Sustainability Management and Standardisation: The Expert Approach of Lithuanian Financial Service Companies

The importance of sustainability continues to grow, and various standards now combine to form an important mechanism that underpins the entire sustainability management system. These standards originate from five main international organisations and standard-setting bodies: (1) The Climate Disclosure Project, (2) The Climate Disclosure Standards Board, (3) The Global Reporting Initiative, (4) The International Integrated Reporting Council, and (5) The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board. In addition to these specific bodies, the European Union issues The European Sustainability Reporting Standards. Digitisation is a key tool to improve the measurement and monitoring of sustainability. In Lithuanian financial institutions, ERP, Clarity AI, and artificial intelligence are critical tools alongside external ESG rating providers such as MSCI ESG, Sustainalytics, Refinitiv, and Bloomberg. Existing research often focuses on large multinational institutions or EU-level policy, with limited attention paid to how financial companies address the practical challenges of sustainability—particularly in Lithuania. This article addresses this gap in the research, consulting seven experts to explore the performance of financial companies, their use of sustainability standards, and the key challenges encountered during implementation. To achieve these aims, a structured survey analysing the issues posed by sustainability management is presented, with a particular focus on using standards to discuss problems in this area through exploratory analysis. The interviews produce insights that can help shape the future of sustainability management from the perspectives of both stakeholders and policymakers, as well as providing promising directions for future research.