How to choose the best sustainability management software for your company

As sustainability management and report grows in prominence, software has begun to play a crucial role in this process. In this article, we answer questions about sustainability software. Find out what it is, why you should use it, and how to choose the right sustainability management software.

What is a sustainability management software?

Sustainability management software is an enterprise tool. It helps organisations manage their ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) data. This data can be used for reporting and compliance, or to gain insights into ESG issues. Like other enterprise software, it enables an organisation to take control of its data and unlock the potential for improved performance.

Benefits of using the right sustainability management software

Most companies use sustainability management software to report their ESG performance, but there are other important advantages as well. Sustainability management softwares are a recent addition to enterprise management softwares. It draws on decades of software development and enterprise-level technology. But a sustainability management software aims to achieve ESG-related objectives such as reducing negative footprints and meeting targets.

Benefits of using ESG software:

• Simplify the data collection process. 
• Harness ESG data for analytical insights and to enhance sustainability performance.
• Improve reporting quality and ensure compliance.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these benefits.

Save time and simplify data collection

With the right data management system, organisations can accurately capture and organise crucial data, saving hours of tedious work that would normally be done with manual spreadsheets. But not just any data management software makes the cut. A software developed specifically to capture ESG data points is able to identify the unique parameters that characterise sustainability-related information. 

Sustainability management software has a major advantage: it solves the top challenge in ESG reporting, which is data collection. Companies often struggle with getting the right data, tracking indicators, and making sure it's accurate when they're managing and reporting sustainability. However, reliable data is crucial for any sustainability strategy. That's why organisations use sustainability management software, which offers standardized and simplified workflows, automates data collection, and ensures transparency through auditing.

‍Gain insights to improve ESG management

Sustainability management software allows organisations to understand their position on their sustainability journey, and to identify areas for improvement. Built-in analytics can generate analytics that highlight trends in performance, which may not be immediately apparent even to the trained eye. Given the knowledge gap in corporate sustainability circles, this is a significant asset that companies can wield to their advantage. Sustainability software can help you gain a deeper understanding of ESG aspects in the context of your organisation, so you can make informed decisions towards better sustainability performance. 

Improve reporting quality and compliance

A lot of companies use a sustainability management software to make reports that they have to submit. It takes a lot of time and effort to prepare these reports every year. Even though there are standards for reporting, companies still have to deal with changes and updates, which can be difficult.

The laws and regulations for reporting can be hard to understand, especially when there are so many standards and frameworks to follow. But with a sustainability management software, companies can use reporting tools that make sure their reports meet the requirements of the framework or legislation they choose.

Common features of sustainability software

Each software offers a slightly different experience, although they all share a common function as a cloud-based platform to store, organise, and manage your sustainability data. These are the features most prevalent in sustainability management software:

• Data management capabilities to process large amounts of data
• Automation for the data collection process
• Analytical tools to generate insights
• Report generation to ensure compliance

Additionally, these are some characteristics you want to look out for when selecting the right sustainability software:

• In-platform data sharing between internal and external stakeholders. There should be a process to easily facilitate information exchange between an organisation and all its stakeholders. 
• Data security to ensure information exchange does not come at the cost of business-critical information. 
• One-click report preparation. Depending on the format of disclosures, one-click reporting auto-generates a compliant report from the data stored in the system within seconds. 

‍Tips for choosing the right sustainability software for ESG reporting

Determine your objectives and pick a software that caters to those needs. Check if the reporting formats that they support are aligned with the reporting framework of your choice. If you are expecting a lot of stakeholder engagement and communication, make sure the system you're using can handle that engagement.

One important consideration is to figure out how this new tool will integrate with the rest of your enterprise software systems. It's essential to connect environmental data with the building management system and employee data with the company's HRM (human resource management) system. ESG risks can be updated regularly with ERM software.

Main advantages of the Daato software

Daato's sustainability reporting software offers all the common features you can find in the standard software, plus more: 

• Allows an organisation to send or ask information from stakeholders and vice versa while keeping the integrity and privacy of the data. 
• Tracks the source of all data points and information updates made on the platform, enabling accountability and auditability. 
• Questions and guidance to ensure compliance with reporting frameworks.
• One-click reporting for standard frameworks.
• OpenAPI enables integration with other enterprise software such as ERP, CRM, EHS, etc.

Our team of ESG and reporting experts are well-versed with the challenges of reporting for mid- to large-scale companies across many industries. Our technology automatically ensures compliance with the latest developments in reporting requirements.

Managing an organisation's sustainability performance can be made much easier with the help of software technology. It is a worthy investment in the long run for companies that are committed to staying in the game.

How we help you

• We simplify the collection of ESG data in your organisation by offering one central platform and integrations into ERP, HRM, CRM, EMS etc., to automate data collection.
• We help you complete the information requests from regulators or investors and guarantee the protection of business-critical information.
• We automate the collection of relevant data internally and simplify the collection of data across the supply chain while protecting business-critical information.
• We take on the burden of requesting information from multiple stakeholders on the Daato platform where you can trace and monitor data sources.
• We can generate your report in the correct format at the touch of a few buttons once the data has been collected.