The frustrations, challenges and urgency of accurate, audit-ready sustainability data
This is a post from Martha Amram, CEO of GLYNT.AI:
I feel the heat building up, and I see the frustrations mounting. There is a huge gap between the commonly used system of typing data into spreadsheets, and the audit-ready, compliant sustainability data delivered at scale. This pressure feels like the hot spot no one wants to touch before a raging wildfire explodes into the open.
From my vantage point, I can see that accurate sustainability reporting is a huge worry, and sustainability managers feel very alone, as if their company is the only one with this challenge.
But actually, everyone is in the same boat:
- Only 27% of executives believe they have access to high quality sustainability data, while 90% say that sustainability actions are very important. Salesforce survey
- 99% of US public companies are starting to prepare for sustainability disclosure requirements, and 74% are planning to invest in sustainability tools and technology in the next year. Deloitte survey
- 80% of M&A teams say ESG considerations are impacting deals, and 46% deals were held up due to ESG issues. KPMG survey
- 78% of CFOs feel increased pressure to take more action on sustainability issues, but only 22% feel prepared to do so. Accenture survey
- 80% of executives say high quality sustainability data is important to taking action, but only 8% believe they have this data. Salesforce survey
- 83% of companies report they are ‘ahead of peers’ on sustainability reporting, but 54% are still using manual systems and spreadsheets. KPMG survey
- 57% of executives cite quality issues as their top ESG challenge, and 81% report challenges regarding data review, sign-off and certification – the normal steps for financial data. Deloitte survey
- 85% of executives expect that mandatory sustainability disclosures will increase over the next three years, but only 38% say their organization is investing in initiatives to use sustainability data to improve financial performance. Accenture survey
- 71% of companies plan to outsource some or all of their data preparation in the next three years. KPMG survey
If I could put a human face on this challenge, it is the ideal product description we hear from almost every sustainability team leader:
“I don’t have developer resources and I can’t increase headcount. So I need an automated service with light, clearly defined customer tasks that I can do without additional resources.
The service must deliver accurate, audit-ready sustainability data that is fresh and granular, and flows automatically into our business systems, including finance, procurement and sustainability software.
I need to drive down audit costs, so show me a data service that meets audit and compliance standards.
Bonus points if this data is integrated with our financial data, and can be used by our enterprise AI tools.”
How GLYNT.AI Can Help
Frankly, we built GLYNT.AI for this purpose. We saw the challenge coming and have been working for years on our sustainability data preparation and management system. Here’s more information on GLYNT.AI and what we do.
GLYNT.AI is The Sustainability Data Company, preparing financial-grade sustainability data on water, waste, energy and emissions for businesses around the globe. Our SOC 1/SOX-level system delivers accurate, granular, audit-ready sustainability data at scale. Using a purpose-built machine learning system, GLYNT handles all data types and formats for water, waste, energy and emissions.
GLYNT.AI offers:
- 99.5% accuracy, guaranteed in our SLA
- 80% cost savings over current data preparation systems
- Sustainability data prepared in a a certified system, cutting audit time and expense
- Validated, automated data flows into the systems of your choice
- Weekly, monthly or quarterly automated updates
- Speedy onboarding with first data in the first week, and a complete year of data in under 90 days.
