How ESG software moves sustainability from admin to action

ESG reporting has grown up fast. What used to be a compliance exercise handled in a fringe spreadsheet now defines brand reputations and shapes business strategy. This shift is packed with opportunities, but it also comes with a few challenges.

One of those challenges is getting a lot of quality data for reporting. That isn’t always easy. Ninety-four per cent of leaders feel their data holds untapped potential. The insights are there, but they’re hard to unlock when emission figures, supplier information, and travel records all live in different places.

High-performance ESG software can close that gap. The right solution will help you collect better data, automate reporting, and turn sustainability into a strategic capability that drives your business’s growth. In this guide, we’ll break down the features to look for and show how AI-embedded platforms like Agentforce Net Zero (formerly Net Zero Cloud) are raising the bar for ESG.

• Houston, we have a reporting problem
• As the rulebook gets thicker, are spreadsheets enough?
• A great ESG platform offers more than reporting
• The must-have features in modern ESG software
• ESG platforms worth considering in 2026
• How TELUS uses Agentforce Net Zero for investor-grade carbon accounting
• Turn climate admin into real-time action
• FAQs

Businesses are no longer asking whether sustainability belongs on the agenda. Instead, they’re asking how to make their initiatives work in the real world, where supplier data lives on one system, travel records in another, and reporting deadlines never seem to pause for breath.

Sixty-seven per cent of sustainability, finance, and technology leaders agree that sustainability is now essential to business success. It’s easy to see why. Striving for net zero is vital for our planet; it also defines reputations, attracts investment, and strengthens stakeholder trust. Getting it right can drive huge business value.

But this momentum introduces new challenges. As ESG becomes more deeply embedded in business strategy, it’s getting harder for one team to manage on the side. Coordinating emissions and managing costs means sustainability now depends on more parts of the business working together. That only happens when data works together, too.

Trusted, connected data is what turns sustainability from a statement of intent into a real-world strategy. It helps teams measure progress, spot trade-offs, plan next steps, and make decisions with confidence.

But this is where things get tricky. While 67% of senior leaders agree that high-quality sustainability data is pivotal to ESG success, only 37% believe the cause is well integrated into the core of their business.

This gap creates a friction point. Teams spend too much time chasing inputs, reconciling different versions of the truth, and stitching together reports. In turn, progress becomes hard to measure, and good sustainability work starts to feel heavier than it needs to be.

The good news is that this problem is entirely solvable with high-performing ESG software. We’ll explore the features you should be looking for shortly, but first, let’s quickly recap the regulations you should be aware of.

The sustainability opportunity is growing, but so is the rulebook surrounding it. Here are some of the laws and legislation you should know about in 2026.

• In Australia, mandatory climate-related financial disclosures are already phasing in. Group 1 entities began reporting for financial years starting on or after 1 Jan 2025, with first lodgements in 2026. Groups 2 and 3 follow in July 2026 and July 2027.
• In Europe, the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) requires in-scope companies to report on ESG risks and impacts using the ESRS framework. This applies to Australian businesses with EU operations, subsidiaries, customers, or investors.
• In California, climate disclosure laws also reach beyond state borders, especially for businesses with large supply chains or operations linked to the US.

Then there’s carbon accounting. Businesses need to organise their carbon impact under the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol , which splits emissions into three buckets.

• Scope 1: Direct emissions from sources you own or control
• Scope 2: Indirect emissions from the energy you buy
• Scope 3: All the other indirect emissions across your value chain

Scope 3 is where things usually get more complicated. The standard covers 15 categories of indirect emissions across the value chain. That includes purchased goods, transport, and the use of products you’ve sold. In short, the biggest part of your emissions footprint sits outside of your business’s jurisdiction.

The good news: there is a solution. Now that we’ve got the problem out of the way, let’s talk about what you can do about it.

Let’s not sugarcoat things. Sustainability is becoming tougher to handle. But this doesn’t mean we’re all doomed to a lifetime of climate-focused admin. With the right software, ESG work can become more connected, measurable, and manageable.

A strong ESG solution will bring your sustainability data into one place, make it easier to explore, and help teams use it for decision-making. In essence, it closes the gap between your climate ambitions and the data-led strategy needed to reach them. The right platform can:

• Reduce reporting drag by making your data easier to collect, organise, and reuse
• Create a clean, trusted view of your business’s environmental footprint
• Help you uncover inefficiencies and reduction opportunities proactively
• Support better target setting and long-term decision-making
• Give teams a stronger foundation for disclosures and forecasting
• Embed AI in the flow of work to speed up analysis and surface insights

And the benefits here can be huge. Seventy-three per cent of senior leaders we surveyed agree that investing in sustainability can enhance brand reputation, 67% see it as a route to strengthening stakeholder relationships, and 63% believe it can drive innovation.

