When sustainability, ESG and procurement leaders gathered in Abu Dhabi this week, the pressing nature of the conversations was hard to miss. This year’s Sustainability Week felt bigger, broader and more commercially focused than ever – a reflection of how quickly expectations are changing.
The Achilles teams attending the event noted a clear shift in tone. Middle East sustainability is no longer being discussed primarily as a values-led initiative or a reporting exercise. Instead, ESG is increasingly framed as a governance issue. One that boards are paying closer attention to as regulatory pressure, investor scrutiny and operational risk converge.
Despite this shift, many organisations are still managing ESG and supply chain risk through fragmented, manual processes. Spreadsheets, email trails and disconnected systems can appear to work day to day, but they offer little resilience when scrutiny increases, incidents occur or evidence is required at speed.
Across the Middle East, the direction of travel is clear. Commitments under Saudi Vision 2030 and the UAE’s Net Zero 2050 strategy are translating into real expectations around transparency, supplier performance and accountability. Nearly half of UAE businesses say they plan to remove suppliers that fail to meet sustainability criteria by 2028, a signal that ESG performance is becoming a commercial differentiator, not a nice-to-have.
The consequences of limited visibility are often felt quietly at first. Underperforming suppliers can disrupt delivery, create compliance blind spots or introduce safety risks. Internal teams lose time chasing data, reconciling inconsistencies and filling gaps, all while lacking a single, auditable view of the supply base when it matters most.
What’s becoming increasingly clear is that sustainability, resilience and responsible sourcing depend on demonstrable control. As mandatory climate and ESG disclosures are phased in across the UAE and wider GCC, with significant penalties for non-compliance, manual tracking is no longer sufficient.
That’s why many organisations are reassessing how they oversee supply chain risk, moving towards data-led assurance that provides clarity, consistency and confidence. Tools such as the Achilles Sustainability Score and AchillesAI Predictive Scoring help organisations identify risk, prioritise action and evidence performance across ESG, health & safety, financial and governance dimensions.
If ESG is now a board-level priority for your organisation, the question is whether your supply chain data is ready to stand up to scrutiny. Achilles works with organisations across the region to replace manual oversight with robust, auditable insight, helping teams move from reporting to active risk management.
Get in touch with Achilles to see how data-led assurance can protect your people, operations and long-term value.
