Interpreting Sustainability Data for Business Decisions

Double Materiality 🌎 Beyond compliance with key regulations like CSRD, double materiality assessments are essential for businesses to develop a comprehensive sustainability strategy. This framework helps companies identify how their activities impact society and the environment while also assessing how sustainability-related risks and opportunities affect financial performance. Impact materiality examines how a company’s operations influence people and the planet, covering topics like climate change, biodiversity, and social equity. Financial materiality focuses on how sustainability factors, such as regulatory changes, resource scarcity, or reputational risks, impact business performance and long-term growth. Some issues, like climate change mitigation, resource management, and labor conditions, fall under double materiality, meaning they are significant for both external impact and financial outcomes. By integrating double materiality, companies can align sustainability efforts with business objectives, risk management, and investor expectations, strengthening corporate resilience. This approach ensures that sustainability is not just a compliance exercise but a strategic tool to drive innovation, operational efficiency, and stakeholder trust. It also supports transparent reporting, helping businesses meet increasing demands from investors, regulators, and consumers for credible sustainability disclosures. Sectors like finance, manufacturing, and retail are already leveraging double materiality insights to guide decision-making, investment strategies, and supply chain management. This matrix developed by Vestas in their sustainability report is a great example of how to structure a double materiality assessment, clearly linking environmental and social impacts to financial performance and strategic decision-making. #sustainability #sustainable #business #esg #climatechange #doublemateriality #materiality

If I’m the CFO, I don’t need a sustainability report. I need a business case. That means we don’t start with targets or frameworks — we start with real questions. Where can we cut costs with lower-emissions inputs? How does energy use vary by site, and what would it take to reduce it? What’s the cost of inaction if a customer makes emissions part of vendor selection? If sustainability can help me answer those questions — we’re in business. But that only works if the data holds up. I need to know where the numbers come from, what assumptions are baked in, and what we’re doing to improve accuracy quarter over quarter. And I need it structured in a way that speaks the language of finance: capex, opex, margin, payback, risk. Not just “carbon reductions,” but “cost per unit improvement.” Not just “engaged suppliers,” but “procurement risk exposure cut by X%.” If we can get to that level of clarity, sustainability stops being a reporting obligation. It becomes a line of influence in budget decisions, product roadmaps, and investor conversations. But that alignment has to be built — not assumed. So if I’m the CFO, here’s the conversation I want to have with the sustainability lead: • What data do we have today that’s decision-ready? • Where are the gaps? • What’s the first business case we can validate together — and how do we measure it? From there, we build trust. And from trust, we build outcomes. Because when sustainability is framed in business terms — it gets funded. When it’s not — it gets delayed.

Last week a concrete manufacturer told me something interesting about how EPDs are boosting their sales. Here's what happened: Their customers used to ask for environmental data. They'd share the industry average, and the conversation would end there. Then they started measuring project-specific carbon footprints. It changed their sales process in three ways: 1. They stopped talking about averages and started talking about specific orders. Each customer now gets precise data about their purchase. 2. Their sales team learned to speak differently about environmental impact. Instead of generic statistics, they discuss exact mixes, local supply chains, and specific design choices. 3. They turned sustainability data into a competitive advantage. When bidding on a recent data center project, they demonstrated how their specific mix would reduce emissions by 20%. Here's what I've learned about environmental data in manufacturing: Generic numbers tell customers what COULD happen. Specific numbers tell them what WILL happen. The difference matters: • Project teams need real data to make decisions • Purchasing needs exact numbers for sustainability reports • Sales needs concrete answers for RFPs I've watched manufacturers struggle with this transition. The ones who get it right focus on answering one question: "What's the actual impact of this specific order?" // Building something interesting in manufacturing? Message me – always happy to compare notes. #manufacturing #sustainability

Forget the surface-level sustainability actions. There's something bigger we need to tackle. Many assume we can solve environmental challenges with simple swaps, like recycled paper. But the reality is far more complex. If you want to drive real change, you need data and not just any data, but the right data. Consider this: last year, Google’s UK research revealed a gap between what people say about sustainability and what they do. Although 55% of shoppers claimed they prioritize sustainability over quality or price, in practice, value and style still often come first. Imagine shaping your entire sustainability strategy on the surface answers alone you’d risk misallocating resources, time, and money. Here’s how to avoid that mistake: Collect every piece of quantitative data you can from truck mileage to energy use in every building. Then, layer in the qualitative side, like customer feedback and complaints. This creates a complete picture, where numbers and narratives combine to shape impactful strategies. Go one step further and anchor this with big data insights. Analyze global trends, public datasets, and social behaviors to understand how external factors affect your operations. Imagine discovering that a production site faces rising costs because of drought conditions in its area. With this insight, you could shift your goal from carbon reduction to sustainable water management a more targeted, effective strategy. The potential of this data is immense. As Jeffrey Moore put it, without big data analytics, companies are “blind and deaf,” stumbling through an unpredictable environment. Make sure your sustainability data tells the full story. 👉 Hit follow to learn more ♻ Repost to spread the word ♾ Go featured to show more

