Salesforce and Accenture are Helping Companies Embed Sustainability into the Core of their Businesses
Last year, Accenture and Salesforce announced an expanded partnership focused on helping companies embed sustainability into the core of their businesses. This means meeting growing customer and stakeholder expectations and advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — the world’s “to-do list” for helping people and the planet. Now, facing increasing external pressure effective starting 2023, the SEC plans to require all publicly traded companies to disclose GHG emissions[1]. Transitioning to net zero is no longer an option, but rather, table stakes, for all businesses.
Why make the commitment? Why now? We know the world has changed, and sustainability is now a business imperative. We know consumers expect (even demand) businesses play a bigger part in solving global issues like gender equality, poverty, and climate change. In fact, nearly 90% of customers expect corporations to live up to a set of values higher than shareholder return alone. But making a commitment to sustainability actually does affect the bottom line and building greater transparency and accountability around your net zero ambition is key. Companies leveraging sustainable technology are 2.5x more likely to be among tomorrow’s strongest-performing businesses than others, according to Accenture research.
Knowing that net zero is a data challenge with no single source of truth for emissions data[2], Accenture and Salesforce are developing innovative solutions and execution strategies to uniquely help members of the C-suite accelerate progress toward environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. Thanks to Net Zero Cloud from Salesforce, companies have a trusted platform that provides a 360-degree view of their corporate environmental impact to help them measure and manage their carbon footprint and transparently report investor-grade climate data. At Accenture, we’ve worked diligently to integrate this technology into our customers’ business strategies, operating models, technologies, and core processes with industry-specific requirements.
Since our expanded partnership announcement, we’ve been hard at work doubling down on our joint commitment and continuing the conversation to bring more awareness to the necessity of placing sustainability efforts at the heart of business.
Sustainable Transformation Report
Our recent joint report created by ForbesIGNITE on Sustainable Transformation: The Successor to Digital Transformation — is a synthesis of roundtable discussions held in collaboration with Salesforce and Accenture. The report combines the insights of over 50 leaders in sustainability, science and technology and includes the idea of taking the lessons learned over the past several years from disruption, data, speed, and agility, and applying them to sustainability.
Bigger Picture Series
In 2021, we teamed up with Salesforce to pioneer a new video series called Bigger Picture featuring short discussions and big ideas from change makers at both companies, including:
● Peter Lacy, global chief responsibility officer at Accenture + Simon Mulcahy, chief innovation officer at Salesforce
● Myself (Farshad Family, sustainability lead for Accenture Salesforce Business Group) + Avery Schlicher, director of sustainability solutions at Salesforce
● Kevin Vranes, senior director of product management for Net Zero Cloud at Salesforce + Apricot Tang, sustainability go-to-market lead at Accenture
Together, we’ve addressed topics including:
● Sustainability as the responsibility of every employee
● The importance of having clear data to fully grasp your environmental footprint
● How Net Zero Cloud tracks and manages sustainability data more efficiently
“The Salesforce and Accenture partnership and the development of Net Zero Cloud enables individuals from the top of the organization to the shop floor to have that data integrity and the data that helps them manage better,” said Peter Lacy.
Mutual Customers in Action
While it can take up to six months to calculate a company’s carbon footprint, Net Zero Cloud can provide companies with in-depth data and analysis on their sustainability initiatives and performance in just a few weeks. Already, Accenture and Salesforce have teamed up to help mutual customers realize the benefits of sustainable technology.
With Net Zero Cloud, French global training organization ISDI has reduced its environmental impact by using the platform to analyze the greenhouse gas emissions of its Paris training center and visitors. As a result, ISDI can quickly monitor, analyze, and communicate reliable environmental data, allowing it to nimbly adjust its actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Analytics and rich data visualization also provide ISDI with a detailed view of its energy consumption and emission trends. The organization can even calculate the carbon footprint of each visitor to its Paris center based on the types of transportation used, length of hotel stay, and energy use onsite. Additionally, the platform allows ISDI to benchmark emission factors and track the achievement of greenhouse gas reduction targets on a quarterly basis.
“The solution complements other measures we have already taken — such as choosing a 100% green electricity supplier, recycling services, as well as a zero plastic approach and the use of eco-friendly products certified for site maintenance — and will become a model for our other training centers around the world,” said Victor Kessler, head of ISDI in France.
Similarly, Accenture and Salesforce teamed up with Mastercard last year to assess its supplier landscape and deepen its sustainability efforts. Having a view of its supply chain’s carbon footprint, coupled with automated dashboards that provide real-time, actionable insights, helps Mastercard make progress toward achieving its Science Based Target to reduce absolute Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2025 from a 2016 baseline.
“Working with Accenture and Salesforce to further enhance our visibility into carbon emissions data is a critical step in decarbonizing our partner network and meeting our broader net zero targets,” said Kristina Kloberdanz, chief sustainability officer at Mastercard.
Mastercard is now able to track, analyze, and take action on supplier-level carbon emissions data and has even helped innovate product functionality, such as how Accenture calculates supplier emissions at scale in a new way through the tool.
The Time is Now
Understanding climate change and prioritizing GHG emissions is a fundamental part of being an ESG-driven company. Sustainability commitments require continuous improvements from increasing depth and breadth of GHG data and engaging in cross-industry and ecosystem collaboration to identifying initiatives with large scale impact.
Together, Accenture and Salesforce are setting an example for business leaders around the world. Helping them understand that environmental concerns should be more than a one-time initiative. When data is accessible and easy to act on, everyone acts as a stakeholder, making sustainability core to each part of the business.
Now is the time to put sustainability front and center. Through collaboration, we can reimagine, rebuild, and transform businesses to meet growing customer and stakeholder expectations and achieve impactful change at scale.
Download a complimentary copy of the ForbesIgnite report Sustainable Transformation: The Successor to Digital Transformation.
Look for more videos in the Bigger Picture series and learn more about the power of the Salesforce and Accenture partnership.
Source: [1] “The SEC proposed a landmark climate disclosure rule. Here’s what to know”, Washington Post (2022); [2] “SBTi Progress Report”, Science Based Targets initiative (2021)
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