As the world becomes increasingly aware of the need for sustainability, companies are under increasing pressure to reduce their environmental impact and improve their social and governance practices. To achieve these goals, companies need to be able to collect, manage, and analyse data about their sustainability performance.
What is a data management solution?
A data management solution provides a central place to collate, store and analyse a companies’ sustainability data in order to:
- Identify and manage sustainability risks
- Track progress towards sustainability goals
- Benchmark performance against other organisations
- Report on sustainability performance to stakeholders
Why are data management solutions important?
Sustainability reporting is coming, and it’s coming fast. For example, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) will require businesses to report on their sustainability initiatives across their entire value chain. This means working with supply chain partners to collect & manage data, which can be a challenge for businesses with hundreds or thousands of suppliers.
Data management solutions can help. They provide a centralised, quick, and easy way to collect, store, and analyse sustainability data which helps businesses to track the status and risk of their supply chains and other initiatives, implement risk mitigation measures, and identify cost-saving opportunities.
The top 10 sustainability data management solutions
There are a number of different data management solutions on the market, each with their own unique features and benefits for varying businesses. In this list, we share the top solutions in 2023.
IBM Envizi ESG Suite
IBM Envizi ESG Suite is a browser-based comprehensive sustainability data management solution that helps organisations collect, manage, and analyse sustainability data from a variety of sources. The suite includes tools for data collection, data quality assurance, data visualization, reporting, analytics, and risk assessment.
The suite of cloud-based, ESG software products work together to build a data foundation, streamline reporting and disclosure, and has a flexible reporting tool to meet any demands.
SAP Sustainability Control Tower
SAP Sustainability Control Tower is a cloud-based sustainability data management solution that helps organisations track and measure their sustainability performance. The solution includes tools for data collection, data quality assurance, data visualization, reporting, analytics, and benchmarking.
Alongside its Control Tower package, SAP has its Product Footprint Management offering, which enables organisations to track and reduce the environmental impacts of their products across the entire product lifecycle, from raw material extraction to end-of-life disposal.
Last year, SAP and PwC announced a partnership to help drive a co-innovation strategy to help companies deliver on the requirements needed to achieve their ESG goals.
EcoVadis
EcoVadis is a sustainability ratings platform that helps organisations assess the sustainability performance of their suppliers. In addition to its rating arm, EcoVadis has its Carbon Action Module (CAM).
CAM offers a view of each of a company’s supplier’s greenhouse gas (GHG) management efforts, backed by primary qualitative and quantitative data and supporting evidence directly from the suppliers. It helps organisations drive large-scale climate action by engaging their value chain trading partners at various maturity levels in the journey towards decarbonisation.
In July 2023, the CAM was awarded the Top Product of the Year Award by Environment + Energy Leader.
Workiva
Workiva’s Data Management Suite is a cloud-based platform that helps organisations manage corporate reporting, ESG, audit, and risk. The platform can be used to create and manage sustainability reports, as well as other types of reports, such as financial reports and regulatory reports.
The product helps businesses overcome common ESG reporting challenges, such as measuring qualitative initiatives and compiling data from multiple sources, which Workiva’s own research highlights.
A recent study by Forrester Consulting, commissioned by Workiva, found that companies that deploy the Workiva platform can achieve a 204% ROI and reduce the time they spend responding to audit questions by 95%.
Sphera
Sphera is a sustainability software company that provides solutions for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance management. Sphera’s solutions help organisations collect, manage, and analyse ESG data, and to track and report on their ESG performance.
Companies can use its tool to easily track down, clean, and structure data, and analyze and report on spare parts, inventory, services, products, spend, and supply chain details.
Sphera was recognised by Verdantix as a leader in ESG and sustainability in 2023.
Wolters Kluwer’s Enablon
Enablon is a sustainability software company that provides solutions for sustainability performance management and environmental compliance.
Modular in nature, Enablon’s many solutions help organisations auto data collection, validate performance metrics, calculate greenhouse gas emissions, and identify and prioritise stakeholder demands.
Similar to our last tool on the list, Enablon was named by Verdantix as a leader in the field.
Persefoni
Persefoni is a cloud-based climate accounting platform that helps organisations calculate their carbon footprint and manage their climate risks. Alongside its overall emission tracking function, Persefoni’s platform allows businesses to improve their Scope 3 data quality by directly engaging with suppliers via standardised, and auditable data requests, whether or not they are Persefoni users or not..
ERM, the world’s largest pure play sustainability consultancy, partnered with Persefoni in July 2023 to provide decarbonisation advisory and delivery services to its clients, complementing Persefoni’s Climate Management & Accounting Platform (CMAP).
Sustainable Future News spoke with Tim Mohin, chief sustainability officer at Persefoni whose former roles include CEO of the sustainability-focused standard and framework setting Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
Metrio
A product of Nasdaq, the American stock exchange based in New York City, Metrio is a sustainability data management platform that helps organisations from the data collection stage all the way to communication.
Metrio’s platform provides organisations with a single source of truth for their sustainability data, and makes it easy to track and report on their sustainability performance.
Its broad list of clients include Target, Unity, Decathalon, and Air Canada.
Accuvio by Diligent
Accuvio by Diligent is a sustainability data management platform that helps organisations collect, manage, and analyse sustainability data from a variety of sources. Accuvio’s platform provides organisations with a comprehensive view of their sustainability performance, and helps them to identify and manage their sustainability risks.
Diginex
Diginex’s ethos is that businesses should spend more time improving their sustainability performance than reporting on it. It’s this ideal that has driven its management tools development.
This tool combines blockchain security with the functionality of a traditional data management tool, allowing companies to collect, assess, and report on data with confidence. According to the company, its tool enables companies to report up to 6 times faster and 95% cheaper than comparable tools.
