Best Sustainability Management Software & Tools

Definition Sustainability Management Software: What is Sustainability Software and why is it needed?

Sustainability is a trending topic and economically a significant factor. Companies are increasingly obligated to operate transparently and conscientiously, particularly when it comes to non-renewable energy, pollutants, and general efficiency in handling critical resources or raw materials. This does not only involve directly required tangible resources for, for example, the production of certain goods, but also working conditions, supply chains and other aspects. Companies that have to deal extensively with sustainability usually aim to create ideal ecological, economic, and social fields of action. To avoid groping in the dark in fulfilling this concern, the associated processes should be made measurable and then optimized based on data. The classic method for this is a labour-intensive, error-prone manual collection of all relevant facts in Excel spreadsheets and their evaluation. This is where sustainability management software comes into play, also known in English as Sustainability Management Software and often referred to as Environmental Sustainability Software, Sustainability Assessment Tool or Sustainability Reporting Software. This software allows you to capture all the necessary facts largely automatically. It offers different tools for the organization and evaluation of the data collected - partly with the help of artificial intelligence - and can create comprehensive reports with little effort. Ideally, it contributes significantly to making the process of sustainability management much more efficient.

How does Sustainability Management Software work?

How sustainability management software works always also depends somewhat on the respective solution. However, the following functional steps can certainly be mentioned as typical for such applications. Good, comprehensive sustainability tools form a central platform on which all sustainability management processes or specific data converge. Such sustainability management software assists companies in evaluating their social, ecological, and economic fields of action. Among other things, it lays an essential foundation for communicating relevant processes to all relevant parties and generally connecting all participants through a common platform. Sustainability software can ultimately lead to optimized information exchange - both internally and externally - and bundle company-wide cooperation on sustainability management and relevant key figures from various departments. Climate protection, working conditions, supply chains, and other aspects of sustainability management are to be examined in detail using sustainability solutions. Companies can determine which aspects of sustainability are particularly to be considered and how these should be analyzed. Evaluation is carried out on the basis of standardized indicator catalogs, for example, according to GRI or DNK. Individual key performance indicators can be added. Sustainability Management Tools also allow a wide organization of sustainability management. It must be defined who should report what and when - also in the long term. If needed, relevant persons can be notified very efficiently directly via the software. All important reporting to-dos and progress are displayed on one or more dashboards. The use of a standardized approach ensures the receipt of consistent and reliable information. The key data of all departments are fully, immediately, and clearly combined and finally evaluated. Once the collected information has been released, preparation takes place. With the help of various evaluations, companies are able to compile the desired content transparently from different viewpoints. This can then precisely align strategic decisions and extremely purposeful follow-up measures. The resulting diagrams and tables provide a clear basis for the sustainability report to the different stakeholders. Ideally, the software offers reports according to certain national and/or international standards - GRI, DNK etc. These are therefore not only usable internally for examining sustainability, but also externally as official documents.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Sustainability Management Software?

Sustainability has been an important factor in society, politics, and business even before the emergence of the Fridays-for-Future movement. Relevant political and corporate strategies are closely linked - simply because businesses of various orientations must implement political sustainability decisions as one of the first groups. International resolutions and guidelines, such as the Paris Climate Agreement or the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, underline this in their goals significantly. Under these developments, more and more companies are obliged to disclose and boost their efforts in terms of sustainability. In addition to regulations from official bodies, companies are increasingly recognizing that they can create measurable corporate added value under a management focus more aligned with sustainability. In particular, significant efficiency increases and cost savings can be achieved on several levels. In addition, transparent use of resources and a commitment to sustainable action strongly positively influence the public perception of a brand. This can be an important marketing advantage, form an attractive employer brand and/or even favor future business strategies for which less sustainable companies would not be considered. To benefit from these and other advantages, corporate sustainability should be established as a central management task. It needs to be professionally planned, controlled, and communicated. Creating exactly such conditions, however, is only possible with suitable software architecture, within which sustainability management software forms the centerpiece. It plays a key role in creating orientation and digitized economic as well as integrated processes - away from inefficient, error-prone Excel spreadsheets toward smart, centralized, and collaborative solutions. Real disadvantages do not exist for companies - as long as they use sustainability software that fits exactly to their requirements. If this is not the case, the full potential of such a helper will hardly be reached. In the worst case, an unsuitable tool might even hinder certain processes and/or unnecessarily burn a lot of capital.