The question, then, isn’t whether an ESG platform is right for your business. It’s about how to choose a platform that can deliver what you need to turn your ambitions into action.

Let’s look at some of the features you should be seeking out. We’ll also discuss how Agentforce Net Zero sets the standard with AI agents that can seek out context, provide actionable recommendations, and support decisions directly in the flow of work.

A lot of ESG platforms look the part, but that doesn’t always mean they can handle work in an enterprise environment. Below, we’ve outlined the features to look for so you can choose a high-performing ESG solution that drives you toward your goals.

The first question you should ask of any ESG platform: Can it save my team from chasing numbers whenever it’s time to compile a report?

As you’ll know from your latest disclosure, ESG data rarely lives in one place. You’ll often end up gathering insights from:

• Utility bills
• Travel systems
• Procurement records
• Supplier spreadsheets
• Finance tools
• Fleet data

And that’s before you ever get into the rogue spreadsheets your teams built three quarters ago (and forgot to label properly).

The problem is that much of this information is locked away in silos. The average agentic enterprise in Australia runs 1,034 apps, of which only 25% are integrated. If your platform can’t pull these insights together into one clean view, every disclosure cycle becomes a digital paper chase. This means shakier reporting and slower decisions.

So, when you’re evaluating ESG platforms, stop asking whether it can store sustainability data. Ask whether it can collect, connect, and validate it. A strong solution should help you:

• Pull data from multiple business systems without endless manual work
• Make it easier to gather missing information from teams and suppliers
• Keep reporting inputs connected, organised, and trustworthy
• Connect sustainability data to the wider business, rather than trapping it in a silo

For example, with Agentforce Net Zero + Data 360, you can automate data collection, involve stakeholders when their input is needed, track tasks, and validate submissions before the data ever reaches a report. From there, your Climate Action Dashboard gives you a hub to monitor, explore, and analyse emissions data in one place.

This data foundation also sets the stage for deeply embedded AI agents that can empower deeper analytics, surface proactive insights, and automate reporting. We’ll discuss how agentic AI can benefit your ESG efforts later in this guide. But here’s a quick peek at what’s possible when you bring agents into the flow of your sustainability initiative.

This is where things get exciting. Automated collection isn’t just about making reporting easier. It gives your business a more reliable way to power everything from disclosures to decision-making. Gather it once. Use it everywhere.

The easiest part about carbon accounting is gathering data about your own emissions. But once Scope 3 enters the picture and you’re tasked with reporting on 15 categories across suppliers, logistics partners, and every other corner of the value chain you forgot existed, things get tough to track.

For this reason, it makes sense to look beyond automated data collection and choose a platform that will help you get the full picture of your business footprint, including the bits that are easy to miss and hard to pull together. A strong platform can help you:

• Bring Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions into one connected system
• Pull supplier and value-chain emissions into the same view
• Reveal where the biggest sources of emissions sit across your business
• Build a trusted emission baseline for reporting and target setting

Using Agentforce Net Zero, for example, teams can automatically convert data from utility bills, business travel, and fleet records to carbon emissions in line with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol . This gives businesses a stronger view of the footprint they’re actually working with, rather than a snapshot stitched together by hand.

And with the Scope 3 Emissions Hub, suppliers and subsidiaries can report their emissions to your business in real time. This gives you an active way to collect Scope 3 rather than waiting for an end-of-year scramble. You can then bring this data back into your Climate Action Dashboard, creating a unified view that’s ready for forecasting and AI-driven analysis.

Any strong ESG platform can tell you where you are today. But the real test is whether it can help you work out where to go next.

Future planning is at the heart of sustainability. Teams need to know which programmes are likely to cut emissions fastest, which carry the lowest cost, when they need to keep on track with their current efforts, and when it’s time to rethink.

This is why it’s a good idea to invest in a platform with integrated forecasting tools that let you plan your next move based on evidence rather than best guesses. Look for a solution that lets you:

• Simulate future emissions under different scenarios
• Measure likely progress against net-zero goals
• Compare programmes before you commit your budget
• Weigh your emissions impact against financial costs
• Prioritise actions that will have the clearest payoff toward your goals

For instance, Agentforce Net Zero can produce what-if reports that help teams simulate scenarios, forecast future emissions, and measure their progress against the net-zero goals they’ve defined, all handled through intuitive visual dashboards.

