3. Increase reporting quality and adherence to compliance standards
Organisations often use sustainability software to compile reports or mandatory disclosures. The compilation process requires a great deal of time and effort. There are currently over 600 ESG reporting frameworks globally. However, there is significant variation in how these schemes interpret what constitutes sustainability.
And while new regulations and frameworks related to reporting are being developed, companies must deal with current regulations, which can be challenging. A sustainability management software encompasses reporting tools to ensure compliance with the requirements of the selected framework or legislation.
As a software development company, we understand the complexity of the compliance process and how important it is to enforce all the requirements and ensure they work as intended. To help our customers meet their compliance obligations, we've developed our proprietary compliance automation platform (eCAP). The platform provides a comprehensive dashboard and data-driven functionality, allowing businesses to keep their compliance efforts on track, which is especially relevant for highly regulated industries. You can learn more about eCAP here.
What to look for in sustainability software
Many software programs can help companies track and report their sustainability initiatives. Whether you choose an off-the-shelf solution or invest in developing bespoke software, here is a list of potential functionalities an ESG software package can provide.
- Data collection for environmental, social, and governance metrics
- Automation of workflow, ESG task assignments, and status monitoring
- Benchmarking
- Policy management
- Risk management
- Compliance management and reporting
- Custom dashboards
- Audit and archiving
- APIs for third-party data providers, including news
Some may offer a more comprehensive feature set but choosing the one that best meets your company's needs is important. Let us closely examine the features that anyone should consider to a greater or lesser degree.
Depth of functionality
When choosing a sustainability management solution, you should consider first what features you need to support your current and future needs. A company's sustainability management needs, such as data collection and tracking, can vary vastly, such as sector benchmark reporting, supply chain emissions coverage, waste management data, energy consumption rate data, etc. The software should allow you to track and report on key sustainability KPIs, support multiple organisation types and sizes, and have a large and active user base.
When selecting sustainability software, it is vital to consider scalability and choose a program that can grow together with the company. It is also critical to ensure that it integrates with other tools—such as an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, a business intelligence platform, or a risk management system—to ensure that sustainability goals are met.
Effective data management
Reliable software for sustainability enables seamless data collection and fast processing of large amounts of data. When choosing a tool, consider its usability. Choose a solution that consolidates your data and provides functional dashboards to present the necessary information.
The advantage of cloud-based software over other types is that it can be accessed from anywhere and across multiple devices. Having your sustainability software off-premise allows for easy exchange of information between internal and external stakeholders, offering more effective management of ESG data.
Data security
When choosing a sustainability management solution, it is essential to consider data compliance. Sustainability software integrates with your organisation's management system, which gives it access to critical business information. Therefore, ensuring the software you choose complies with all relevant data regulations is crucial to ensuring the success of your sustainability initiative and the safety of sensitive information.
Be sure to choose a solution with data encryption to protect against cybercrime. A backup system is also essential in case of any problems that could lead to data loss. And make sure the sustainability software follows best cyber security guidelines and allows you to set access controls and audit trails so you can always track who's accessing your data.
Detection of data errors
Data entry errors are inevitable, but they can often go undetected for months. Having software that can flag data anomalies at the point of entry will allow you to fix the problem immediately and save a lot of time in the long run.
Consider using sustainability reporting software that provides the option to set validation rules for unusual data entries or entries that fall outside of certain thresholds and fix them immediately. Having the ability to leave comments on flagged entries explaining that they were double-checked and are correct can be very useful. This way, you can help others understand why an entry was deemed appropriate and save time.
Although it may sound convenient to choose a ready-made solution, these products usually have basic functionality that may not always meet your needs fully. That's why we believe that custom software—tailored to the specific requirements of your industry and business—will provide you with the best results.
Final thoughts
Businesses are increasingly seeing the value and importance of sustainability management and reporting software. They recognise the importance of taking action to improve their sustainability performance and seeing how this can help them achieve their business goals.
Sustainability software is essential for any organisation that wants to be responsible and understand its impact on the environment. The software provides detailed tracking, sets goals and target metrics, measures progress against those targets, and automates sustainability reporting processes. Sustainability software includes various advanced features. This could be the depth of functionality, scalability, data security, etc.
