With companies looking to meet the expectations of customers and stakeholders, the combination of Accenture Sustainability Services, Salesforce Sustainability Cloud and Salesforce Customer 360 will allow for sustainability to be brought to the front office, for the first time.
The combination of these capabilities will provide the C-suite with visibility into the organisation’s historical and real-time environmental, social and governance (ESG) data.
Companies will be able to keep track of and act on sustainability initiatives, such as reporting on carbon usage, supporting customer engagements, and meeting regulatory requirements.
Salesforce Sustainability Cloud, built on Salesforce Customer 360, will allow for a 360-degree view of the company’s environmental impact for easier management of carbon footprints, as well as enabling transparent reporting of investor-grade climate data.
Capabilities delivered by Accenture, meanwhile, will help integrate Salesforce Sustainability Cloud into business strategies, operating models, technologies, and core processes and systems with industry-specific requirements, alongside developing sustainability insights.
Later this year, Salesforce and Accenture will look to expand the platform and services to track and analyse broader ESG metrics, from water and waste management to diversity & inclusion.
Sustainable transformation: why climate change and the digital agenda are more closely linked than ever
“Our clients’ commitment to sustainability has never been greater,” said Julie Sweet, CEO of Accenture. “As industries reimagine and rebuild from the pandemic, they have the opportunity to embed sustainability by design to drive their customer agenda.
“We are delighted to expand our partnership with Salesforce to help organisations both create value and deliver on their values.”
Marc Benioff, chair and CEO of Salesforce, commented: “Every CEO is recognising their responsibilities don’t stop at the edge of the corporate campus or Zoom.
“By integrating sustainability deep into the fabric of our companies, our businesses will become more successful, our communities more equal, our societies more just, and our planet healthier.
“We’re incredibly proud to be working with Accenture to help customers more readily drive sustainability programs that benefit all stakeholders and create business value.”
Work in progress
Recent Accenture research has found that organisations that leverage the combination of sustainability and technology are 2.5 times more likely to be among tomorrow’s strongest-performing businesses than others.
Reacting to the news of Accenture and Salesforce’s alliance expansion, Bjoern Stengel, senior research analyst, Worldwide Business Consulting & ESG Business Services at IDC, commented: “The partnership will allow Accenture and Salesforce to use their joint forces to address the rapidly growing end-user demand for data-based insights around sustainability performance and metrics-driven approaches that help turn ESG topics into drivers for positive business outcomes.
“Our research shows that more and more companies realise that a sustainable business strategy means more than just ‘doing good’ — it means ‘doing well by doing good’.
“This initiative can help customers on this journey by letting them capture relevant ESG data as well as manage and measure performance against their sustainability targets.”
Both Accenture and Salesforce have been working with the World Economic Forum (WEF) to drive sustainability, and have set out long-term commitments to advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
