Four studies, one shape
Business risk
ED&I
View data
| Study | Measure | % |
|---|---|---|
| Climate | Have a formal net zero target | 55% |
| Climate | Public target funded above 5% of CapEx | 15% |
| Business risk | Concerned about cyber security | 49% |
| Business risk | Prioritising investment in cyber security and resilience | 11% |
| ED&I | Have run at least one diversity campaign in three years | 87% |
| ED&I | Ran an International Women’s Day campaign last time (the most common) | 52% |
| Graduates and AI | Hiring managers who say this cohort is better prepared | 50% |
| Graduates and AI | Graduates who agree | 22% |
Climate: the target and the money
55% of organisations have a net zero target. 30% have made it public. 15% fund it above 5% of capital expenditure. 3% have also built the governance and measurement to deliver it.
Nobody is walking away from net zero. The funding is thinning out instead. Read the climate findings.
Business risk: the worry and the budget
Half of UK business leaders are concerned about cyber security, and cyber incidents are the most common cause of serious disruption. 11% are prioritising investment in resilience.
When leaders name their top two risks, 88% include a cost or demand risk and 20% anything operational. Operational failures caused 56% of the greatest impacts they suffered. Read the disruption findings.
ED&I: the position and the programme
87% of organisations have run at least one diversity campaign in the last three years. The average ran fewer than two of seven the last time round, and almost half of those who have run Pride sat the last one out.
The barrier isn't fear of backlash. It is that nobody was resourced to do it. Read the ED&I findings.
Graduates: the belief and the preparation
Half of hiring managers say this year's graduates are better prepared for AI. 22% of graduates agree, and 64% say employers aren't doing enough to prepare them. Only 24% of hiring managers think the same. Read the graduate findings.
Why does the gap keep appearing?
Because saying is cheap and it is counted. A target, a statement or a campaign can be announced in a day and reported the next.
Doing is slow, costs money and competes with everything else. In our climate study, sustainability leaders were clear about it. Asked what was stopping them, a third said budget. One put it this way:
“Our transition plan is board approved but it is not funded. That is the honest answer.”
That sentence would fit every study here.
How to find your own gap
Pick one commitment your organisation has made in public. Then answer three questions.
- What share of this year's budget is behind it?
- Whose job is it, by name?
- What would the people it is meant to help say if we asked them?
If the first two answers are small and the third is unknown, you have a say-do gap. Most organisations do. The ones that close it start by measuring it.
You didn't make the commitment for the announcement. You made it for the result.
Reality. Properly understood.
Frequently asked questions
What is the say-do gap?
The difference between what an organisation says it is committed to and what it funds, staffs and governs. In The Reality Department's climate research, 55% of organisations have a net zero target and 15% have a public target funded above 5% of CapEx.
Why do organisations fail to deliver on commitments?
Most often because of budget. In The Reality Department's climate study, 32% of sustainability leaders who answered named budget and competing capital demands as their biggest internal obstacle.
Methodology
Figures come from four studies by The Reality Department in 2026: The Climate Commitment Gap (500 sustainability decision-makers, 250 US and 250 UK), the Business Reality Index (500 senior UK decision-makers), ED&I in Marketing (300 UK marketing leads) and the AI & Graduate Hiring Study (250 UK hiring managers and 250 UK graduates). Fieldwork: August and September 2026.
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