A professional services firm needed to engage senior ESG and sustainability compliance professionals in the United States to understand how regulatory and reporting obligations were being interpreted and managed at the operational level.

What we established

We recruited senior professionals with current responsibility for ESG compliance and sustainability reporting across US-based organisations, screening for genuine operational authority over compliance decisions rather than policy or advisory functions. Given the evolving regulatory environment and the sensitivity of the topic, participants were selected for their willingness to speak candidly about implementation challenges.

What changed

The research team gained direct access to the practitioners navigating compliance obligations in real organisations, providing an operational perspective on how requirements were being interpreted and where the pressure points were emerging. The findings grounded the firm's understanding of the market in practical reality rather than regulatory text.