ESG and sustainability are the two most important elements of a successful business strategy in recent times. Businesses are expected to improve their ESG performance to maintain their reputation and viability among their investors and stakeholders.
As governments and regulators are making the practice of sustainability disclosure a mandatory step for businesses, it has become essential for organizations to maintain an efficient reporting system. Businesses are on a constant look for the best ESG reporting software tools to streamline the entire process of ESG reporting to accuracy.
An ESG reporting software is a tool that helps to collect and evaluate ESG data and create accurate sustainability reports based on the data. Manual reporting has a lot of scope for errors and is a highly complex and time-consuming process, even with small data sets.
ESG software eases up this complicated and tedious process through automation. Large data sets can be evaluated in these tools in a matter of seconds producing the highest possible accurate results, otherwise not possible in manual reporting systems. It reduces the time taken to analyze a set of data with the least possible human error.
We will be exploring the benefits of ESG reporting software and the features that make it one of the best sustainability tools available in the market.
The Benefits of Using an ESG Reporting Software
There are several benefits of using sustainability and ESG reporting software over carrying out the task manually. Some most important benefits that this software garners are:
1. Improved efficiency
The best ESG reporting software helps companies acquire, analyze and produce reports based on ESG metrics by streamlining the complex process of data collection and reporting.
For businesses, such software largely reduces the amount of time spent on the manual reporting process. Thus, the resources are able to concentrate on other important aspects of their business operations.
2. Automated data collection and accuracy
As reporting and data gathering is an automated process in ESG software, it can ensure correct and consistent reporting of information. This will assist your businesses to avoid inaccuracies and contradictions in your ESG reporting.
Further, this enhances your credibility with stakeholders, investors, and regulators. Sustainable reporting software also provides better risk management and decision-making processes through the dependable information that it produces.
3. Improved visibility and analytics access
An ESG tool will help you to visualize the ESG data that your business is currently portraying. This will in turn provide visibility into the relationship between your sustainability efforts, financial success, and your measurable progress in your chosen key ESG indicators and makes it easier to analyze your present ESG performance.
Access to analytics eases the process of tracking progress towards goals, analyzing performance over time, and benchmarking your sustainability performance against your competitors.
Disclosure of statistics to investors and other stakeholders, managing internal risks, evaluating your overall business progress, along with the correct understanding of the impact of your sustainability initiatives on your business, are very essential aspects to consider.
4. Enhanced reporting capabilities
When your data is in improved form, it is evitable that the reporting is going to be better. An ESG reporting software allows one to grasp important performance indicators within very less time and produce excellent sustainability reports.
This capability also allows for handling and tracking both internal and external data making it easier for you to assess your business performance in relation to industry benchmarks and outside data sources.
To see how your business is doing throughout the spectrum of ESG, identify which areas should be given priority, and track and enhance performance over time, charts and graphs bring your data to life.
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5. Cost-effective and boosted ROI
A variety of factors, including the usage of ESG reporting tools, can enhance revenue and improve cost-effectiveness. Increased brand loyalty can arise from strong ESG performance, which can also boost a company’s reputation.
Many customers nowadays will go over and above to buy products from a business that has a reputation for taking socially and ecologically responsible actions.
The Features You Should Look For in the ESG Reporting Software
When choosing the best ESG reporting software, there are certain features that we must ensure. Also, the usefulness of this tool depends on certain factors like the type of your business and the marketing campaign it promotes.
Here are some features which are a must-have for all businesses wanting to promote green and sustainability.
1. Cloud-based and mobile compatibility
The most promising technology of this era is cloud technology. Cloud-based software is appreciably more advantageous than others. They are accessible from any geographical location across the globe, any time zone, and are compatible with multiple devices.
As remote working is becoming more and more common, it is always advantageous to have an off-premise cloud-based reporting tool for better accessibility and flexibility of use. Also, accessibility from multiple workstations results in superior sustainability management.
2. User-friendliness
Software must be easy to navigate and use before it entertains high-end and several features. Without a user-friendly interface, the software is of limited use even with a wide range of functionalities. Whatever software you decide on for your sustainability reporting, it must have a straightforward user interface and be built from scratch from the end user’s perspective.
Given this, the quality of the software can be determined by the number of times it came up with versions and refinements. Again, if the software encourages feedback from the users, then the reporting software is probably open to suggestions for improvement for the use of end users.
3. Comprehensive analytics and reporting
The most important part of a sustainability solution is its analytics and reporting capabilities. Thus, the sustainability reporting software’s analytics and reporting capabilities should be carefully considered before choosing. This feature will ensure that the tool can meet a range of stakeholder demands.
The fact that investors are paying more attention to ESG metrics and demand detailed reporting, such as a company’s climate risk, is also something that has to be considered. Again, in order to boost commercial value, the best ESG reporting software must allow you to extract information from your sustainability data that can be tailored to various audiences.
4. Streamlined business process
The whole concept of using reporting software is to streamline the tedious business process of manually measuring and evaluating ESG performance. Hence, the software must ensure that it will be able to automate the fundamental tasks of your ESG reporting.
Often, advanced software comes with more automation options than regular ones which also means that your resources will be free from many complex and time-consuming tasks.
Further, a software that meets certain basic functions like tracking water usage, carbon emissions, and carbon offsets, and is flexible enough to enter key performance indexes tailored for your business.
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5. Spotting and flagging data inconsistencies
The primary concern of using ESG software is to deal with large sets of data and churn out accurate insights for a business. The software you are choosing must be competent enough to detect and handle any data inconsistency or a ‘bad’ data.
For large data, data entry errors are common and if your software is able to detect it beforehand then it will save a huge amount of time and effort from resources to fix it.
Conclusion
Now that the scenario has shifted from whether to use ESG software to which one is the best ESG reporting software, Ethos Sustainability Solutions has come up with the best-designed solution for sustainability reporting. Ethos not only turns your ESG goals into a reality but also helps you to make measure your sustainability efforts so that you can make a better choice in the future.
Ethos’ ESG reporting software is a unique amalgamation of technology and sustainability management. It provides a comprehensive platform to track and manage your company’s sustainability performance, and it is also much more than that.
Our tracking and data management tool along with the integration of stakeholder engagement and materiality assessment features is a one-of-a-kind sustainability tool for any organization to ensure green and sustainability marketing.
Want to discuss sustainability goals for your business and need assistance to achieve them?
Get in touch with Ethos sustainability consultants today.