ServiceNow launches new integrated ESG solution to help companies workflow

ServiceNow has introduced a new, integrated environmental, social and governance (ESG) solution powered by the Now Platform. This enables businesses to implement ESG policies, programmes, and initiatives across the workplace, ranging from improving diversity and inclusion to lowering carbon emissions and enabling business resilience.

The ESG solution from ServiceNow leverages the power of the Now Platform, new and existing products, and ServiceNow’s partner ecosystem to help organisations plan, manage, govern, and report on their ESG programmes and activities in order to have a stronger environmental, social, and business impact.

“ESG is a top issue for the C-suite today. Leaders need better ways to plan, manage, govern, and report on their companies investments toward a more sustainable, equitable, and ethical world,” said Gina Mastantuono, ServiceNow Chief Financial Officer.

“With the power of the Now Platform, ServiceNow is well-suited as the strategic ESG platform partner for business, ultimately helping leaders gain operational control over their growing number of ESG initiatives to drive positive, lasting change globally,” added Gina.

“In order for ESG initiatives to be effective, companies must have a complete view of their ESG efforts and performance to know how they are tracking towards their goals,” said Kim Knickle, Research Directorat Verdantix.

He added, “We expect ServiceNow’s new ESG solution will leverage the company’s existing platform to better enable this visibility.” 

Companies are increasingly prioritising environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities in order to contribute to a more sustainable, equitable, and ethical society, increase consumer and stakeholder trust, and achieve successful business outcomes. According to recent studies, 88 percent of investors believe that companies that prioritise ESG initiatives offer better long-term investment opportunities than companies that do not, and global consumers are nearly five times more likely to trust, buy, champion, and protect companies with a strong ESG purpose.

ESG efforts today are sometimes haphazard, compartmentalised, and manual. The existing technology products facilitate individual, disconnected ESG efforts, which exacerbates the situation. At the same time, global ESG rules are rapidly evolving: since 2018, more than 170 ESG proposed regulatory measures have surfaced, and 82 percent of investors believe corporations are not prepared to comply with ESG reporting regulations.

To scale their ESG efforts, meet their ESG goals, and support increasing stakeholder expectations for greater levels of transparency and disclosure, companies must be able to connect their disparate ESG products and operational systems, as well as support new and existing proposed regulatory requirements. Companies may achieve these goals with ServiceNow’s ESG solution, which uses the Now Platform‘s unified data model and architecture.

ServiceNow is taking a holistic approach to helping enterprises achieve impact and build better customer, investor, and employee trust with its latest integrated ESG solution. By innovating processes and delivering long-term value, organisations may turn ESG goals into significant impact and create long-term value.

Delivering a unified solution for activating ESG across the enterprise

ServiceNow’s new ESG solutions, which leverage the power of the Now Platform, serve as an operational control tower to help companies turn their ESG goals into reality by providing visibility and transparency across their ESG programmes and initiatives and assisting them in strategizing, managing, governing, and reporting on these efforts on a single platform. The following are key components of ServiceNow’s integrated solution:

• enables companies to document material topics, establish goals and KPIs, track performance, collect and validate audit-ready data, and create disclosures that align with major ESG reporting frameworks.

• helps build and maintain a company’s ESG roadmap, including strategy, planning, and budgeting tools plus ongoing tracking of costs, resources, and results. Companies gain visibility into their ESG investments and improve the scale and impact of their ESG efforts.

• provides core governance capabilities plus advanced risk assessments, continuous monitoring, AI, audits, privacy, automation, and more. It integrates ESG considerations and data into effective enterprise-wide risk and compliance management with a real-time view of ESG compliance and risk as well as rich analytics that improve decision making and business performance. 

These products integrate with ServiceNow’s low-code tools and solutions, such as Business Continuity Management, Vendor Risk Management, Security Operations, Hardware Asset Management, and HR Service Delivery, to deliver even more ESG value and impact across the company.

Collaborating with the ServiceNow ecosystem to solve new and existing ESG challenges

The ServiceNow ESG solution will benefit from the ecosystem of partners, developers, customers, and other third parties that ServiceNow has built. KPMG will serve as the primary launch partner for ServiceNow’s ESG solution, according to an expanded collaboration announced by ServiceNow today. Both firms will collaborate closely to deploy ESG across the enterprise for their shared customers, as well as develop new ESG workflows on the Now Platform to expand the solution’s capabilities.

ServiceNow’s Developer Program also enables ISVs, as well as other third parties and customers, to design specialised ESG workflows that solve specific material challenges, and extend ESG programmes beyond the organisation to the supply chain. Consider the following scenario:

• EcoVadis delivers a sustainability ratings platform to assess environmental, social, and ethical practices. By integrating EcoVadis with the ServiceNow Vendor Risk Management product, we can help customers consider third parties’ sustainability performance along with other types of risks – providing a comprehensive view of third-party risk.

• Watershed enables companies to measure, reduce, remove, and report their carbon emissions. Leading companies—including ServiceNow, Airbnb, DoorDash, Stripe, Shopify, and sweetgreen—are using Watershed on their path to get to zero carbon. By integrating with ServiceNow ESG Management and Reporting, companies can integrate their climate work into their overall ESG program, importing carbon metrics from Watershed into ServiceNow. 

• Reporting Standards Bodies are engaged with ServiceNow to integrate their standards into the ESG Management and Reporting product. For example, ServiceNow has already licensed the Value Reporting Foundation’s SASB Standards. And ServiceNow is currently in the process of requesting authorization to use the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards content in its ESG Management and Reporting solution before the end of the year. These product capabilities will enable companies to produce reporting and disclosures aligned with some of the most commonly used reporting standards.