Oracle’s Sustainability Software an ESG Reporting Revolution

Businesses today face mounting pressure from regulators and stakeholders to provide comprehensive sustainability reports, with many organisations struggling with the complexity of gathering and analysing the vast amounts of data required to measure their environmental impact accurately.

To help organisations tackle this challenge, ​​​​​​​enterprise software company Oracle has introduced a new application to streamline corporate environmental reporting. The Oracle Fusion Cloud Sustainability (OFCS) software, announced at Oracle CloudWorld in Las Vegas, will be offered at no additional cost to existing customers of the Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications Suite.

Steve Miranda, Executive Vice President of Applications Development at Oracle, says: “Customers consistently tell us that the greatest barrier to understanding their environmental impact is the time and complexity required to chase down, organise and analyse the necessary data.”

Integrated reporting

OFCS is fully integrated with Oracle’s other cloud services, allowing users to contextualise their sustainability data alongside other business metrics. For example, a company could examine how its supply chain operations affect its Scope 1-3 emissions, which refer to direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions.

The software also incorporates artificial intelligence to automate the creation of activity records and add transactions to a digital sustainability ledger. This feature aims to reduce manual data entry and minimise human error.

Steve explains: “With Oracle Fusion Cloud Sustainability, customers can eliminate these challenges, efficiently align data with the latest regional guidelines, automate sustainability reporting processes, improve decision-making and accelerate progress on their sustainability goals.”

Automated carbon accounting

One of the key features of OFCS is its emission factor mapping, which enables businesses to calculate their carbon footprint automatically. This could significantly simplify the process of carbon accounting, which has traditionally been a time-consuming task for many companies.

The software also provides financial-grade audit traceability and tamper-proof ledger entries, offering a complete record of the sustainability impact of all activities and events. This level of transparency could help companies address concerns about greenwashing, a practice where organisations present misleading information about their environmental performance.

Regulatory compliance

The introduction of OFCS comes at a time when regulatory bodies worldwide are tightening requirements for corporate sustainability disclosures. In the European Union, for instance, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) will require large companies to report on their environmental impact from 2024 onwards.

In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed rules that would require public companies to disclose climate-related risks and greenhouse gas emissions. These regulatory changes are driving demand for more sophisticated sustainability reporting tools.

Oracle’s offering stands out due to its integration with existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, which are software platforms used to manage day-to-day business activities. This integration allows companies to incorporate sustainability data into their core business processes without the need for separate, specialised systems.

Data collection and analysis

OFCS offers streamlined data collection from third-party applications, addressing the needs of organisations with complex supply chains or pre-existing databases with other software providers. This feature could prove particularly valuable for multinational corporations that need to aggregate data from various sources across different geographical regions.

The software’s analytical capabilities extend beyond simple data collection. OFCS can help companies identify trends in their sustainability performance, set targets and track progress towards those goals. This functionality could enable businesses to make more informed decisions about their sustainability strategies and investments.

Jon Chorley, Chief Sustainability Officer at Oracle, emphasised the importance of helping customers improve their sustainability practices. In a 2021 interview, he said: “We see enabling customers as the key component of our sustainability efforts. If we can make even a fraction of that difference across our customer base, that's a massive multiplier to anything we can do within our organisation alone.”

Industry impact

The introduction of OFCS could have significant implications for the sustainability reporting software market. Competitors in this space include Salesforce, a customer relationship management (CRM) software provider, which offers its own sustainability cloud, and specialist firms like Sphera and Enablon.

By offering OFCS at no additional cost to existing customers, Oracle is positioning itself to capture a significant share of this growing market. This move could pressure other enterprise software providers to enhance their sustainability offerings or adjust their pricing strategies.

As companies worldwide grapple with the challenges of sustainability reporting, tools like OFCS are likely to become increasingly essential. Steve concludes: “Our goal is to make sustainability reporting as seamless and efficient as possible, enabling our customers to focus on driving real environmental improvements rather than getting bogged down in data management.”

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