How to choose the right Sustainability Management Software or what to look out for?

First of all, it is necessary to see if there is a solution specifically tailored to the industry of the respective company or to a particular sustainability area that should be primarily focused. For example, the market offers specialized supply chain sustainability software. When looking at more general sustainability tools, interested parties should be well aware of their company's specific needs - now and in the future - and primarily research a suitable solution based on these. Here, functionalities or the identification of the relevant must-haves naturally play an important role. Sustainability management software usually includes various functions for data collection and analysis as well as for reporting and for organizing the processes necessary for all this. The following features are relevant for most companies when it comes to purchasing and using software for sustainability management, and should always be considered.

• Different ways of data collection: Sustainability management software offers features for importing invoices directly from the energy supplier, can be connected to energy meters and also monitors carbon emissions. It can be connected to all possible systems in the company that deal with energy and resources.
• Performance management: Software for sustainability management often comes with functions that allow a comprehensive view of current sustainability practices and the organization of these. Adjustable dashboards and benchmarking analyze a company's sustainability or energy management performance based on established guidelines or compare it with the efforts of other companies.
• Normalization and other evaluations: Normalization helps determine average values. For example, in building management, occupancy can be normalized to show how employee activities affect energy consumption, allowing companies to create more accurate budgets and forecasts. Numerous other evaluation focuses are possible.
• Compliance management: Compliance management features help companies meet legal requirements regarding energy consumption, waste reduction, carbon emissions, etc.
• Document management: Sustainability management software allows important documents related to sustainability practices, such as reports, check sheets, device and plant evaluations, and many others, to be saved and managed directly within the application.
• Reporting: One of the core features of sustainability management software is various reporting functions. Companies can use it to create reports on energy consumption or generally on the costs associated with sustainability programs, for example.

In addition to the functions, it should be clearly identified for what purpose or in which areas of the company sustainability management software can be advantageously used. Further differentiation can then be made as to which department- or subject area-specific requirements sustainability software must be able to meet. It is used by many different experts. Some of these are the following:

• Social responsibility managers: Social responsibility managers are being used increasingly often as companies have to consider more and more how their activities and practices affect the environment. These professionals manage internal and external initiatives and use sustainability software to assign tasks, track performance, and create reports that convey the success of the programs internally and externally.
• Supply chain managers: Supply chain managers face the challenge of procuring various operating resources from different suppliers (worldwide) and must deal with a long list of external factors that can affect their efficiency - resource shortages, climate, conflicts, etc. Sustainability management software can help ensure an optimally efficient and ecologically justifiable supply chain.
• Environmental, health, and safety managers: Environmental, health, and safety managers generally work to secure employee and environmental interests. They strive to ensure safe and sustainable working conditions. Corresponding forces also support companies in complying with regulations on carbon emissions, waste, and occupational safety. They use sustainability software to collect data and create reports that demonstrate compliance with regulations.
• Building managers: Building managers must monitor energy consumption in their buildings, which requires collecting data from various systems throughout the company. Finally, they want to determine where energy might be wasted. By creating connections between specific building information systems, among other things using sustainability management software, those responsible can ultimately even create automations for optimizing energy consumption. Sustainability software is generally an important part of the technology package used here.

How much does Sustainability Management Software cost?

Firstly, the costs of sustainability management software depend on its range of functions. Some solutions even come in a free version. This, however, is severely limited in terms of functionality. In general, the following applies: The more complex and specialized a sustainability software is, the more expensive it becomes. Moreover, the deployment model influences the cost. Sustainability management tools are available both on-premise and in the cloud as Software-as-a-Service services. Depending on the model, the software is offered as a perpetual license (one-time purchase) or as an annual or monthly subscription (recurring costs). Cloud-based solutions are available from around 50 euros monthly. But with extensive features, such as AI features, prices can quickly also lie between 500 and 800 euros per month. On-premise sustainability management software, which is usually purchased and then self-managed, is even more expensive, but does not need to be paid for continuously.