Then, when you need to weigh up different initiatives, Programme Analysis gives you the tools to compare options (like installing a new set of solar panels) by emission savings, marginal abatement costs, and cumulative emissions savings. This gives leaders a clear view of which programmes will deliver the best ESG impact without disrupting budgets.

AI agents make forecasting even more powerful by surfacing insights and recommendations faster. View the video below to see how Salesforce is using Agentforce to produce emission insights on the route to net zero.

Most ESG platforms will give you a place to store emissions data. Strong solutions help you drive value from that data in the flow of work.The best platforms handle the work for you.

This is the potential that agentic AI offers. Rather than relying on teams to make sense of ESG data manually, an AI agent can work across tasks, surface emissions insights faster, flag missing information, recommend different reduction opportunities, and help reporting move faster. This frees up time for teams to work on the deeply strategic stuff.

We discussed the power of humans + AI agents + data at our 2026 Agentforce World Tour in Sydney. If you haven’t streamed the full event on Salesforce+ yet, here are some of the ways an Agentic enterprise platform like Agentforce can support your ESG initiative.

• Write the first draft of your sustainability report using your Net Zero platform data
• Match greenhouse gas (GHG) categories to emission factors and categorise them
• Surface emission reduction opportunities and data gaps based on prompts
• Let users “talk to data” in natural language to explore data and unpack trends
• Automate responses for major compliance frameworks like CSRD and ISSB

For your business, this means clearer direction and more momentum behind your sustainability efforts. And for your teams, it means having a sustainable AI coworker that handles the heavy lifting, so experts spend more time on strategy and less time buried in admin. To learn more, see how Endeavour uses Agentforce to blaze the path to net zero.

Modern ESG reporting is rarely focused on one framework. Teams often need to respond to the AASB S2 , CSRD, and ISSB , as well as other laws, such as California’s climate disclosure laws, all in the same disclosure window.

When every framework asks different questions, manual reporting slows down. This is why built-in disclosure features are worth prioritising. A strong platform should help you:

• Align disclosures with recognised compliance frameworks
• Generate structured responses faster with built-in tools
• Keep reporting workflows more consistent from one cycle to the next
• Bring connected data into reports rather than working from disconnected sheets

To give you an example of what’s possible, Agentforce Net Zero’s Disclosure and Compliance Hub provides framework-specific report builders for several compliance standards, including the CSRD. You can then build your reports in Microsoft Word with our Microsoft 365 plugin, giving you a clean way to turn your data into a standardised report.

And, when you’re ready to get started, Agentforce can pull data from your dashboard to write a first draft of your compliance report, filling in the tedious details while creating placeholders for the details that require a human touch.

There are dozens of ESG tools on the market, but not all of them solve the same problem. The right solution for your business depends on your ESG ambitions and whether you need a specialist tool or a single connected platform. Below, we’ve outlined some of the different candidates to consider.

As TELUS pushed towards carbon neutrality by 2030, the business ran into a common challenge: The closer you get to serious climate action, the harder it becomes to see your full emissions picture and meet Scope 3 targets as reporting expectations evolve.

To solve this, TELUS turned to Agentforce Net Zero to pull data from multiple internal and external sources into one place. Through the platform, TELUS now accesses more than 300,000 records annually, covering everything from diesel fuel burned to generator use and remote-site power. And that’s before value-chain data ever comes into the picture.

That unified foundation gives the TELUS team one dashboard to track overall progress and drill into areas for improvement in minutes, rather than piecing everything together by hand. With this shift, TELUS gained a more accurate, transparent, and usable view of its emissions.

TELUS now has a stronger foundation for engaging its value chain and acting on the most important part of the footprint. As their Sustainability Strategy Manager puts it, Agentforce Net Zero offers a consistent approach for everything. That’s better data accuracy, more transparency, and a clearer path to reaching complex climate goals.

An ESG platform will help you bring your data together, make reporting more efficient, and turn sustainability into something your business can use to drive value and work toward net zero. Now, the only thing left is choosing a solution that helps you reach that ambition.

At Salesforce, we’re committed to helping shape a more sustainable and equitable future through AI. That also means we’re here to help all businesses reach the same goal. Agentforce Net Zero brings together connected data, reporting, forecasting, and AI agents in one place, so teams can move from static reports to climate action with confidence.

Ready to see how Salesforce can help? Get started for free today to see how Agentforce Net Zero can help you turn sustainability data into fast, reliable climate action.