Integrating ESG Management with Watershed

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Integrating ESG Management with Watershed

    Watershed is a tool that helps organizations measure, reduce, and report their carbon emissions and renewable energy usage. When integrated with ServiceNow ESG Management, it enables users to calculate Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for their business, providing a comprehensive view of direct and indirect emissions across various sources.

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    Key Features

    • Scope Emissions Classification: Watershed supports calculation of Scope 1 (direct emissions), Scope 2 (indirect emissions from purchased energy), and Scope 3 (other indirect emissions such as business travel, waste disposal, and supply chain impacts).
    • Data Import and Integration: Watershed maintains data in spreadsheets, which ESG Management program managers import into source tables within ServiceNow. This requires activating the Watershed Integration for ESG plugin and configuring metric integrations.
    • Role Requirements: Importing data requires the user to have the snesg.programmanager role and both the importadmin and sngrcmetric.admin roles for successful data import.
    • Automated Metric Definitions: Only automated metrics with the method type set to “External source” support data import. Existing manual metrics must be converted accordingly.
    • Metric Generation and Reporting: Metrics are generated based on defined frequencies, with values and units shown in related lists. Data can be rolled up using specified formulas and converted into preferred reporting units.
    • Data Types Supported: By default, carbon emissions, renewable energy, and non-renewable energy data can be imported. Additional data types like water usage or waste disposal can also be integrated via metric integrations.
    • Configuration Options: Users can modify import configurations, create data mappings for additional spreadsheet columns, and create text-based record identifiers for accurate entity mapping to streamline the import process.
    • Data Loading and Verification: Data from Watershed spreadsheets is loaded into a staging table, followed by verification of import sets to identify errors. Transform maps are created to align staging table data to the target metric tables, enabling proper data transformation.

    Key Outcomes

    • Accurate measurement and tracking of Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions within ServiceNow ESG Management using Watershed data.
    • Streamlined data import process leveraging automated metrics and integration plugins, reducing manual effort for ESG program managers.
    • Enhanced reporting capabilities with metric roll-ups and unit conversions tailored to organizational preferences.
    • Flexibility to expand data imports beyond default carbon metrics, supporting broader ESG data management needs.
    • Improved data integrity through verification and transformation processes ensuring reliable ESG metrics for decision-making.

    Watershed is a tool that enables organizations to measure their carbon emissions and renewable energy and its impact. It also enables organizations to act to reduce emissions, and to report on the progress to reduce their carbon footprint.

    ESG Management users can use Watershed to calculate their Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions for their business. A company’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are classified into three Scopes. The following table explains the difference between each Scope.
    Table 1. Difference between Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions
    Scope 1 Scope 2 Scope 3
    Direct GHG emissions from the following sources:
    • Fuel combustion
    • Emissions from company vehicles
    • Emissions from chemical production in owned or controlled process equipment
    • Fugitive emissions
    		 Indirect emissions from the following sources:
    • Purchased electricity
    • Heat and steam.
    		 Indirect emissions from the following sources:
    • Purchased goods and services
    • Business travel
    • Employee commuting
    • Waste disposal
    • Use of sold products
    • Transportation and distribution (up- and downstream)
    • Investments
    • Leased assets and franchises

    Watershed maintains its data in spreadsheets and provides those spreadsheets to the ESG Management program manager. As an ESG Management program manager, with the role sn_esg.program_manager, you must import the data from the spreadsheets into the source tables in the ESG Management application. The source tables are then specified in the metric definitions in a ServiceNow instance.

    To use the features of Watershed, you must activate the Watershed Integration for ESG plugin and configure the metric integrations.
    Note:
    • To successfully import data, you must add the import_admin role to the sn_grc_metric.admin role.
    • Only automated metric definitions with External source as the Method type support data import. If you already have a manual metric definition in your system, you must change its Type to Automated and the Method type to External source before you can import data. For more information, refer to Create an automated metric definition.

    Before you import data from the spreadsheets, you can either create the metric definitions or you can rely on the system to create placeholders and add the details later.

    The metrics are generated based on the frequency that you have defined in the metric definition. The metric values, along with their units, are displayed on the metrics related list in the metric definition. The values are then rolled up based on the formula specified in the metric definition.
    Note:
    You can convert any metric data into a preferred reporting unit.
    By default, the ServiceNow AI Platform provides the following data that you can import from Watershed.
    • Carbon emissions
    • Renewable energy
    • Non-renewable energy

    You may also want to import other data such as water usage or waste disposal. To import other types of data, you can use the Metric integrations to import your data.