Businesses and other organizations are increasingly choosing to track and report on their progress toward achieving environmental sustainability. Initial steps in this direction tend to be small, gradual and sometimes tentative. Even large organizations can often manage these early reporting activities through use of spreadsheets or other relatively simple software, without large investments of time or internal resources. If large, complex organizations fully commit to regular sustainability reporting, the complexity and cost of the task can increase dramatically. This is particularly true for organizations that expect to report their progress publicly. Data must conform to higher standards of accuracy. Public claims must be verifiable to independent auditors. Indeed, data collection, analysis and verification becomes the central challenge of sustainability reporting in large, complex organizations. It is particularly problematic for organizations that must collect data from many different sites and many internal departments or divisions. Many such organizations report across multiple regulatory jurisdictions, state or national borders, currencies, languages and cultures. In such cases standardization and normalization of data adds yet another layer of complexity. In addition to knowing how well their organization is achieving its sustainability goals, executives in large organizations often want to understand the financial consequences of their investments in environmental stewardship. As flexible and adaptable as spreadsheets may be for simpler reporting needs, they are woefully inadequate for managing the foregoing complexities in large organizations. Use of an appropriate software platform can help such organizations simplify their task of sustainability reporting, even as the reporting increases in frequency and detail. Well-chosen software can also reduce costs, increase efficiency and enhance labor productivity even as it helps organizations improve their environmental performance and sustainability.
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