Dive Brief:
- Salesforce added new automated reporting capabilities to its Net Zero Cloud product, the company said Thursday. The feature, called SASB Report Builder, lets companies produce ESG disclosure reports that follow SASB guidelines.
- Customers across 14 industries can use the feature to disclose ESG data in a format that follows best practices put forth by the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation.
- The software feature comes as leaders await a proposed set of reporting rules from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, first announced last year.
Dive Insight:
Executives are watching closely as regulators’ purview over ESG matters expands — and the CIO is a key part of the response plan.
Accurately measuring and disclosing relevant data such as greenhouse gas emissions remains a challenge for organizations due to pending modernization tasks in the overall IT framework.
More than 2 in 5 executives said access to data was a top barrier to ESG progress, according to an IBM report released in April. A Deloitte report released last year came to a similar conclusion.
Consumers remain wary even when data is conveyed. Four in 5 people say they don't trust ESG reporting put forth by corporations, the IBM survey found.
Despite organizations’ efforts to execute on ESG initiatives, bringing those plans to fruition remains a challenge amid macroeconomic uncertainty, talent constraints and reduced or stagnant IT budgets. Salesforce is among several major providers to have noted more customer scrutiny over IT spending.
The company expects the feature will aid organizations that are looking to automate and streamline ESG reporting, according to Ari Alexander, VP and GM, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud.
"Moving forward we see tremendous potential in the power of generative AI to drive further ESG reporting efficiencies and to add value for our customers — helping them save time and costs while improving the state of the world,” Alexander said in the announcement.
