Kyndryl, in collaboration with Microsoft, has released the India findings from the 2025 Global Sustainability Barometer Study, highlighting that sustainability continues to be a strategic priority for Indian businesses, even as many struggle to translate ambition into measurable outcomes.
Conducted by analyst firm Ecosystm, the study shows that 69% of Indian organisations now rate sustainability as a top strategic priority. Nearly three-quarters (76%) are already using digital solutions to improve resource efficiency and reduce environmental impact across operations.
Ambition outpaces execution
Despite growing intent, the study points to a clear execution gap. While 47% of organisations report proactive or consistent environmental sustainability initiatives, only 15% have embedded sustainability as a core driver of innovation, cost optimisation and long-term resilience. This fragmentation, the report notes, underlines the need for more integrated approaches that align strategy, technology and governance.
“Indian organisations are realising that sustainability requirements are more complex than initially thought,” said Girija Mukund, Director – Global Citizenship and Sustainability, Kyndryl India and ASEAN. “This has led to deeper collaboration between operations, finance and compliance teams for achieving sustainability goals and reporting. Companies need to embed AI, trusted data and governance into the decision-making process to translate these actions into measurable outcomes.”
AI adoption remains limited
While organisations increasingly recognise AI’s potential to optimise resources, improve decision-making and drive sustainability innovation, adoption remains uneven. Although 58% of Indian enterprises report strong alignment between technology and sustainability teams, only 31% currently use AI centrally to advance environmental sustainability.
Agentic AI adoption is still at a very early stage. Just 9% of organisations are piloting or implementing agentic AI for sustainability use cases, and only 1% have fully deployed it. This suggests that autonomous, AI-driven sustainability execution remains largely exploratory in India, presenting an opportunity for enterprises to leapfrog into more advanced, data-led practices.
“The 2025 Global Sustainability Barometer Study shows that more than half of leading organisations now use predictive AI to anticipate and act on sustainability challenges, rather than just track and analyse them,” said Ricardo Davila, General Manager, Enterprise Partner Solutions, Microsoft. “We’re proud to partner across the ecosystem to help every organisation turn sustainability into a data-driven operating capability.”
Key India insights
The study highlights several trends shaping sustainability efforts in India:
– Clearer ROI drives momentum: 58% of organisations have accelerated sustainability initiatives after seeing clearer returns on investment, while 49% cite the lack of measurable ROI as the biggest barrier to progress.
– Data is underutilised: Although 74% of enterprises collect environmental metrics centrally, only 34% actively use this data to inform decisions and optimise performance, indicating a strong reporting focus but limited operational impact.
– Employees lead the conversation: Employees (62%) are the most influential voice shaping sustainability action in India, ahead of investors/shareholders (56%) and customers (54%). Globally, employees rank fourth.
“The results show that Indian organisations are at a critical inflection point,” said Sash Mukherjee, Vice President, Industry Insights, Ecosystm. “Predictive and AI-driven insights can help close the gap between strategy and execution, enabling organisations to move beyond reporting toward continuous optimisation and long-term resilience.”
About the study
The third edition of the Global Sustainability Barometer Study reflects insights from 1,286 enterprise leaders across 20 countries and nine industry groups. Commissioned by Kyndryl and Microsoft, the study examines how strategy, integration and technology are reshaping sustainability from a compliance-driven exercise into a source of competitive advantage.