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ESG data management, from the meter to the approved figure

Collect energy, emissions, water, waste, people and governance data the way each site measures it, check it as it arrives, and send it to named owners and approvers — so every KPI and report is built from figures someone has signed off.

Illustrative screen with sample data.

Collected where it is measured

A plant engineer reads a meter, a finance team keeps fuel invoices, HR runs payroll: ESGTrack takes each figure from where it already exists rather than asking someone to re-key it at year end. Meter readings become consumption, fuel logs reconcile against stock checks, bills are matched to sites, and water is entered as a balance.

Whatever the route, the figure arrives with its source attached and waits for review before it counts.

  • Type, or paste a block from Excel — sites down, months across
  • CSV and Excel import, with columns mapped and checked before anything is saved
  • The offline field app, from a link or a printed QR card, in English or Hindi
  • Utility bills by upload, forwarded e-mail or a mailbox, matched to sites and read with AI
  • Bills, invoices and manifests turned into figures with AI, each with the words it came from
  • Zoho Books, Tally and SAP S/4HANA connectors, and HR imports, staged for review
  • A supplier portal, and a REST API with signed webhooks

Checked before anyone relies on it

Validation rules run on every typed, imported, connected and API figure — a minimum or maximum, a whole number, the change from the same month last year, one metric against another. A rule set as an error refuses the figure; one set as a warning saves it with a note. Unusual figures are pointed out while someone types, and anomaly checks on every monthly series explain what they found and rank it by the tonnes at stake.

A grid of sites and months shows what is still missing, and an area that does not apply at a site — no diesel generator, no water discharge — is marked so with its reason, so a gap is never mistaken for a zero.

Illustrative screen with sample data.

A workflow with owners, deadlines and sign-off

Every part of the report has an owner and a due date, and owners are reminded before a deadline passes. My Tasks gathers what each person has to enter, approve, answer or learn. Approval workflows follow your organisation — roles by pillar, named approvers, as many steps as you need — and every approval can carry an electronic signature.

  • Nobody approves a figure they entered
  • Bulk approval with one signature, every rule still applied to each item
  • Notifications by e-mail, in ESGTrack, and in Slack or Microsoft Teams
  • Undo a deletion for ten minutes; nothing typed is lost to an expired page

Illustrative screen with sample data.

Dashboards and KPIs from approved figures

A dashboard shows the data collected against what is due. Groups see a consolidated dashboard across their companies. Targets and actions are followed from the same data, and the BRSR Core KPIs are calculated from approved entries — so the number on a dashboard is the number that goes into the report.

Approved data is carried into BRSR Core and CSRD, and the same figures answer ISSB, a GRI content index and CDP where the measure is the same.

Related

Questions about ESG data management

Can we keep working in Excel?

Yes. Paste a block straight from Excel — sites down, months across — or import CSV and Excel files, with the columns mapped and checked before anything is saved. What changes is what happens next: each figure carries its evidence, goes through its approvals and is written to the audit trail.

How do plant teams enter data without a laptop?

With the offline field app, opened from a link or a printed QR card, in English or Hindi. Readings recorded without a connection are sent when there is one, and a meter photo taken in the app becomes the figure's evidence.

Which systems can send data to ESGTrack?

Zoho Books, Tally and SAP S/4HANA through connectors, and HR data from Darwinbox, Keka, greytHR, SuccessFactors or a spreadsheet — each staged for review before it counts. Professional and Enterprise also include a REST API with an OpenAPI specification, and signed webhooks.

How are wrong figures caught?

Validation rules — ranges, whole numbers, year-on-year change, one metric against another — check every typed, imported, connected and API figure; unusual figures are pointed out while you type; and anomaly checks on every monthly series rank what they find by the tonnes at stake. Nobody can approve a figure they entered.

Can we track metrics that no framework asks for?

Yes. A custom metric is entered, evidenced and approved like any other figure, and custom ESG topics cover what no framework does.

Guides on this topic

All guides and resources

GuideData collection

Collecting ESG data from sites and suppliers without losing the trail

Reliable ESG data comes from a simple design decided before collection starts — which indicator, at which site, how often, in what unit, entered by whom, approved by whom, with what evidence. For suppliers, ask only the partners that matter (BRSR's 2% rule is a good start), ask for little, make answering easy, and record how good each answer is.

5 min read

GuideCarbon accounting

How to calculate emissions from activity data: factors, units and GWPs, worked through

Emissions are activity data multiplied by an emission factor — litres of diesel, kilowatt-hours or tonnes of material times the kilograms of greenhouse gas each unit releases — with every gas converted to CO₂e using one set of global warming potentials. Common errors come from units, from a factor that does not fit the activity, and from not recording which factor was used.

5 min read

StoryData collection

Illustrative scenario: asking 60 suppliers for their emissions data

Illustrative scenario

An invented example of how an auto-components maker in the top 250 might run its first supplier data request — choosing 11 value chain partners under BRSR's 2% rule plus the suppliers behind its Scope 3 hotspots, asking for four things, following up, allocating the answers and scoring their quality. The company, suppliers and figures are invented to show the steps.

3 min read

See your own sites and data in ESGTrack

A walkthrough of collection, checks and approvals around your sites, systems and reporting calendar.