��️Sustainability Regulations: Saying the quiet part out loud    Sustainability reporting frameworks are continuing to evolve, as we’ve seen most recently in the EU Commission's omnibus proposal. That takes away the 'easy button' from validating sustainability reporting. (Your auditor suddenly go quiet in board meetings about assurance?)   The uncertainty of these regulatory updates brings a silver lining that forces the value of data surfaced back into the conversation.   In my recent The Wall Street Journal interview, I made a point that's getting lost in the sustainability conversation: Carbon accounting is about generating activity-based carbon information that can be broken down along the lines of P&L, surfacing revenue or removing risk by business line or geography. Read it at https://lnkd.in/efNTRMZE   Of the companies I see turning this moment into a value vs. compliance chess game, they are designing their reporting to reveal the direct relationship between sustainability metrics and business performance. They are integrating financial and sustainability data to: 🔹Surface actionable insights to accelerate cost and carbon reduction along the value chain (like ways to reduce material consumption) 🔹Reveal new revenue streams, opportunities for investment, or margin increases (like green steel) 🔹 Already use AI to generate data and draft reports, knowing that investors will also be using agentic AI   The bottom line: While CSRD came out of the box overly complex (in my personal opinion), the foundations of accurate carbon data based on business activities ('actuals') remains the bedrock of the ability to distribute margin and risk from carbon and climate change. It's not about environmental altruism—it's about reminding the Titans of industry that climate change is a business conversation, because mitigation can diffuse risk and adaptation can be profitable.   Deloitte Jodie Stahly Payette Pete Dabbs #SAPsustainability

What happens when a sustainability team finally gets visibility into their waste invoices? William Klimpert just wrapped a cost analysis exercise with one of our clients and it showed the fragmented corporate structure that creates a double-standard for Sustainability teams. It's increasingly expected that sustainability will benefit the bottom line, but these teams don't always have access to the right information to make that happen efficiently. 👀 The challenge? Like many sustainability teams, our client knew there were cost savings opportunities tied to waste — but they didn’t have consistent access to the data that could prove it. Their regular reporting came from vendor exports — not the invoices that show actual expenses. So together, we took on the lift: 📂 The team worked hard to collect invoices from across their portfolio so WATS could analyze them. 🧠 What we found: 💰 Over 50% of their expenses are tied to the trash waste stream ⚖️ There were gaps between hauler-reported data and what invoices showed — one site was 40%+ off 📌 Top 4 properties driving the majority of total costs 🔎 What’s next? ✅ Investigating potential refunds ✅ Building a business case for diversion ROI ✅ Documentation to support pushback on unclear Organics invoices ✅ Developing some deeper analytical insights based on client feedback ✨ The big takeaway? ➡ Sustainability teams are increasingly being asked to show how their work impacts the bottom line — but too often, they’re left without access to the data that proves it. At WATS, we’re proud to help bridge that gap. Moving forward, we’ll be regularly ingesting this client’s invoices — turning hidden costs into actionable insights that help right-size services, optimize contracts, and drive smarter decisions. ♻️ Because waste data isn’t just reporting fodder — it’s a business tool. Stay tuned - we’ll definitely be building a case study based on this analysis! #WasteData

Sustainability efforts are everywhere, but let’s be honest—not all of them are making the impact we need. Transparency about existing gaps is crucial if we want to drive real change. As Karen D. Schwartz aptly points out, the key to progress is data. For many organizations, the biggest challenge remains identifying and collecting sustainability data across operations. The reality is, high-quality data is the driving force behind meaningful improvements. As Peter Drucker said, “What gets measured gets managed.�� To succeed, you need a clear data strategy and someone responsible for managing the intersection of finance, logistics, IT systems, and business intelligence systems. Not all data is necessary. Focus on the data that drives key business KPIs—what we might call “stealth data.” You can often model what data will provide the majority of actionable insights. If we’re serious about moving the needle on sustainability, we need to prioritize and simplify data collection. That way, it becomes a powerful tool for smarter, more impactful decisions that drive innovation and improvements at every level of the organization. With the rise of international standards, the demand for more comprehensive data is growing. ESG measurement is quickly becoming a dedicated role within organizations. Fortunately, promising new technologies are making it easier to report and integrate sustainability metrics within ERM systems. One of the biggest challenges leaders face is Scope 3 emissions, particularly supplier-related data. When assessing your supply chain’s impact, simplicity is key. It’s not just about obtaining data—it’s about establishing trust with your suppliers. Once metrics are agreed upon, the next critical step is training across the supply chain. I’ve seen many brands develop their own metrics, only to discover they’ve created a complex new educational process for suppliers. Additionally, these unique standards often require significant external explanation. Leveraging pre-competitive frameworks can help suppliers meet your needs while providing metrics they can use with other customers as well. When tackling Scope 3 carbon insetting or offsetting, take the time to thoroughly research sustainability metrics, measurement methods, and verification processes. High-quality, asset-grade data is essential, particularly for carbon markets. Ask detailed questions about the standards being used, the models applied, and the level of uncertainty disclosed. Be strategic about your approach—whether it’s insetting, offsetting, or banking carbon credits. The path to progress is clear: better data leads to better actions, which in turn lead to better outcomes. Sustainability is about putting business into action, and it all starts with having the right data. #Sustainability #Data #BusinessInAction