5 common mistakes made in ESG data management

ESG data management is a monumental task, with many financial services companies asking themselves where to start. To support this journey, we’ve compiled five common pitfalls to avoid in shaping your company’s ESG data strategy, as well as sharing how ServiceNow can help.

Mistake 1: Unclear focus  

In the data-heavy finance sector, huge volumes of information become available daily. The data pool widens further for ESG, too. Beyond your bank’s internal data, for example, to encompass inputs from upstream and downstream in your supply chain.

The error here is gathering and trying to interpret all potentially relevant data. Functional ESG data and analytics involves disciplined focus — which ServiceNow ESG data management offers. To avoid trawling for all data that could be ESG-relevant, put in place ESG reporting frameworks based on your applicable regulations and business priorities.  

Mistake 2: Working one-off, rather than with a continuous structure

Requesting ad hoc reports from across your supply chain and business units will quickly generate a misaligned, inaccurate story. Without reliable inputs, your ESG data and analytics will be severely hampered.

With ServiceNow ESG management, however, you can streamline ESG data collection and report efficiently, on-demand, and anytime. Automatically collect and validate data to ensure disclosure reliability and readiness, and simplify ESG data validation and visualization for speed, accuracy, and frequency as needed.

Mistake 3: Misaligned interpretations of standards and reporting needs

Quality ESG reporting frameworks rely on unified interpretations of regulations and reporting requirements.

ServiceNow enables staying updated on regulations such as SASB, TCFD, and CSRD. Describing these and indicating the types of figures needed, it’s designed to support your organization to track progress, flag gaps, and amend these with targeted data-gathering processes.

Mistake 4: Non-continuous evaluation

Ongoing assessment of your ESG data management is key to ensuring it meets evolving reporting needs for the finance sector and aligns with your business strategy. Maintaining a full-picture view of how ESG data and analytics tie into your organization-wide ESG aims is vital, too.

Avoiding this discontinuity is easier with ServiceNow, as you can view your company’s current and full ESG story at once, for the full scope of ESG and sustainability topics, goals, and numbers.

Mistake 5: Keeping data siloed

Providing a single source of truth, ServiceNow helps avoid data workload repetitions, misalignment, incorrect formats, and data loss.

With this full picture, your organization can more easily flag ESG-related anomalies and contextualize them for efficient response — to both internal and external stakeholders. This is particularly key given ESG risk in finance, with climate events and social shifts requiring swift, strategic adaptation.

Avoid common ESG data management mistakes with ServiceNow

ServiceNow helps organizations like yours to improve ESG data management with easy data collection, on-demand progress monitoring, and minimal reporting.

Want to find out more about ESG data management with ServiceNow? Contact us for an introductory call.