Emissions Management capabilities answer this need by providing:

  • System defined Scope 3 templates for standardized, compliant calculations
  • A flexible calculation engine supporting custom formulas
  • Integrated data connections to automate upstream data collection
  • Task based workflows that ensure accuracy and accountability


These enhancements address key issues including: fragmented, incomplete Scope 3 data, reliance on manual processes, and the inability to model value chain emissions at scale.


With IFS Cloud, organizations can more confidently meet regulatory expectations, respond to customer and investor demands, and strengthen their supply chain emissions strategy.

Building Resilience Through Data Governance and Automation

Gartner Inc’s guidance is clear: in an era of tightening disclosure requirements and inconsistent global standards, organizations must invest in robust ESG data governance, high quality data pipelines, and technology enabled reporting.


IFS Sustainability Management aligns directly to this trend. By automating data interpretation, enabling consistent KPI narratives, and expanding emissions management, IFS helps organizations:

  • Boost ESG data maturity
  • Reduce compliance risk
  • Improve reporting quality
  • Free expert capacity for strategic work
  • Enhance transparency across the value chain


As sustainability expectations continue to evolve, IFS Cloud Sustainability Management provides the advanced tools enterprises need to remain responsive, resilient, and ready for the next era of ESG performance.


Learn more about IFS Sustainability Management at: Sustainability Management with IFS Cloud for a Greener Future

1 Gartner, 5 Trends Shaping Sustainability Strategies in 2025, Shanna Grafeld, Lauren Wheatley, Sarah Watt, 15 May 2025