Carbon—it’s everywhere. Your company might try its best to track its carbon footprint, but all the intricacies of logistics make that much easier said than done.
Fortunately, modern tools have risen to the challenge of keeping brands sustainable no matter how complex their operations are. Carbon accounting software makes it easier to track every emission your company produces, no matter how insignificant.
So in this article, I’ll list the best accounting tools on the market. Each of these delivers unmatched precision in their quest to make your operations sustainable.
What To Look For in Emissions Tracking Tools
With carbon reduction being a global effort, you’ll need tools that can meet standards across every international benchmark.
Here are the features I look for to meet that purpose:
- A proven record. All carbon accounting software will claim to commit to sustainability, but only a precious few can prove it. Look for brands with proven industry partners and achievements.
- Flexible reporting. Carbon reporting is complex. You’ll likely have dozens of different sources, all of which your software must combine and simplify for easy analysis.
- Extended functionality. Net zero is only one aspect of better social governance. Your accounting tool should help advance your brand in other ways, like safety culture development.
This Year’s Leading Carbon Accounting Software
Keeping our priorities in mind, here are this year’s best sustainability tools:
1. IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite
IBM’s massive computational power and ownership of Envizi combine to create the Environmental Intelligence Suite.
It’s part emissions management, part weather analysis aimed at reducing disruptions with predictive technology. This combined power makes for unprecedented success in reaching sustainability goals.
Emissions Management
Before IBM’s acquisition, Envizi leveraged massive analytics power to help companies meet their sustainability goals in record time.
Envizi still exists as part of IBM, combining the power of two innovators to leverage incredible computing power to save the environment.
Envizi/IBM’s sustainability suite includes:
- Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting and reporting
- Target setting and tracking
- ESG reporting frameworks and benchmarks
- Utility bill analytics
- Sustainability program tracking
It’s a comprehensive toolset for aligning your operations with your ecological goals.
Disruption Prediction
Not only does the IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite help you save the environment, but respond to it as well. Their suite monitors disruptive environmental conditions (thunderstorms, wildfires, hurricanes, etc.) and notifies you when a threat occurs.
For instance, Indian power company Mercados EMI partnered with IBM to help defend their budding power grid as they worked to provide reliable power to rural areas.
As shown below, these regions experience regular flooding. This requires a proactive approach to weather prediction to keep operations online.
IBM’s data predicts electricity demands with an error rate of less than 6%, with weather updates every 15 minutes.
2. Persefoni
Persefoni is a totally comprehensive climate accountability tool in every sense of the word. If it weren’t for IBM’s weather forecasting tech, I’d rate Personfi #1 on this list.
It’s a true B2B solution, hosting a sustainability board occupied by international sector leaders, including key participants in EU governance. They also have strategic climate partnerships with brands like Bain and Hitachi.
This insight translates into excellent results when working directly with large companies to automate their carbon accounting.
Regulatory Compliance Made Easy
Persfoni integrates all major climate guidelines directly into its Report Library, such as Greenhouse Gas Protocol and SASB. This enables an at-a-glance understanding of your brand’s compliance with all environmental standards.
3. Salesforce Net Zero Cloud
Salesforce and sustainability have always been an ecological love affair, but its release of Net Zero Cloud was a whole new level. It’s an analytical powerhouse letting brands reduce costs and carbon simultaneously.
Comprehensive Dashboard
Net Zero’s dashboard simplifies every aspect of an otherwise-complex process:
- It provides a complete emissions breakdown with advanced filters you can cross-reference by location
- It’s easy to see your progress year-over-year towards meeting sustainability goals—something overlooked in many carbon accounting software tools
- You can view data from multiple sources in a single viewport
Simple, accessible data makes achieving your sustainability goals infinitely easier.
4. Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability
While Microsoft’s always been a leader in sustainability, it had yet to use its resources for environmental advancement fully. But when they released the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, all of that changed.
Their platform lets you centralize data from dozens of different sources and consolidate them in a single viewport.
This makes once-obscure insights obvious, leading to massive leaps in net-zero advancements across your organization.
Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability has specific applications for:
- Financial services
- Energy
- Retail
- Manufacturing
- Infrastructure
It’s a comprehensive solution for unifying carbon reduction within even the most complex organizations. And did I mention its extensive ESG compliance toolset?
5. Sphera
Sphera is a sustainability ecosystem of software, consulting, and data applications. They deliver a 360 view of your brand’s carbon footprint while providing actionable insights towards reducing it.
Forging Safety Culture
Sphera also prides itself in helping companies build an exceptional safety culture across all their endeavors. Whether it’s local, federal, or international regulations, Sphere’s integrated toolset simplifies compliance.
This leads to:
- Reduced product recalls
- Lower insurance premiums
- Reduced safety audits and non-compliance fines
- Lower incident rates
Improved safety is a slam dunk for brands, workers, and customers.
6. Greenly
Greenly’s beautiful, functional user interface is a breath of fresh air (get it?) for sustainability advancement. It’s highly detailed, providing a bird’s eye view of your brand’s standing in every emissions category.
You can also integrate data from AWS, Shopify, Google Cloud, and countless more integrations into the emissions database. These perks—and more—are why Greenly has earned mentions in Forbes, TechCrunch, and VentureBeat, as well as a 4.8/5 median customer rating.
Net Zero Starts With the Right Tools
The most optimistic aspect of the climate situation is the wide selection of effective tools.
The pure power and functionality make ranking each platform difficult, as the merits of each shined in their own unique ways.
Whatever software you choose from this list will well-equip you to build a sustainable future for your brand.
So goodbye, best wishes, and happy accounting!
