ESG Workspace

Release version: Xanadu

Updated August 1, 2024

3 minutes to read

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Summary of ESG Workspace

The ESG Workspace provides a streamlined user interface tailored for different roles to efficiently manage Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) commitments. Upon logging in, users are presented with a home page featuring quick actions and comprehensive reports that visualize data aligned with the three pillars of ESG.

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Key Features

Quick Actions: Enables users to initiate key ESG tasks such as documenting material topics, creating goals, programs, projects, and starting disclosures. Note that creating programs and projects requires integration with Project Portfolio Management.
Tasks Section: Offers a consolidated view of all ESG-related tasks, including individual and group tasks, items on the watch list, and pending approvals for managers. Accessible via the Task icon in the workspace.
Overview Section: Displays the status of material topics selected by the company, showing if associated goals and sub-goals are on track, at risk, or off track. Users can filter to view all goals or only top-level goals.
Top Level Goals Summary: Provides detailed insights into goals filtered by ESG pillars, showing goal classification, status, progress, and indicators like off-track goals, overdue metrics, and risks. Additional data on non-compliant policies and high risks appear if Integrated Risk Management (IRM) is installed.
Target Summary by Goal: Summarizes targets linked to goals, including status, ownership, measures, progress, update frequency, and last updated by information.
Disclosures Section: Breaks down ESG-related disclosures, showing open, overdue, and upcoming disclosures with filtering options by type and state. Disclosures follow defined workflows to manage data transparency.
Pending Disclosures: Lists all disclosures awaiting action, displaying their state, type, and assigned personnel for efficient follow-up.
Material Topics: Users can view material topics either as a heatmap illustrating importance to stakeholders and business success or as a list showing priority and classification. Only material topics in the Monitor state contribute to these reports.
Search Capability: The workspace includes a search field that allows users to search ESG-related content. Results display in a contextual side panel to enhance navigation and information retrieval.

What ServiceNow Customers Can Expect

With the ESG Workspace, customers gain a centralized and intuitive platform to manage ESG initiatives effectively. The workspace supports task management, goal tracking, disclosure oversight, and risk identification, enabling organizations to monitor ESG performance comprehensively. Integration with Project Portfolio Management and Integrated Risk Management enhances functionality for program/project creation and risk compliance visibility. This enables informed decision-making, streamlined ESG reporting, and improved governance aligned with stakeholder expectations.

The ESG Workspace is a simplified user interface designed for different users to perform their respective tasks. The home page of the ESG Workspace displays various quick actions and reports.

The ESG Workspace displays different sections to provide data visualization for different components. These sections reference the three pillars of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) commitments.

The following image shows you the ESG home page. ESG dashboard.

Each section of the dashboard is explained in the following sections.

Quick actions

When you log in to the ESG Workspace, the ESG dashboard is the first page that is available to you. Using the Quick actions section on the ESG Workspace, you can perform the following tasks:

Document a material topic
Create a goal
Create a program
Create a project
Start a disclosure

Note:

The options to create a program and a project are available only when you integrate with Project Portfolio Management.

Tasks

The Tasks section enables you to view the following:

Provides a single page for viewing all the ESG related tasks.
Enables you to view the individual user tasks, user group tasks, my items, and watch list on the Tasks page in the workspace view.
Enables you to view the pending approvals if you are a manager.

You can launch the Tasks page by selecting the Task icon on the ESG Workspace (

)

Overview section

Material topics are the areas selected by your company. The Overview section shows you the status of all those material topics that have associated goals and sub-goals for the three pillars.

Each link is clickable and leads you to the related pages. You can see if the goals are on-track, at risk, or off-track. Using the filter on the page, you can either view all your goals or only your top-level goals.

Top Level Goals Summary

The Top Level Goals Summary section provides a more detailed view of the goals and their status. In this section, you can filter your goals by the three pillars. You can see only the top level goals and when the filter is changed, you can still see only the top level goals but the data includes all the child-level goals. Under this section, you can view the following items for your goals:

Goal: Shows all the goals.
Classification: Shows if the goal belongs to environmental, social, or governance.
Status: Shows if the goal is on track or off track.
Progress: Shows the progress value of the goal.
Off-track goals: Shows the number of off-track goals.
Off-track targets: Shows the number of off-track targets.
Overdue metrics: Shows the overdue metrics.
Overdue Programs/Projects: Shows the number of programs and projects that are associated with the goal.
Non-compliant policies: Shows the number of non-compliant policies that are applied to the goal.
High risks: Shows the number of risks for the goal.

Note:

Non-compliant policies and High risks appear only when you install Integrated Risk Management (IRM).

Target summary by goal

This section provides a summary of the targets by goals and their status, owners, measure, target value, actual value, progress, check in frequency, and who is the goal updated by.

Disclosures

The Disclosures section provides a breakdown of the different disclosures. Disclosure refers to the disclosure of data relating to an organization's environmental, social and governance performance. Such disclosures enable investors to make informed decisions by identifying companies that may pose a risk. This section displays the following information:

Open disclosures
Overdue disclosures
Disclosures due in 30 days

Disclosures are of different types and each disclosure has a workflow. You can filter the disclosures using either the By type or By state filters.

Pending disclosures

The Pending disclosures section displays all the disclosures that are pending. These disclosures are displayed along with their state, type, and the person who is assigned the disclosure.

Material topics

Using the filter provided, you can view the status of your material topics in one of the following formats:

Heatmap
List

In the Heatmap view, the Material topics section shows you the matrix of your material topics according to their importance to stakeholders and to business success. Each tile in the heatmap is clickable. If you opt for the List view, you can also see the priority and the classification of the material topics.

Note:

Only the material topics in the Monitor state contribute to this report.

Searching in the ESG Workspace

You can use the ability to search the ESG Workspace by using the Search field. To search the ESG Workspace, select ESG workspace from the list. The search results appear on the contextual side panel.