Over the years, most companies have been manually collecting this necessary data for sustainability. A process that is fine in the initial stages- but eventually turns out to be inefficient and error-prone<\/strong>.<\/p>\n How can BI help overcome this inefficiency and increase high-quality sustainability performance?\u00a0What does that look like in practice?<\/p>\n The integration of sustainability performance is <\/span>challenging<\/b>. Whereas financial information is coming from \u2018the inside\u2019. Sustainability information is a blend of internal- as well as external information.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Currently, companies often use point solutions to gather the data they need for sustainability information. These focus on <\/span>single-use cases<\/b> such as a \u2018product LCA\u2019 platform. For example, they can help you monitor and analyze a certain data stream- such as a carbon footprint of a product. Providing very useful information to further optimize your product.<\/span><\/p>\n On the contrary, integrated BI solutions combines various data sources. They are designed to support <\/span>multiple decision processes and uses <\/span>one central database (data warehouse)<\/b>, such as Activity-based footprinting.\u00a0Therefore, these solutions often offer \u2018near-real time\u2019 data rather than insights purely based on historic and average data. For example, they can help you connect:<\/span><\/p>\n (1) Your real-life energy consumption, with;<\/span><\/p>\n (2) The energy costs and;<\/span><\/p>\n (3) The correlated environmental footprint data.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n To make sure they don\u2019t miss out on relevant information. More and more companies are taking the initiative to<\/span> centralize<\/b> their sustainability data into <\/span>a data warehouse.<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n BI technology or software can help you <\/span>coordinate<\/b> and unite the streams of sustainability data from your processes and suppliers. And connect your data warehouse to the right tools\/features for analysis. Think of transactional data from e.g. ERP systems (for day-to-day business activities), as well as tools that are used for analysis and reporting- such as <\/span>Microsoft\u2019s Power BI.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhilst a point solution is a champion in fixing one-dimensional issues. Integrated management systems can support complex integrated decisions<\/strong> in sustainability. This includes e.g. decision-making processes in which a company\u2019s \u2018footprint\u2019 is weighted versus \u2018costs\u2019. Think of decisions with the business case to improve manufacturing processes.\u00a0\u201d<\/p>\n Roel Drost \u2013 Chief Value Officer at Ecochain technologies<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n This BI trend in sustainability is also a necessity for the increasing amount of <\/span>sustainability legislation<\/span><\/a> companies have to prepare for. Therefore; an integrated BI landscape in sustainability now goes hand-in-hand with the involvement of <\/span>Finance and IT professionals<\/b> in the world of social & environmental performance indicators.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This results in an interesting synergy. Sustainability professionals are strong in content and Finance & IT professionals are traditional \u2018risk & control\u2019 thinkers. Approaches that will only <\/span>strengthen<\/b> each other and provide new inspiration for both disciplines. Creating transparency in a company\u2019s environmental and social performance.<\/span><\/p>\n Now that we know the benefits of applying BI in sustainability. How do they look like in practice?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nPoint solutions vs. integrated BI solutions in sustainability<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Feeding your data warehouse with sustainability information<\/strong><\/h2>\n
A joint effort between the Sustainability, Finance & IT community<\/span><\/h3>\n
The 4 benefits of integrating sustainability into your BI system: the case of hospitality giant Vermaat<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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