The Tietoevry Sustainability Data Hub brings our customers the tech and knowledge for monitoring and reporting on sustainability performance in real time.
At the same time, the business case for sustainable operations is becoming clearer day by day; talent is moving to employers that place sustainability at the core of their actions; the market opportunities connected to the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are estimated to US$12t in 2030; and global consumers are willing to pay more for a product if it comes from a sustainable brand. In other words, the pressure on enterprises to both mitigate the negative impacts of their operations, and be part of the solution to many of our planet's most serious problems comes from a range of stakeholders.
Against this background, companies should now be putting sustainability at the heart of their operations. Many would like to do so, but it is not always easy to know how to turn that intent into action.
To start with, any solid operation needs to be steered through good information and accurate insights. Today, many companies collect and report on their sustainability performance annually for internal and external stakeholders. As collecting and analysing this data is a once in a year exercise, a company’s impact on people and planet is effectively being steered through the rear-view mirror. It’s looking backwards in order to move forwards, with the effect that planning and decision-making are often going to be behind the curve.
The truth is that it’s a tedious and time-consuming task for a company to identify the right sustainability data, collect it, compile it and analyse it. Companies spend hundreds or thousands of manual hours on this exercise for annual-reporting purposes alone. Replicating the same tasks with a more frequent interval would require a massive amount of time. This is time that could be spent on other tasks with a bigger impact on operations and the surrounding world.
Being a sustainability professional in a powerhouse of technology and business consultants, I realised that Tietoevry actually had the means to develop a solution to these challenges. So a team of technology and business consultants came together to package it all up as the Sustainability Data Hub: a methodology that makes use of our sustainable business insights and technologies to give our customers instant and automated access to sustainability performance in near real time.
Taking the hub into use starts with strategic scoping – a process where we work with our customer to identify the right parameters, metrics, use of data, and intervals. In the next phase we focus on the technical aspects, identifying the data sources and deciding how to automate data collection. In the final phase, we map and visualise the collected data against metrics and targets. Data analytics and scenario modelling can also be added, depending on business needs.
The direct benefits of the solution are many – from reduced time spent on manual data collection to improved decision-making and risk management. Other benefits include easing compliance with new and upcoming sustainability legislations and frameworks, as well as more frequent sustainability reporting to stakeholders – meeting demands for improved transparency.
In a fast changing and increasingly uncertain world, futureproofing your business is more important than ever. Companies need to listen carefully to their stakeholders, understand their operating context, and adapt quickly to the world around them. We hope that our Sustainability Data Hub can be a companion and a compass on the bumpy road ahead. If we can together transform business by putting sustainability at its core, we will all be the winners of tomorrow.