Key takeaways:
The ESG questionnaire is an essential tool for companies to showcase their sustainable business practices. However, processing vast volumes of data scattered across different systems and manually answering an increasing number of sustainability/ESG questionnaires is a complex task. Smaller companies may encounter difficulties answering ESG questionnaires in several reporting templates due to resource limitations, including financial and human resources. Automating the task using AI can help in saving time and cost.
The increasing importance of sustainability:
In today’s business environment, there’s a heightened focus on ethical practices and sustainability. The shift towards sustainability is now significantly influencing companies in their operational strategies, largely due to increasing pressure from consumers, investors, regulators, and stakeholders. These entities demand real, measurable actions to prove ESG commitments, and companies have to face dire consequences when they don’t comply. ESG questionnaires are vital for companies to showcase their commitment to sustainable practices. By completing these questionnaires, organisations can showcase how they manage environmental and social challenges, gauge risks and encourage strong governance that eventually contributes to long-term growth.
The growing challenges of manual data collection and ESG questionnaires
Sustainability teams face several significant challenges in their daily operations. One of the biggest issues is managing the growing amount of data, often scattered across various systems like spreadsheets, emails, previous sustainability reports, questionnaires, etc. Organising and retrieving this information can be overwhelming. Additionally, these teams must handle numerous ESG questionnaires, each with unique requirements and formats, making it challenging to handle them all efficiently. The manual processes of gathering data from different departments and systems are time-consuming, monotonous, and prone to errors, leading to delays. Moreover, the lack of a unified platform to manage all ESG-related data further complicates the situation, resulting in information silos and limited visibility into the overall process.
Gathering ESG questionnaire responses as a cumbersome task:
ESG questionnaires, which provide a structured way for companies to evaluate and communicate their sustainability initiatives, are increasingly important in meeting stakeholder expectations. However, manually collecting and inputting data is a laborious task. The rising demands from internal and external stakeholders have overwhelmed the management and response to ESG questionnaires. Managing data such as certifications, product specifications, previous questionnaires, sustainability reports, and audit reports consumes significant time and resources.
How RightOrigins streamlines data for automating responses?
The RightOrigins platform provides sustainability teams and ESG consultants with a comprehensive solution, i.e., a central hub for collating all ESG information in spreadsheets, emails, certifications, previous ESG reports, and questionnaires. This allows for information accessibility and provides for responding to sustainability/ESG questionnaires 8x faster at less than 20% cost. With RightOrigins, you can maximise your resources and stop spending hours on manual tasks and spreadsheets. Leveraging AI would save time and manual labour as it centralises all ESG and sustainability data in one place. The platform can ensure streamlined data management and easy access to critical information.
Leveraging AI to automate responses for ESG questionnaires:
Our platform helps manage and automate ESG questionnaire responses at lightning speed. By centralising all ESG and sustainability data in internal data silos, the platform provides a unified view for better ESG data management and visibility. RightOrigins offers automated alerts for expiring documents and certifications, reducing non-compliance risk. It draws insights from internal documents, streamlining the ESG data collection process and reducing reliance on manual tasks and spreadsheets.
By choosing a preferred reporting standard or a template, RightOrigins AI generates answers based on previous responses along with respective sources to guide you in verifying data. It also automates the collection and organisation of supplier data, saving time and improving accuracy. With powerful tools for generating sustainability insights, identifying risks, and creating impactful dashboards, RightOrigins enables teams to measure progress toward their goals and make informed decisions that drive meaningful results.
Conclusion:
With the rise of regulatory and customer expectations, handling sustainability-related questionnaires will become more complex. RightOrigins by CIED provides sustainability teams with the tools to efficiently address these challenges, turning ESG management from a burdensome task into a strategic advantage. By leveraging AI, sustainability teams can shift their focus from mundane data management to high-impact initiatives, driving real change within their organisations. Additionally, RightOrigins decreases the response time to sustainability-related requests, enabling companies to swiftly and accurately address ESG questionnaires and compliance requirements.