What UKSRS means for comms teams

Sustainability communications is about to shift — fundamentally.

The UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (UKSRS), based on the ISSB Standards, is expected to apply to all listed companies in the UK from 2027. Finance and sustainability teams are already preparing. But there's a critical voice missing from the conversation: communications.

Here's the shift that needs to happen.

For years, sustainability comms has been about the feel-good story — the trees planted, the DE&I initiatives, the community programmes. That work isn't going away. But it can no longer be the centrepiece.

Under UKSRS, sustainability reporting must connect directly to business metrics. To long-term resilience. To financial materiality. The story of sustainability has to become the story of the business — and anything that doesn't serve that connection risks obscuring what investors actually need to see.

Communications teams have a pivotal role to play to ensure they are aligned. So they need to update their game.

That means learning the language of investment-centric sustainability disclosure. It means working alongside finance and sustainability colleagues — not after them. And it means reframing the sustainability narrative: less CSR storytelling, more business purpose.

Having worked at the ISSB, where these standards were developed, I've seen first-hand what this shift requires. 2027 isn't far away. The time to get comms teams in the room is now.