CONSTRUCTION

Sustainability Integrated with Business Data Unlocks An Expanded Operational View at Every Job Site

A leading US construction company had done internal sustainability reporting, but now needed to share sustainability data and reports with customers and investors. Customers were demanding more metrics, state regulations and reporting standards were expanding, and investors wanted to verify the company as a sector leader. It was time to act.

But, with complex business entity accounting, eight different AP and ERP systems, and constantly changing job sites, the company needed an automated data service that could handle frequent change, while unifying sustainability data for use in a data lakehouse.

“We need to comply with expanding regulations and transform sustainability data into business wins.

We could not have mounted an entirely new reporting system without GLYNT’s expertise and AI-technology.”

– Emma Hughes, Sustainability Director, Real Estate & Construction Group

Business Considerations:

1000+

Job Sites

8

AP & ERP Systems

4

Reporting Standards

70

Business Data Fields

1

Unified System

The Challenge:

The phrase “sustainability is a journey” reflects the years of hard work that go into building a reliable, verified sustainability data and reporting system. This company was in the early days of that journey and wanted to accumulate capabilities each year. The vision was clear, but the mechanics of how to go beyond simple spreadsheets was not. The company needed a process to build capabilities, while not taxing the limited internal developer resources.

“Technical data debt” is a second phrase that defines a common challenge in sustainability. This is when systems are siloed, there is no master data catalog, making it difficult to integrate the data. When sustainability teams are trying to scale up data and capabilities, they often run into technical data debt.

The Solution:

Finding Sustainability Data

Previously the internal sustainability report was built using samples, averages and estimates. To get started on actual data, the company worked with GLYNT.AI to find the sustainability data in their AP and ERP systems, and to establish the GHG Protocol-compliant boundaries of reporting.

GLYNT processed over 400K invoice files from the prior year and used AI to identify the files that mattered for sustainability and their system source. GLYNT.AI and the company then transformed the invoice flow into an efficient system with monthly updates.

Audit-Ready from the Start

GLYNT.AI’s pre-built system delivered audit-ready data with every delivery; data prepared in an SOX-type compliant system.

In addition, GLYNT’s workflows sped data reviews and approvals, keeping the sustainability team focused on outliers and anomalies. The suite of transparent reporting provided verification and confidence that the data was indeed 99.5% accurate.

Leading Digital Transformation

With 8 different AP and ERP systems, the construction company was already on a digital transformation journey to unify data into a single lake house architecture. The hard work of GLYNT.AI and the sustainability team made sustainability data, integrated with business data, the first tenants. Sustainability was a leading proof point in digital transformation.

From Zero to Hero with a New Team

Using GLYNT’s data services enabled the construction company to hire and form an entirely new sustainability team. The burden of manual data entry was lifted, and in the first year the team focused on enabling digital data flows and aligning data for business wins.

In one short year, the construction company went from no public disclosures to audited, public sustainability reporting, with data granularity by job site and business entity. GLYNT’s abundant data and rigorous data preparation positioned the company as a new-found leader in sustainability in construction.

Construction is an industry of constant change. Talk to GLYNT.AI about how we track change in the same way finance teams do. That makes your job easier.

Talk with GLYNT.AI data advisor today

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