Data is key to executing your ESG strategy

The Federal Government is proposing the introduction of mandatory climate reporting alongside annual financial statements for the financial year beginning on or after 1 July 2024. This new disclosure requirement will capture major Australian organisations, many of whom will face significant emissions data challenges.

While some organisations are just starting their sustainability journey, others have mature environment and sustainability strategies and set relevant metrics and targets. However, that’s just the first step. Creating a strategy and setting sustainability targets is one thing. Executing the strategy is another.

A successful sustainability strategy execution demands that an organisation can capture, analyse and present sustainability data in an accurate, repeatable and timely manner. It’s a complex task, but it’s also one where Telstra is very well placed to provide guidance and support. 

Sustainability reporting is a data problem

Sustainability reporting is all about data management and collection. You need to collate, validate, and measure your data to be able to extract meaningful metrics and insights. This is a complex process as data sets are usually housed within different functions across the organisation.

You may need to liaise with hundreds of teams and even your suppliers to obtain all the data required to capture all your scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.  Imagine repeating this process multiple times a year to enable better tracking of emissions trends and proactive management of your environmental impact.

Throw in the time crunch of reporting deadlines, the ongoing monitoring as reporting frameworks evolve and the rising expectations for transparency – it’s no wonder then that many organisations are starting to drown in emissions data.

What’s not sustainable is manual data reporting

Organisations will not be able to meet reporting requirements with manual processing. Or at least not easily.

Emissions reporting is not just a job for the ESG team, it requires people across the organisation to provide inputs. They have no choice but to manually find records across internal operations as well as the supply chain, collate the data, transform it into spreadsheets, then provide it to the ESG team to extract insights.

Manual processing is slow, cumbersome and prone to errors. In addition, a single, unified view of data is extremely difficult to attain. And by the time a report is completed, it may already be out of date. There’s also no way to track emissions performance on the fly.

To be effective,  organisations need a more intelligent way to ingest, manage and validate insights from data. And it’s far easier if you have expert help.

Managing data is Telstra’s heritage

Data technology is a core pillar in Telstra’s expertise. We’ve been connecting, managing, integrating and protecting data since our inception. More recently, we’ve leveraged AI and Machine Learning to optimise data management and the insights gained from it.

From a sustainability perspective, we’ve been focussed on generating our own ESG reporting for almost 20 years. More recently, we’ve been trialling new ways of embedding sustainability into our business, our decision making and our culture. We know that building organisational resilience and capacity to respond to emerging challenges will position us well to anticipate and manage the future risk landscape more effectively. It accelerates innovation by driving the development of new products, services and solutions that lead to new customers and market opportunities. As a purpose driven organisation, it helps attract and retain the best talent, builds our reputation and strengthens our stakeholder relationships.

As a result, we’re amongst the top 2% of companies globally in the CDP Global Climate Change Index 2023, and one of only two organisations with headquarters in Australia to be awarded a CDP 'A' rating.

Digitise data collection

The first step is to digitise data ingestion. However, it’s crucial to know emissions data sources since reporting output is only as good as the data you collect. We’ll help you validate data sources and identify ones that may not have been considered.

We can help connect sources like utilities, fuels, industrial processes, infrastructure, vehicles and more. Obviously smart sensors and IoT have a role to play here, not just to gather data, but also to increase the frequency of data collection to give you more timely feedback.

Create a unified system architecture

The next step is to implement a unified architecture to deliver data in a consistent and accurate format. We can help you integrate multiple data sources into the architecture so the information is correctly aggregated. Once that’s done, the architecture can be integrated with any Business Intelligence platform you choose.

Connect a Business Intelligence platform

A Business Intelligence platform will allow you to analyse and synthesise ESG data with powerful and versatile reporting dashboards – all from a single point of control.

Since organisation-wide data is integrated, you’ll have a comprehensive view with reports that aren’t siloed by department. You can also track progress and make adjustments in real time – there’s no need to wait for the next reporting point.

Importantly, the platform can present information in an easy to understand and visual format. It enables you to engage and collaborate with multiple stakeholders so you can refine and scale sustainability initiatives.

Automate as much as you can

Automation is key to the entire process. Automating data ingestion will speed, simplify and remove human error from data collection. Better still, automation can also generate more powerful and timely insights.

You can use AI and machine learning to identify insights in your emissions profile in real time. And predictive algorithms to help you determine trends and opportunities or simulate possible scenarios. The algorithms can even recommend specific actions to take. Automation will help you stay ahead of the curve to record, report and reduce emissions more effectively.

A bigger opportunity awaits

Automating data insights across the organisation and the supply chain can transform emissions reporting. It will also support other ESG reporting responsibilities to demonstrate how you’re creating social value.

But there are many more advantages. Deeper and wider data insights play a crucial role in all aspects of our business. They have helped us to make better decisions, reduce costs, increase efficiencies and meet our broader strategic objectives. We know that today, data is central to every aspect of business enablement, and no organisation can afford to ignore its power.