HIGHLIGHTS
- New findings show that supplier ESG and compliance maturity improved globally in 2025, and compliance performance remained consistently high and largely flat, with year-on-year changes within ±1% across all regions at a performance score of 93.
- Environmental was the fastest-improving ESG dimension overall, with Europe, North America, and Latin America recording relative improvements of between 5% and 10% from 2024 to 2025.
- Social performance remained the strongest and most stable ESG dimension, improving by 2-4% year-over-year in most regions, at an average performance score of 77-78.
- Improvements in ESG and compliance maturity occurred despite a more volatile operating environment where potential business disruption alerts increased by approximately 33%, from c.44,000 in 2024 to c.59,000 in 2025. Rising disruption pressures reinforce the need for a combination of strong ESG maturity, increased visibility, and robust supply chain management.
Abingdon, UK – 16 February 2026 – Achilles, a global leader in supply chain risk and performance management, has released new data outlining how ESG and compliance maturity across global supply chains is increasing year-on-year, despite a rise in potential business disruption events. The figures, based on risk intelligence spanning more than 150,000 suppliers across over 40 countries, show clear progress in ESG and regulatory compliance in 2025 compared with 2024.
Progress in ESG compliance remains uneven but measurable across regions, with most regions recording measurable gains in ESG maturity. Environmental performance was the fastest improving ESG dimension, recording improvements of between approximately 5-10% in Europe, Latin America, and North America. Governance improved by between approximately 2-5% in Europe and Latin America, partially offset by more limited progress or slight deterioration in other regions, and social performance rose by 2-4% globally, pointing to greater standardisation of labour and health and safety practices across supplier bases. Compliance performance remained consistently high at ±1% across all regions.
Overall regional performance was led by Europe and Asia-Pacific, while Latin America emerged as the fastest improving region, driven by strong gains across financial stability and governance. Collectively, the findings point to a more mature global supply base in 2025 than 2024 in relation to ESG and compliance.
However, research also shows that the total volume of potential business disruption alerts increased by approximately 33% year-on-year, due to a more volatile risk environment driven by geopolitical instability and climate-related hazards.
Business disruption risks or alerts are assessed based on the occurrence and severity of natural hazard events, such as flooding, droughts, extreme weather events, and other climate-related incidents, as well as geopolitical risks, including conflict escalation, political instability, trade restrictions, and sanctions-related constraints that impact supplier operations.
Commenting on the findings, Luis Olivié, President and Board Member at Achilles, said:
“It is encouraging to see ESG firmly embedded in organisational priorities, with companies increasingly recognising the rising expectations for transparency, and strengthening ESG performance across their supply networks. Our data shows a maturing global supply base, with clear progress being made in environmental performance, governance, social practices, and compliance performance across regions. However, this internal strengthening is happening against a backdrop of increasing volatility, where potential disruption events are rising year-on-year.
“Companies need to consider that resilience today is no longer determined by supplier fundamentals alone, but by their ability to continuously anticipate, monitor, and respond to risk as conditions evolve. Achilles helps organisations to strengthen compliance and pinpoint emerging risk across this volatile operating environment, transforming real-time intelligence into actionable insights. By facilitating the continuous monitoring of ESG, compliance and operational risk, we help you to understand where risks lie, and ensure your business is better equipped to drive meaningful improvements.”
Overall, environmental performance improved globally, with Europe’s aggregate environmental score increasing from 49 in 2024 to 52 in 2025 – an improvement of 5.8% year-on-year, and Latin America’s rising from 43 to 46 – an increase of 7% year-on-year. These improvements indicate better environmental performance across supplier bases in these regions, as measured by Achilles’ ESG scoring methodology which is built on the systematic collection, validation, and assessment of supplier-provided ESG information.
However, environmental ESG performance showed clear regional divergence, improving in some regions while deteriorating in others. The Asia-Pacific region experienced a relative deterioration of approximately 20–25% year-on-year, with its environmental score declining from 78 in 2024 to 59 in 2025. This is a result of increased environmental pressures in the region, defined as external factors reflected in declining environmental scores, rather than internal governance or disclosure maturity. Additionally, North America showed only marginal improvement of 4.8% and remained below the global average.
Social performance remained the strongest and most stable ESG dimension globally, improving by 2–4% year-on-year in most regions at an average ESG score of 77-78. Latin America and North America continued to lead with social ESG performance improvements of 4.1% and 3% respectively, while Europe narrowed the gap with a 2.5% improvement, indicating increased standardisation of labour and health and safety practices across supplier bases. Latin America emerged as the fastest-improving region overall, driven by strong gains across financial stability and ESG.
Beyond ESG, operational and cyber risk scores showed modest but positive improvements in 2025, generally in the low single digits, indicating incremental gains rather than broader structural shifts. Improvements in operational risk scores were driven by stronger quality and health and safety policies. These scores are supported by the broader adoption of recognised certifications, and consistent implementation of operational controls across suppliers. Similarly, increased cyber risk scores reflect greater maturity in supplier cybersecurity, including clearer policies and certifications, increased use of supplier audits, enhanced employee training, and more structured management of incidents and breaches.
Overall, despite some regional variation, these findings point to a more mature global supply base last year in comparison to 2024, despite a more volatile environment where potential disruption events are increasing year-on-year. However, compliance must be paired with dynamic risk intelligence, and organisations will need to move beyond periodic assessments towards a more continuous monitoring of ESG, compliance, and third-party risk across supply chains.
Achilles supports businesses in becoming more resilient, agile, and future-ready, by providing continuous supply chain visibility, on-site supplier auditing, sustainability scoring, and actionable intelligence. The significant regional divergences in the data underscore the importance of consistent, standardised ESG data and benchmarking across global supplier bases, and by providing this end-to-end visibility, Achilles help companies reduce exposure to both financial and reputational risk.
Achilles’s findings exemplify a defining trend in global supply chain behaviour, where in response to rising geopolitical volatility and climate-related hazards, ESG maturity is becoming more important. Business resilience is now defined by the ability to constantly anticipate, monitor, and respond to evolving external risks, and those that pair strong supplier fundamentals with ongoing risk visibility will be better positioned to operate with confidence and maintain regulatory trust.
ENDS
Further Information:
Hayley van Leeuwen
Chief Marketing Officer, Achilles
Hayley.vanleeuwen@achilles.com
BlytheRay
Financial PR
