Sustainability software

Sustainability software collects environmental, social and governance data, calculates the metrics that depend on it — greenhouse gas emissions first among them — and turns the results into a disclosure against a framework such as UK SRS, the ESRS, GRI or CDP.

Carbon accounting software is the part of the category that stops at the emissions inventory; sustainability software carries the data on into materiality, governance and narrative disclosure.

It is the reporting layer of sustainability software: the part that maps collected data to the disclosure requirements of a named framework and produces the text and tables that are published.

The terms sustainability reporting software, sustainability disclosure software and ESG reporting software are used for the same class of tool in the UK market.

This site does not name one, because it has not tested any of the products and a ranking without testing is an opinion presented as a finding.

The useful question is which tool can demonstrate, on your own data, the specific things the rules you report under require — location-based Scope 2 for UK SRS S2, a chosen intensity ratio for SECR, the 95% line for ESOS, the version statement for the ESRS in 2026. This page lists those requirements with their provisions.

Compliance with IFRS S1 and S2, or with UK SRS, is asserted by the entity about its own disclosures, not by a software vendor about a product.

UK SRS S1 ¶73A even sets out when an entity may not assert compliance.

Software can hold the data and structure the disclosure; whether the report complies depends on what the entity discloses.

Not in the sense of a flat duty.

The FCA’s final rules (PS26/19, 30 September 2026) require listed companies in UKLR 6, 14, 15, 16 and 22 to report against UK SRS on a comply-or-explain basis for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027, with first reports in 2028.

For every other UK entity the standards are available for voluntary use.

Many vendors say they map one dataset to the ESRS and to TCFD-aligned or ISSB-aligned disclosure; the directory on this page records which frameworks each vendor names on its own site.

Note that the TCFD disbanded in 2023, and the FCA’s new rules replace the TCFD-aligned listing-rule disclosures from 2027.

Not necessarily.

A company whose only duties are SECR and ESOS needs an energy and emissions record; a company reporting against UK SRS S1 and S2 or the ESRS also needs materiality records, governance and strategy narrative, and a disclosure workflow.

Some vendors sell both in one product, others sell the carbon part alone.

UK SRS and the FCA listing rules do not impose a general duty to obtain sustainability assurance.

Listed companies in scope of the FCA rules must say whether they obtained assurance and, if so, from whom, over which disclosures and to which standard.

Where an assurer is engaged, the practical test for software is whether a reported figure can be traced back to its source document and calculation.

The cross-industry metrics in IFRS S2 ¶29 run from gross Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions to internal carbon prices and remuneration.

A tool that only calculates emissions covers the first of seven categories; ask a vendor to show where each of the other six would be recorded.

None that any instrument defines.

ESG software is the investor-facing name and sustainability software the umbrella term; both describe tools that collect environmental, social and governance data and map it to a framework.

What differs is the scope of a given product, which is why this page lists the outputs the rules require instead of comparing labels.

GRI describes its standards as helping organisations understand their impacts and respond to information demands from stakeholders and regulators, which is an impact lens.

UK SRS and the ISSB standards are written for investors.

They answer different questions, so a tool naming GRI is serving a second disclosure, not a replacement for UK SRS; the directory records which frameworks each vendor names.

Five things moved.

DBT published UK SRS S1 and S2 on 25 February 2026.

DESNZ published conversion factors with a new electricity method on 11 June 2026.

The FCA issued PS26/19 on 30 September 2026.

The revised ESRS were adopted on 3 July 2026 and apply to financial years from 1 January 2027.

And DESNZ’s SECR review of 26 May 2026 recommended keeping SECR, with a streamlining consultation planned but not yet opened.

This site does not estimate prices.

Of the 17 vendors in the directory, 3 publish a price on the page we read, stated as the vendor states it and dated 1 October 2026; the rest show “Enterprise level · TBD”, meaning the vendor publishes none and asks you to request a quote or demonstration.

Start from the regimes you report under, not from a vendor list.

Filter the requirements register to those regimes, take each demonstration request into every vendor meeting, ask to see it on your own data, and record whether it was shown, described only, or not yet asked.

Then read each vendor’s own pages, not anyone’s summary of them, ours included.

This site does not name one, because it has tested none of the products and a ranking without testing is an opinion presented as a finding.

The directory on this page lists 17 vendors alphabetically from their own sites, and the requirements register says what any tool must show you on your own data.

Neither term is defined in any instrument cited on this page, so neither is better in law.

ESG is the investor-facing shorthand for environmental, social and governance data, and CSR is the older company-facing term for responsibility programmes; software sold under either name should be judged on the outputs it produces.

For reporting software, yes: UK SRS S1 and S2 were published on 25 February 2026, the FCA made its comply-or-explain rules on 30 September 2026, and the revised ESRS apply from financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2027.

What has changed is the vocabulary, which now follows the standards rather than the ESG label.

A company that does not exceed at least two of £36m turnover, £18m balance sheet and 250 employees is outside the SECR tests for unquoted companies, so a small business often needs only an inventory of energy, fuel and travel with a named factor set.

Customers may still ask for data, and CDP says its supply-chain members requested environmental data from nearly 45,000 companies in 2025.

No standard defines an audit-ready platform.

ISO 14040 sets the principles and framework for life cycle assessment and ISO 14044 the requirements, including reporting and critical review, so the useful question is whether a tool produces each phase those standards name and lets a reviewer trace the figures.

Yes, in two separate groups.

Supplier data collection appears in many sustainability platforms and answers customer requests such as CDP questionnaires, while social audits such as SMETA are carried out by an approved auditor and the results can then be recorded in a platform.

It is the part of sustainability software that holds energy, fuel, travel and waste records, applies a named conversion-factor set, and produces the environmental statements the rules ask for, such as the SECR limbs and the UK SRS S2 emissions disclosures.

The DESNZ factor set must match the year of the activity data.