What are your responsibilities as sustainability controller in 2025?
The rise of the sustainability controller: why 2025 changed the game
The sustainability controller has moved from the sidelines to center stage. Once seen as a support function, this role is now fundamental to how businesses operate and integrate sustainability data on how they report.
In 2025, your responsibilities as a sustainability controller go far beyond emissions tracking. You are the link between sustainability goals and financial credibility. You ensure that the data behind ESG disclosures is accurate, structured, and auditable. You do not just report the numbers. You help check the data and prove it adds up.
New regulations like the CSRD and IFRS S2 have made sustainability reporting a board-level concern. External audits, stakeholder scrutiny, and financial-grade ESG disclosures have raised the bar. A spreadsheet is no longer enough. Businesses now demand clean, structured, and strategic sustainability data. You are the one making that possible.
“There is now a stronger emphasis on building internal knowledge and ensuring that at least one full-time employee is dedicated to this role.”
Cecilia Cedlöf Ingelström, Senior Implementation Manager — Position Green
It’s inspiring to witness this shift – more sustainability controllers are now leading the reporting process when implementing software and processes. This transformation is clearly reflected in our client dialogues, where the focus has moved from simply reporting within a limited scope to enabling these professionals to lead internal sustainability efforts, engage the right stakeholders, and drive strategic alignment across the organisation.
Moreover, sustainability controllers are playing a crucial role in equipping their organisations with accurate ESG knowledge and staying ahead of regulatory developments. They are not only elevating ESG reporting, but also shaping the next step: translating data into actionable strategies that drive real sustainability improvements
Core responsibilities: beyond reporting and compliance
Your day-to-day work has expanded significantly. You are no longer just preparing ESG sections of annual reports. You are building the financial and operational credibility of your company’s sustainability narrative.
You coordinate structured data collection across departments. You work with finance, procurement, legal, and operations to make sure ESG metrics are consistent, comparable, and audit-ready. Your job is to translate sustainability ambitions into financial language that boards, auditors, and investors understand.
This includes integrating sustainability into existing planning and forecasting tools. You map ESG KPIs to financial risks and opportunities. You calculate the potential cost of action versus inaction. You help leadership understand how decarbonization efforts impact the bottom line.
And crucially, you ensure your systems are set up to meet assurance requirements. With CSRD enforcement well underway, traceability is no longer a nice-to-have. Every Scope 1, 2, and 3 number must come with a clear audit trail.
What the role is not: clearing up misconceptions
You are not the company’s chief strategist. That responsibility often belongs to the CSO or Head of Sustainability. You support the strategy by making it measurable, reportable, and financially grounded.
You are not a comms lead. You might contribute numbers to the annual report, but you are not responsible for storytelling. Your focus is data integrity, not investor messaging.
You are also not a software engineer. You work closely with IT and software providers to structure ESG systems, but you are not expected to build them yourself.
And while you speak the language of compliance, you are not a legal officer. You help implement ESG disclosure rules like CSRD and ISSB, but you do so by aligning internal data and processes—not interpreting law.
Understanding what falls outside your remit is key to owning what is within it. You are a translator, a gatekeeper, and a financial partner. Not a one-person ESG department.
“Better data doesn’t just mean better reporting – it forms the foundation for more impactful decision-making.”
Elisabeth Wandel, Senior Implementation Manager – Position Green
As sustainability reporting grows more complex – with more reporters involved and data being collected more frequently – it becomes increasingly difficult to ensure consistency and accuracy.
Our Review Data functionality empowers both reporters and controllers to share the responsibility of data quality by enabling them to collaboratively identify and address data deviations.
Looking ahead: the controller’s evolving influence
In many companies, the sustainability controller is on track to become one of the most strategically influential roles outside the C-suite. You are shaping how capital is allocated, how risk is managed, and how performance is measured.
Your role now includes advising on scenario modeling, carbon pricing, and green capex. You benchmark ESG progress internally and against industry peers. You identify efficiency opportunities that were previously invisible in traditional reporting.
Just like cost controllers became essential to managing business performance, sustainability controllers are now essential to managing ESG performance. The companies that succeed in this decade will be the ones that understand this—and act on it.
