As organisations across Africa and the rest of the world seek to translate sustainability ambitions into business outcomes, new research from Project Management Institute (PMI) and Green Project Management, the world’s leading organisation advancing sustainable practices, has revealed a critical challenge, many are struggling to deliver measurable sustainability outcomes.

The findings come at a time when the world is running out of time to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). According to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025, only 35 per cent of SDG targets are currently on track or making moderate progress, while nearly half are advancing too slowly, and 18 per cent have regressed. Against this backdrop, PMI’s latest research highlights a challenge that receives far less attention than policy or funding debates – execution.

The report, Executing Sustainability Strategy: When Ambition Meets Reality, surveyed nearly 1,600 professionals across 35 countries and found a significant disconnect between strategic confidence and execution readiness. While 85 per cent of sustainability executives believe their organisations will achieve their sustainability goals, only 43 per cent of Project Management Office (PMO) leaders share that confidence. Among project professionals responsible for implementation, just 20 per cent are extremely confident in their organisation’s ability to deliver.

The study also found that although 79 per cent of respondents believe sustainability is important to long-term success, only 41 per cent say it is fully integrated into projects and daily operations.

For Africa, where projects underpin everything from infrastructure and energy development to healthcare, mining, agriculture, and digital transformation, the findings point to a challenge that is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

“Sustainability is no longer a separate conversation from business performance. Across the continent, governments and businesses have set bold targets and made significant commitments. The real challenge is delivery. A strategy does not build a power station, expand broadband access, or improve water security – projects do. If sustainability is not embedded into project delivery, organisations will struggle to achieve the outcomes they are aiming for,” says George Asamani, Managing Director, PMI Sub-Saharan Africa.

The research identified sustainability as the strongest predictor of project success, ranking ahead of traditional delivery factors such as governance structures and project methodologies. Yet despite its demonstrated value, 59 per cent of organisations have not fully integrated sustainability into project delivery and operational decision-making.

The report identified six recurring barriers that prevent organisations from successfully executing sustainability strategies. These include difficulty quantifying sustainability benefits in business terms, weak integration into decision-making processes, unclear goals, competing delivery priorities, limited visibility into outcomes and the challenge of working against longer-term outcome horizons.

To help organisations strengthen this capability, PMI and GPM have launched the Certified Sustainable Project Professional (CSPP)™, a new certification and e-learning programme designed to equip project professionals with practical tools to integrate sustainability considerations throughout the project lifecycle.