Environmental, Social, and Governance Management release notes

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 4 minutes to read
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    Summary of Environmental, Social, and Governance Management release notes - Xanadu Release

    The ServiceNow® ESG Management application enables organizations to effectively manage their environmental, social, and governance commitments. The Xanadu release introduces significant enhancements designed to improve tracking, reporting, and approval workflows related to ESG metrics, helping you comply with evolving regulations and better understand your organization's impact.

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    Key Features

    • Scope 3 Emissions Tracking: Use the new Scope 3 dashboard to monitor indirect emissions across your value chain, which represent the largest portion of greenhouse gas output. This feature supports full carbon footprint disclosures and regulatory compliance.
    • Emission Factors via ESG Content Accelerator: Access standardized emission factors automatically, which are essential for calculating emissions based on activities, materials, or energy consumption.
    • Custom Fiscal Calendars: Create fiscal calendars tailored to your organization’s or regional entities’ unique financial periods, enabling accurate data collection and reporting aligned with diverse geographic requirements.
    • Flexible Approval Flows for Metrics: Configure either a simple single-level approval directly on metric forms or an advanced multi-level approval using the GRC: Approver Configurator, providing adaptable governance over metric approvals.
    • Ad Hoc Metric Data Tasks: Address off-cycle data requests by creating ad hoc tasks on existing metrics, ensuring timely updates and information availability.
    • Enhanced Metric Data Table Filters: Utilize improved filters to display only relevant and open tasks, streamlining the work of data owners and approvers.
    • Sustainable IT Dashboard: Analyze energy consumption per asset model and individual assets, sorted by usage, to identify high-consumption models and support energy efficiency efforts.
    • Emission Factor Library in ESG Workspace: Emission factors are now directly accessible within the ESG Workspace for easier reference and management.

    Key Outcomes

    • Improved Environmental Impact Management: By tracking Scope 3 emissions and leveraging emission factors, organizations gain comprehensive insights into indirect emissions and can take targeted mitigation steps.
    • Enhanced Data Collection and Reporting Flexibility: Supporting multiple fiscal calendars and ad hoc data collection enables accurate, location-specific ESG reporting aligned with organizational structures.
    • Streamlined Governance: Configurable approval workflows provide control and transparency over ESG metrics, accommodating both simple and complex organizational processes.
    • Better Data Visibility and Accessibility: Enhanced filters and role-based data access ensure that relevant stakeholders can efficiently manage and approve ESG data.
    • Expanded Role Capabilities: ESG program managers now have full control over emission factors, allowing for comprehensive management of critical data elements.
    • Modernized Content Accelerators: Transition from deprecated Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) content accelerators to the updated ESG content accelerator for the latest standards and data.

    Activation and Availability

    ESG Management is available for installation through the ServiceNow Store. Customers should request the application via the store to enable these features in their environments.

    The ServiceNow® ESG Management application helps you to manage all your environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments. ESG Management was enhanced and updated in the Xanadu release.

    ESG Management highlights for the Xanadu release

    • Track Scope 3 emissions from your value chain to gain knowledge of your environmental impact and promote compliance with evolving regulations.
    • Create fiscal calendars to accommodate your organization’s unique fiscal calendar, providing the flexibility to collect and report data according to the defined fiscal calendars.
    • Use the emission factors content in the ESG content accelerator.
    • Enable ESG administrators to define either a simple approval flow or an advanced approval flow for all the metrics and metric definitions.
    • Address off-cycle requests to collect data for existing metric definitions and metrics by creating ad hoc metric data tasks on manual metrics.

    See Environmental, Social, and Governance Management for more information.

    Important:
    ESG Management is available in the ServiceNow Store. For details, see the "Activation information" section of these release notes.

    New in the Xanadu release

    Track scope 3 emissions
    Track Scope 3 emissions using the Scope 3 dashboard to fully grasp and manage your organization's environmental impact. These emissions constitute the largest part of your greenhouse gas output, stemming from indirect sources. This comprehensive understanding aids in regulatory compliance, and obtaining full carbon footprint disclosures. After you identify your scope 3 emission sources, you can take action to mitigate the largest sources of indirect emissions.
    View emission factors in ESG content accelerator
    Use the ESG content accelerator to automatically obtain the emission factors that are published by the standard sources. Emission factors are coefficients that quantify the emissions produced per unit of activity, material, or energy consumption. They’re crucial for calculating the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) or pollutants emitted into the atmosphere based on various activities.
    Create fiscal calendars to collect metrics from different geographical locations
    Collect, aggregate, and report data according to your fiscal calendars that could be different from the standard Gregorian calendar. Many global organizations might have operations in different countries that could follow their own fiscal calendars. This feature enables the entities in other locations to collect data according to their own fiscal calendars.
    Choose the approval flow for metrics
    Set the sn_esg.metric_approval property to use either a simple approval flow for your metrics and metric definitions or use the GRC: Approver Configurator to define multiple levels of approvals based on the business rule definitions. This property has two choices.

    If you choose the Simple option, the Approval section is enabled both on the manual metric definition form and within the metrics. Using this section, you can designate approvers directly on the metric definition form. This option has a single level of approval.

    If you choose the Advanced option, the Approval section is unavailable on the manual metric definition form and within the metrics, helping to prevent you from assigning approvers there. Instead, approval can be obtained by setting the approval conditions, tables, and approvers in the GRC: Approver Configurator application. This application also enables you to define multiple levels of approvals.

    Create ad hoc metric data tasks
    Handle off-cycle requests for up-to-date information on existing metric definitions and metrics by creating ad hoc metric data tasks. These tasks address off-cycle requests and provide the latest information.
    Metric data table
    Use the enhanced filters on the metric data table to filter your tasks. The filters help to show only the relevant and open tasks for data owners and approvers.
    Identify the energy usage and emission of every asset
    Use the Sustainable IT dashboard to explore models within a specific category and view the energy consumption of each asset model and all its assets, listed in descending order. This functionality provides deeper insights into your energy usage, helping you identify the models that are in use and are consuming the most energy.

    UI changes

    Emission factor library
    The emission factors are now available in the ESG Workspace.

    Changed in this release

    ESG program manager role enhanced
    The ESG program manager (sn_esg.program_manager) can now create, read, update, and delete emission factors.
    Changes in the metric tables
    Enhanced the following metric related tables with read access control lists (ACLs):
    • Metric definition
    • Metric
    • Metric data
    • Metric data task
    • Metric data task url
    With this change, the following changes are in effect:
    • Metric level Approver user or Approver group: This means that the specified user or group designated as the approver can access only the particular metric and the tables specified for which they are the approver.
    • Multi-level approval: This means that the specified user or group designated as the approver can access only those records in the metric related tables for which they are the approver.
    • Enable enterprise owners to access metric records: This means that an enterprise owner can access any metric related record.

    Deprecations

    • Starting with the Xanadu release, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) content accelerator is deprecated. It will be hidden and no longer activated on new instances but will continue to be supported. The ESG content accelerator application provides the latest experience for this functionality.
    • Starting with the Xanadu release, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) content accelerator is deprecated. It will be hidden and no longer activated on new instances but will continue to be supported. The ESG content accelerator application provides the latest experience for this functionality.

    Activation information

    Install ESG Management by requesting it from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.