Over the course of 2025, sustainability reporting has been shaped by uncertainty. Shifting regulatory timelines, evolving expectations, and open questions around frameworks have made planning more complex for many organisations. As the year comes to a close, reflecting on what has been achieved still matters, but so does clarifying what should guide decisions going forward.

In this article, our Co-founder & CTO at Terra Reporting, Derya Cagatay Yalcin, shares a reflection written at the turn of the year. Instead of focusing solely on milestones or metrics, the piece highlights what has been learned and how Terra Reporting has planned to move into 2026: navigating uncertainty with intent, building steadily, investing in long-term value, and supporting sustainability teams with confidence and purpose.

Over the past weeks, I’ve seen many retrospective posts on LinkedIn. Individuals and companies looking back at milestones, numbers, and highlights of the year.

While those reflections matter, I felt the urge to do something slightly different.

Instead of a classic retro, I wanted to write this piece as a motto. A statement that captures not only what we’ve achieved at Terra Reporting so far, but more importantly, how we choose to move forward.

The Omnibus discussions, shifting timelines, and open questions around CSRD created a period where clarity was in short supply for customers, regulators, partners, and solution providers alike. Starting conversations with the market was genuinely tough. Not because the need disappeared, but because many organisations were understandably cautious.

It felt like a collective wait-and-see moment. Budgets were paused. Decisions were deferred. Conversations often started with uncertainty rather than intent.

From our side, it sometimes felt like fixing the plane while flying it. Continuing to build, refine, and commit while the external environment was still settling. There was noise, there was dust, and at times even well-prepared teams struggled to see clearly what the next six or twelve months would look like.

And to be fair, that hesitation made sense. Understanding new regulatory expectations while trying to align internal stakeholders, systems, and data is not something organisations do lightly.

Yet, beneath that fog, one thing never really changed, "The direction of travel".

A direction towards a more sustainable future. Not just for compliance. Not just for reporting cycles. But for how organisations operate, decide, and take responsibility in a world with very real environmental and social limits. Regulations may pause, shift, or evolve, but the underlying expectation does not. Businesses are being asked to understand their impact and act on it.

That direction is not driven by Omnibus, CSRD, or any single framework.

It is driven by the reality of the world we all share.

And that is what kept us moving forward, even when visibility was low.

Proving Trust as a New Player

Beyond the external uncertainty, last year also came with another very real challenge: Being a new company in the market.

Building a new brand is never easy. Building trust as a new player is even harder. New partnerships, new customer relationships, and new responsibilities all come with a simple expectation. You have to prove yourself. Through your work, your responsiveness, and the way you show up when things are not straightforward.

That meant working hard, sometimes harder than expected, to earn credibility. To listen carefully. To deliver consistently. And to be present, especially when sustainability reporting felt complex or overwhelming for our customers.

The good news is that this effort truly paid off.

All of our existing customers have been extremely positive about the way we work. Not only about the solution itself, but about our support, communication, and collaboration. They see us as a valuable partner in their sustainability reporting journey, from early data collection and digitalisation to the final reporting outcomes.

What matters most to us is being there to listen, to understand challenges, and to help resolve them. We genuinely enjoy being part of the solution. Not just by providing the right technology, but by doing our very best to provide the right service around it.

By the end of the year, the feedback was clear. Our customers were happy. And for a growing company, there is no stronger validation than that.

Recently, we worked together with one of our customers and the Microsoft team to record a new case study video. It captures their experience, challenges, and key takeaways entirely in their own words.

The video takes a closer look at how their sustainability reporting and CSRD approach evolved, from building solid data foundations to practical execution. I was not able to attend the recording in Belgium, as it took place at the customer’s offices, but I genuinely cannot wait to see the final result.

The full case study will be released in Q1 2026, and I am very excited to share it.

From Reflection to Direction

Everything so far reflects where we have been. The context, the challenges, and the lessons learned.

Looking ahead, the focus shifts from navigating uncertainty to intentionally shaping what comes next. The coming year is not about reacting faster. It is about building deeper and investing in the areas where we believe long-term value for sustainability teams will be created.

AI. Less Noise, More Purpose

I know. Everyone is talking about AI. And in many cases, that conversation comes with more noise than substance.

