Why we're going all in on Net Zero Cloud
It’s Dreamforce week and we’re all caught up in the buzz and excitement that comes with it – new products, new features, demonstrations of what’s been done over the last year, and discussion on what is coming in the future.
And that doesn’t even include the opportunity to catch Foo Fighters at Dreamfest.
We’re in attendance and can’t wait to meet the entire Salesforce ecosystem in person, whether they be clients, Salesforce representatives or fellow Partners.
Alongside our in-person attendance we are going to be sharing a wide variety of updates on what we’re up to, it’s alignment with our vision and values, and our view of the future – both for Salesforce and for Inardua.
We’ve discussed our implementation of Net Zero Cloud in the past, and to start us off we wanted to go into more detail about two things:
Why we’re going all in on Net Zero and Clean-tech.
Why Net Zero Cloud is the best tool to support organisations looking to manage their Carbon Accounting, Emissions analysis and their entire ESG reporting efforts.
Why we’re going all in on Net Zero and Clean-tech
We exist to help some of the world’s best known organisations solve some of the world’s biggest problems. Our work with digital technology is centred around an understanding that we can help unlock the brilliant work that businesses are already doing to realise their ambitions.
At the heart of all this is an implicit acknowledgement that there is an absolute need for the world to transition to net-zero.
Climate science is clear that the eventual extent of global warming is proportional to the total amount of carbon dioxide that human activities add to the atmosphere.
We’re already feeling the presence of global warming, with catastrophic weather events seen globally in 2023. These include the hottest worldwide month ever recorded (July 2023); temperatures of -28c in Afghanistan; the displacement of half-a-million people due to Cyclone Freddy in Malawi, Mozambique and Madagascar; the worst wildfire in recorded history in Canada; and a historic June and July heatwave in the USA, seeing temperatures top 42c in Phoenix, Arizona for 31 days straight.
The impact of extreme weather events is clear and unavoidable, the impact of global warming on biodiversity and our environment will be equally visible and only worsen into the future.
But we also know that there is a global community worldwide working towards positive change, with the power to make a tangible impact on the extent to which global warming affects us.
Just looking at the scale of investment alone highlights how much resource is being dedicated to Net Zero causes: in 2021, there was $20.8 billion invested in the US alone, followed by China ($7 billion), Sweden ($3.6 billion) and the UK ($1.57 billion).
Moreover, there are endless practical examples of the type of innovation that this investment brings about.
These range from:
Hydroponic innovation to allow for agriculture without soil, Lettus Grow being an amazing example local to us.
Solar Generation advances, as Oxford PV are working on, to make the process ever more efficient.
Businesses focused on Sustainable Transport. Taking the US as an example, transport was responsible for 29% of greenhouse gas emissions, so it’s great to see green solutions from both sides of the pond: Watt Electric Vehicles working on EV design and EV.Energy focusing on a Smart EV Charging App being just two examples
Battery Storage, to allow for usage at times of less intensity in the grid. Take Connected Energy as an example, who are allowing UK businesses to be more flexible with their energy usage.
It’s also a time of unprecedented change with the regulation of big businesses emissions.
Take for example, the recent introduction of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) in the EU and SEC’s Climate Disclosure Rules in the US.
The directives place a legal requirement on large organisations to report on their Greenhouse Gas emissions, as well as to identify risks and areas of opportunity for carbon reduction.
The developing international frameworks and requirements have seen a renewed emphasis on the systems being used by large organisations to manage their carbon accounting information. It has become imperative for their sustainability teams to have technology at their disposal to introduce efficiency, analysis, and accuracy in everything they do.
Why Net Zero Cloud is the best tool to support organisations looking to manage their carbon accounting, emissions analysis and their entire ESG reporting efforts
Which brings us neatly onto why we are fully bought into Net Zero Cloud being the stand-out solution to support businesses looking to improve their Carbon Accounting systems.
What stands out to us is that Net Zero Cloud sits alongside the core Salesforce architecture. This isn’t a standalone product existing in isolation. What this means in practicality is that with Net Zero Cloud you have access to the full suite of automation, security and integration features of the world’s #1 CRM.
The advances in digital technology that have been enjoyed by sales and service teams are now accessible to Sustainability teams. This means the platform can be developed in a personalised fashion to meet the specific needs of your organisation, and to complement the processes you need for successful sustainability management.
Salesforce enjoys three platform updates per year, providing updates to functionality such as automation, integration and User Interface.
But what’s more is that there are updates specific to Net Zero Cloud, we summarised the most recent release in an article here. As regulations are ever changing, having a platform which is constantly evolving to align with the needs of sustainability teams the world over is crucial.
Take for example the upcoming SEC Carbon Disclosure Rules and the EU’s European Sustainability Reporting Standards, Net Zero Cloud keeps pace by implementing functionality that supports the need to produce Materiality Assessments and store data in an aligned manner to these regulations.
The advantages of Net Zero Cloud sitting within Salesforce’s core architecture extend beyond just the pace of update and advancement that the platform receives.
It also means that you have access to extensive sources of data within the same platform.
Take for example a sales team, managing their deals within Sales Cloud. It is a piece of cake to allow them to log the business trips they are taking in relation to specific Opportunities. And with Net Zero Cloud sitting alongside the details of this business trip can easily be converted into carbon emissions.
What does this mean?
It’s allowed you to quickly and accurately collect business travel data, directly from source without the extensive work of chasing finance teams for spreadsheets of expenses.
It allows you to have access to data more rapidly to help make decisions or predictions, rather than a year out from these trips taking place.
And it allows another layer to your sustainability reporting, you can associate carbon footprints to different sales deals, or different teams, or even to individual sales reps in your business. As more and more organisations move towards carbon targets for their internal teams, having your Carbon Accounting platform sit alongside your wider CRM data provides an ease of reporting that is not available elsewhere.
This is just one small example of Net Zero Cloud differentiating itself by sitting within the wider Salesforce platform, we’re going to go into much more detail on the other advantages of ‘Net Zero 360’ later in the week, suffice to say it includes options to link up with your Field Service teams, your marketing campaigns, your downstream emissions and much more.
So why are we going all in on Net Zero Cloud?
We know the need to support a sustainable future is crucial.
And we believe the power of Salesforce is something which provides a means to manage sustainability data in a way no other platform does, whether through the strength of it’s existing automation and development tools, or through the access to various unique data sources in the platform.
