Microsoft announced Project ESG Reporting, a new tool aimed at enabling companies to create, review and approve ESG reports across multiple standards and frameworks.

According to Microsoft, the new solution, currently in preview, was designed to help organizations solve the challenge of reporting against a variety of voluntary and regulatory reporting frameworks. In a post announcing the launch of Project ESG Reporting, Brandon Potter, Director for Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, said:

“ESG disclosure reporting can be a complex and challenging process for companies. For example, there is no global standardization in ESG reporting, which makes it difficult to know what metrics to report and how to structure disclosures.”

The new tool includes a variety of ESG standard and framework templates, ranging from CSRD, IFRS S1 and S2 and GRI to SASB, Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards and Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting standards, in addition to allowing for custom template creation and the use of quantitative and qualitative metrics ranging from numeric to rich data input options.

Additional key features include integration with Microsoft’s Sustainability Manager data intelligence solution, collaboration and approval workflows, disclosure generation in Excel, and the ability to organize and re-use disclosure data.

Potter said:

“Accurate reporting plays a major role in helping companies reach their sustainability goals, providing a bridge between where they are and where they aspire to be. With the new project ESG reporting (preview) tool, organizations can streamline the reporting process by collaborating on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards and frameworks at the same time.”

Alongside the preview launch of Project ESG Reporting, Microsoft also announced a series of new reporting-focused features within Sustainability Manager, which forms part of Microsoft’s Cloud for Sustainability platform. New features include data trail capabilities aimed at helping companies handle regulatory requirements for data traceability and auditability, as well as an alternate emissions feature enabling users to quantify company emissions using different calculation methodologies, and to generate emissions reports tailored to various regulatory requirements and standards.