At Terra Reporting, AI is not something we suddenly discovered. It is already part of the platform today through Microsoft Copilot, supporting sustainability professionals in very practical ways. From analysing ESG documents, to creating calculation models, generating preparation reports, and querying sustainability data using natural language.

These capabilities already help reduce manual effort and complexity. They form an important foundation.

But this is just the beginning.

Looking ahead, we plan to invest much more deeply in AI. Not only by integrating with generative AI frameworks, but by focusing on AI that genuinely helps solve sustainability challenges.

Our ambition is clear. To use AI to automate time-consuming day-to-day tasks that sustainability teams struggle with, and to reduce the operational burden that often slows progress.

This includes automating data collection and consolidation, supporting data cleansing and quality improvements, identifying anomalies early, and using conversational assistants to guide and automate parts of sustainability reporting workflows.

For us, AI is not about replacing expertise.

It is about augmenting sustainability professionals. Giving them back time, clarity, and confidence in their data.

Lowering the Barrier to Start. Pilot Implementation

Another key focus for the coming year is a new Pilot Implementation offer, which we are currently preparing and plan to announce in Q1 2026. This offer will also be published on the Microsoft Marketplace.

The motivation behind this initiative is simple. We strongly believe in our solution, and we want potential customers to experience its value with their own data, in their own environment.

Rather than relying solely on demos or presentations, this pilot allows organisations to see how Terra Reporting works in practice. Using their actual sustainability data, within their own tenant.

To further lower the barrier, we will not charge a licence fee during the limited pilot period. The goal is not short-term revenue. It is confidence. Giving teams the opportunity to explore the platform and make an informed decision without upfront pressure.

Most importantly, this offer directly addresses what we repeatedly heard from sustainability professionals last year. Getting attention, budget, and prioritisation from executive teams remains one of their biggest challenges.

Starting small, with a focused pilot, limited scope, and real data, helps sustainability teams demonstrate tangible outcomes to executives, often with a relatively small initial budget.

This was one of the most important takeaways from the past year. This pilot is our way of acting on it.

Building Together with Microsoft

Another pillar of our journey, and of our plans going forward, is our close collaboration with Microsoft.

As the Terra ESG Platform is built on top of Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, Microsoft’s continued investment in the base platform is critical. Their structured, quarterly release cadence gives us confidence to build, innovate, and scale on a strong and evolving foundation.

What makes this collaboration especially valuable is how closely we work with Microsoft’s product teams across engineering, product development, and marketing. We actively participate in partner voice calls, contribute to roadmap discussions, and continuously share feedback from real-world implementations.

This collaboration goes beyond functionality. We regularly discuss usability, user experience, interface design, and the day-to-day realities of sustainability professionals working with the platform.

What stands out is that Microsoft genuinely listens. Feedback is taken seriously, ideas are discussed openly, and improvements follow.

Feeling this level of support, not just in words but in action, gives us confidence as a partner and reinforces our belief that we are building on the right platform, together.

The Motto Going Forward

If there is one idea that ties all of this together, it is this: Build with purpose. Prove with substance. Move forward together.

For us, it means staying focused on what truly matters, even when there is noise, uncertainty, or hype. It means building technology that solves real problems, supporting sustainability professionals where the work is hardest, and earning trust through action, not promises.

It also means putting customer success at the centre of everything we do. Not as a separate function or metric, but as a shared responsibility across product, delivery, and support. Our success is directly tied to the success of our customers. To how confident they feel, how well they progress, and how effectively they can achieve their sustainability reporting goals.

It means investing in areas like AI with intention, lowering the barriers for organisations to get started through practical pilots, and continuing to build side by side with partners like Microsoft on a platform that is constantly evolving.

Most importantly, it means listening. To our customers. To the market. And to the people doing the work every day.

We do not see sustainability reporting as a checkbox exercise, nor as a one-off project. We see it as a long-term journey that requires clarity, credibility, collaboration, and a relentless focus on customer success.

This article was not written to close a year. It was written to set direction.

"Not a retro, but a motto."

Derya Cagatay Yalcin - Co-founder & CTO
Terra Reporting │ ESG Platform │ Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability

A Reflection from Terra Reporting Co-Founder & CTO: Not a “Retro,” but a “Motto”