ESG content accelerator

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of ESG content accelerator

    The ESG content accelerator application is a centralized repository designed to streamline the adoption of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks, citations, metric definitions, and emission factors. Available through the ServiceNow Store, it enables organizations to efficiently implement and align with multiple ESG standards and regulations, facilitating consistent and interoperable ESG reporting.

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    Key Features

    • Frameworks and Regulations: Provides access to major ESG frameworks including Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, SustainableIT.org, European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS/CSRD), and IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards (ISSB). The list expands with new versions.
    • Emission Factors: Contains predefined emission factors from authoritative sources such as eGRID GHG Emission Factors by US EPA, UK GHG factors from DEFRA and DESNZ, and US Environmentally-Extended Input-Output (USEEIO) data. Users can activate, update, or create custom emission factors, reducing manual effort in emissions calculation.
    • Metric Definitions and Citations: Allows selection and installation of citations linked to frameworks in an active state, and metric definitions in an inactive state, enabling customization and editing of these metrics to fit organizational needs.
    • Version Management and Updates: Facilitates integration of updates as they become available, helping maintain compliance with evolving ESG standards.

    Key Outcomes

    • Accelerates ESG framework adoption by providing ready-to-use, standardized content.
    • Ensures consistent and interoperable ESG reporting across different standards and regulations through aligned metric definitions and citations.
    • Saves time and effort by eliminating the need for manual creation of metric definitions and sourcing of emission factors.
    • Supports ongoing compliance by enabling easy updates and version control of frameworks and emission factors.

    The ESG content accelerator application is a centralized repository of frameworks, citations, metric definitions, and emission factors. Using this application accelerates the adoption of ESG frameworks.

    You can install ESG content accelerator from the ServiceNow Store. After installation, you can launch the application by selecting the ESG content accelerator icon (Unified content management icon.).

    Frameworks and regulations

    The application contains the following frameworks and regulations.
    • Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
    • Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)
    • Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
    • United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
    • SustainableIT.org (Available on version 18.0.3)
    • European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS/CSRD) (Available on version 18.0.3)
    • The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) (Available on version 19.1.0)
    • IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards (ISSB) (Available on version 19.1.0)
    Note:
    The list of frameworks supported isn’t exhaustive and may evolve over the future releases.

    Emission factors

    An emission factor is a coefficient that quantifies the emissions released per unit of activity or output. It is used extensively in environmental science, engineering, and regulatory contexts to estimate the amount of pollutants or greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere from various sources. The ESG content accelerator also contains several emission factors. For more information on emission factors, refer to Emission factor library.

    Emission factors are sourced from certain standard content providers. These content providers publish the emission factors for a variety of industries and geographies. As an ESG administrator, while you can create your own emission factor to calculate your emissions, you can also use the emission factors provided through the ESG content accelerator application. Using the emission factors through the ESG content accelerator application saves your time and effort. The following emission factors are provided by this application.
    • eGRID
    • GHG Emission Factors by US EPA
    • UK GHG factors (From DEFRA and DESNZ)
    • US Environmentally-Extended Input-Output (USEEIO)

    You can activate or update the ones that meet your requirement. Whenever there is a latest version of the emission factors available, you can update it using the ESG content accelerator application.

    Note:
    Selecting the information icon on any tile displays the description of the framework or the emission factor.

    Benefits of the ESG content accelerator application

    The following are the benefits of the ESG content accelerator application:
    • Provides the ability to choose the framework you want to use.
    • Facilitates the alignment of the metric definitions with the relevant citations from different frameworks. This helps achieve interoperability between citations of different frameworks and ensures consistent reporting of ESG performance across various standards and regulations.
    • Enables you to choose the citations that are associated with a particular framework and install them in the active state in your instance.
    • Allows the installation of the metric definitions, which are associated with the citations, in the inactive state.
    • Eliminates the need to manually create the metric definitions.
    • Enables the users to edit the metric definitions.
    • Aims to integrate updates as they become available and are listed in the versions under the respective frameworks and regulations.

    Workflow of the ESG content accelerator application

    The following figure displays the life cycle of the ESG content accelerator application.

    Workflow of how the Unified content management application works.

    For more information see, Activate or update a framework and install citations using the ESG content accelerator.