Salesforce AI Innovations Boost ESG Reporting in Net Zero Cloud

Powered by Einstein, Net Zero Cloud’s generative AI capabilities will suggest reliable, auto-generated responses for ESG reports

CSRD Report Builder automates reporting, and Materiality Assessment empowers ESG managers to identify most relevant ESG topics 

Global sports brand Rossignol Group uses Net Zero Cloud to track its carbon footprint; joins 1t.org with commitment to plant 100,000 trees

Today at Dreamforce 2023, Salesforce unveiled new Einstein features for Net Zero Cloud to make corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting easier for companies as they navigate a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape. 

Beginning in 2024, approximately 50,000 companies — including many large, multinationals based in the United States — must comply with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). This includes disclosing both climate-related financial risks and societal impact, along with scope 3 or the emissions generated by a company’s supply chain.

The company also introduced two new capabilities for Net Zero Cloud — CSRD Report Builder and Materiality Assessment. The Report Builder automates CSRD report generation, and Materiality Assessment helps organizations determine what is material – both to their business and broader societal impact, the “double materiality” assessment that is a requirement of CSRD.

“Meaningful corporate transparency benefits us all, yet businesses can find themselves lost in the complex landscape of regulatory frameworks,” said Ari Alexander, VP and GM of Net Zero Cloud, Salesforce. “Equipped with Einstein, Net Zero Cloud will help simplify the process of reporting ESG data, offering a valuable solution that any company can leverage toward achieving net zero.”

Meaningful corporate transparency benefits us all, yet businesses can find themselves lost in the complex landscape of regulatory frameworks. Equipped with Einstein, Net Zero Cloud will help simplify the process of reporting ESG data, offering a valuable solution that any company can leverage toward achieving net zero.

Ari Alexander, VP and GM of Net Zero Cloud, Salesforce

AI enhances Net Zero Cloud’s ESG reporting capabilities 

McKinsey found that successful ESG execution can cut a company’s operating costs by up to 60%. Yet, 51% of finance leaders, including chief accounting officers, said that they invest substantial time addressing ESG data collection and disclosure.

Net Zero Cloud, a complete sustainability solution built on the Salesforce Platform, enables companies to easily assess and report on their environmental footprint across scopes 1, 2, and 3. It also manages social and governance metrics, and generates ESG reports aligned to SASB, CDP, GRI, and now, the EU’s CSRD standards. The latest Net Zero Cloud innovations include:

• Einstein for Net Zero Cloud: With Einstein, Net Zero Cloud will suggest responses based on prompts that are in line with specific reporting framework criteria to help companies streamline the ESG reports authoring process. For example, Einstein can leverage a company’s ESG data from previous year’s disclosures, uploaded documents (e.g., 10K, impact reports, compliance documents), and other Net Zero Cloud data, such as a company’s emissions. It will then use this data to automatically populate responses for each written question in the report.
• CSRD Report Builder: As the world shifts from voluntary to mandatory ESG disclosures, the CSRD Report Builder for Net Zero Cloud will help companies automate reporting to align with CSRD-specific requirements, including double materiality. This new feature expands the collection of existing Net Zero Cloud report builders, including GRI, CDP, and SASB found in Salesforce’s Disclosure and Compliance Hub.
• Materiality Assessment: This new feature will empower ESG managers to identify the topics most material to their business. Using a customizable survey, they can more easily gather critical stakeholder input, rank topic importance and calculate scores, and then visualize the results in a matrix. These results can ultimately help ESG managers shape their company’s ESG program and reporting strategy more effectively.

Global sports brand Rossignol accelerates its net zero journey

Rossignol Group, the iconic winter sports brand, is implementing Net Zero Cloud to track its carbon emissions across scopes 1, 2, and 3 as it transforms its business model to meet consumers’ growing expectations for environmental accountability.

Rossignol is also taking a meaningful step to invest in nature by joining 1t.org, the global movement to conserve, restore, and grow one trillion trees by 2030. The company today pledged 100,000 trees to support the effort.

“At the heart of our company lies a deep-rooted commitment to not only equip our customers with the best gear, but to champion the very environments that inspire us. That’s why we’re proud to implement Net Zero Cloud to track our carbon footprint, and join 1t.org to support global forest conservation and reforestation for a healthier planet,” said Vincent Wauters, Chairman, Rossignol Group.

Availability*:

• Einstein for Net Zero Cloud is anticipated to be available in Spring 2024.
• CSRD Report Builder and the Materiality Assessment feature is anticipated to be globally available starting October 2023. 

More information:

• Learn more about Salesforce AI here
• Learn more about Salesforce’s responsible AI charter
• Learn more about Net Zero Cloud’s ESG reporting capabilities, including SASB Report Builder and Automate ESG Reporting
• Read more news and stories from Dreamforce 2023

*Any unreleased services or features referenced here are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available.