We say it quite a lot, but ESG reporting is no longer just a one department or one-man job – it takes an interconnected team, and an interconnected tech stack.

97% of construction professionals predict that there will be increased investment in technology in the next 3 years. Despite that, 71% of companies are struggling with implementation due to the fragmentation and complexity of the industry. When it comes to implementation, rigid systems that do not offer open connectivity and API integration can be a real blocker.

With ESG data living fragmented across different departments, connectivity can be a game-changer in pulling data to one central software to give an insight to ESG reporting.

Why is connectivity so crucial however, and how can you act in your business to go about achieving that? Let’s have a deeper dive!

What does the current ESG workflow look like?

ESG is a new area of reporting for many businesses, and the requirements are quickly growing. The European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) in Europe has over 1,000+ datapoints for companies to consider when reporting, and marks a first look at what the future of ESG reporting looks like.

For construction businesses with manual ESG processes, the current workflow may look like something below:

• Internal or external stakeholder requests information on company ESG performance.
• Queried team moves to the sustainability team, or perhaps the Managing Director or C-Suite where there is no sustainability team present.
• Sustainability team or C-Suite either have ESG data present, or have to chase finance, marketing, HR, site teams and other departments for necessary data to calculate ESG metrics and determine performance.
• That process can be painful – data gaps start to emerge, and the information is fragmented and unclear.
• Weeks or months of time is wasted, projects can be delayed which leads to poor customer service and contract delivery and community disruption.
• The organisation collates data and shoestring information together on a monthly basis to present a poor quality ESG report back to the requesting party.
• Simply, everyone gets frustrated and annoyed chasing each other for data.

Sounds horrible, right? Well, what if we told you there was a better way of doing things?

What does the workflow look like with connected technology?

Before we get into connectivity, it’s pretty crucial to understand how it works before you implement it. This is your data that you are trusting companies to direct, and we understand for businesses, data security is of paramount importance.

Simply, using application programming interfaces (APIs), tech offerings can make it possible for their software to communicate with another. Tech companies simply tell the computer, “Put the data here, and wait till this bot comes asking for the information and send it off to the other software”.

The data is encrypted when moved and will only transfer to another system when it arrives at the right endpoint or location.

Consider then in a construction business that leverages APIs into a centralised ESG system, and how the workflow for ESG reporting would work:

• Internal or external stakeholder requests information on company ESG performance.
• Queried team go to centralised ESG software that has pulled data from HR software, finance software, vehicle trackers and other tech to centralise offering.
• Data accessed is outputted into a report via the system or created offline in house if bespoke requirement needed.
• Report sent back to the querying party with the information required.

Much simpler, right?

Whilst it will eventually be simple however, achieving simple is all about careful implementation, and careful selection of the right centralised ESG platform for your business. When using a system that makes it easy to capture data from the bottom up, you can have data flows from across the company to simplify reporting processes and save time, money and drive competitive advantage.

How SustainIQ supports businesses resolve this challenge

SustainIQ integrates with several software systems, helping businesses pull essential data required to ESG calculations to streamline reporting.

In the case of Combined Facilities Management (CFM) for example, we used APIs to integrate with their fleet management software and pull mileage data on to SustainIQ. Using our built-in conversion factors, CFM get access to instant reporting on their scope 1 transport emissions with no manual input.

Read more about the CFM case here.

CFM is just one of many organisations benefitting from our integrations. Interested in learning more after this quick read? Why not book a call with our team here.