Software
The same data, collected every year, from many sites and entities, with an audit trail.
Strong when you know what to measure and must do it again.Software or adviser · a decision guide, cited
ESG software vs consultant: what each does, and when to combine them
UK sustainability rules require outputs — report lines, disclosures, plans, notifications — and, on this site’s reading, none requires a software tool, while only ESOS requires a named role.
This guide sets out what software does well, what an adviser does, how the two combine, who owns the files at the end and the cost lines on both sides; this site has tested no products, assessed no firms and sells no services.
The short answer
Software repeats; an adviser judges; most companies need some of both
ESG software and an ESG consultant do different jobs, so the choice is about which job is missing.
Software is good at repetition: collecting the same data each year, keeping the working, and producing the same output from many entities.
An adviser is good at judgement: deciding what is material, setting the first baseline, writing the method, and preparing for an assurance practitioner.
Neither is required by the main UK rules, which fix the output and leave the means to the company.
The rest of this page takes each job to the provision behind it, then sets out the combination, the ownership of the files and the costs.
Your
duty
duty
Adviser
Materiality judgements, the first baseline, the methodology, readiness for assurance.
Strong when you do not yet know what to measure.Both
An adviser sets the method; software runs it; your team owns the result.
Works when the roles and the files are written down.What the rules fix
The rules require outputs, not a tool or an adviser
This site has read the main UK instruments for a requirement to use software or an adviser, and found one named role.
SECR, in Schedule 7 to SI 2008/410, fixes the lines a directors’ report carries; it names no tool and requires no audit of them, as the government’s Environmental Reporting Guidelines confirm.
Under the FCA’s PS26/19, listed companies in UKLR 6, 14, 15, 16 and 22 report against UK SRS on a comply-or-explain basis for periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027; UK SRS remains voluntary for everyone else.
The one role the law names is the ESOS lead assessor, and that person may be an employee.
Read the detailed guidance and references
| Instrument and status | What it fixes | Names software? | Names an adviser? |
|---|---|---|---|
| SECR · in force, SI 2008/410 Sch 7 | kWh, emissions, a ratio, the methodology, comparatives | No | No; no statutory audit |
| UK SRS via PS26/19 · comply or explain from 1 Jan 2027 | Disclosures against S1 and S2, or what is missing, why and next steps | No | No; a statement about any assurance obtained |
| UK SRS · voluntary (DBT, 25 Feb 2026) | As above, by choice | No | No |
| PPN 006 · procurement policy | A Carbon Reduction Plan for in-scope bids above £5m a year | No | No |
| ESOS · in force, SI 2014/1643 | An assessment, a notification, then an action plan | No | A lead assessor, internal or external |
The SECR size test is framed as “not more than” on the exempt side, so a large unquoted company is in when it exceeds at least two of £36m turnover, £18m balance sheet and 250 employees, judged over two consecutive years after the first; the detail is on SECR reporting requirements.
PPN 006 is a condition of participation that in-scope authorities apply to contracts above £5 million a year, including VAT, and its Technical Standard sets the form of the plan; it is not a legal duty on every company.
The Department for Business and Trade published UK SRS S1 and S2 on 25 February 2026 for voluntary use.
What each rule fixesExplore
Module 01 / 04
SECR
Energy, emissions, an intensity ratio, the methodology and comparatives, in the directors’ report.
Module 02 / 04
UK SRS via PS26/19
A UK SRS report, or a statement of what is missing, why, and next steps.
Module 03 / 04
PPN 006
A Carbon Reduction Plan in the Technical Standard’s form, for in-scope bids.
Module 04 / 04
ESOS
An assessment signed off by a lead assessor from an approved register, then a notification.
What software does well
Repeatable data, an audit trail, many entities
Software earns its cost when the same work has to be done again, consistently, at scale.
A platform collects data on a schedule, keeps the source document beside each line, and records who changed a figure and why.
It holds many entities under one consolidation approach, which matters because UK SRS S1 ¶23 asks for data and assumptions consistent, as far as possible, with those behind the financial statements.
The measurement layer is set out on carbon accounting software, and the disclosure layer, regime by regime, on carbon reporting software.
Read the detailed guidance and references
What software does not do is decide: it applies the boundary, the methods and the materiality calls it is given.
A platform configured on a wrong boundary repeats the error every year, faster and with a better audit trail.
The wider ESG reporting market, held against UK duties, is on the ESG software comparison.
The GHG Protocol’s Corporate Standard names transparency and consistency among its five principles, and those two are where software helps most: the trail behind a figure, and last year reproduced this year.
- 1
Collect on a schedule
Meter, fuel, travel and spend data pulled in the same way every period.
- 2
Keep factor versions
The emission factor set for each activity year, never overwritten.
- 3
Hold the group
Many sites and entities rolled up under one consolidation approach.
- 4
Record every change
Who entered or changed a figure, when and why, as the work happens.
- 5
Produce the same output
The SECR lines, a UK SRS metric or a supplier answer from one dataset.
What an adviser does
Judgements, the first baseline, the method and assurance readiness
An adviser earns a fee where the work is a judgement the company makes once and then defends.
The four usual ones are materiality, the first baseline, the methodology and readiness for assurance.
The judgement stays the company’s: an adviser can frame it, test it and write it down, but the company signs off what it publishes.
Firms that sell this work are described, with the questions to ask them, in the guide to ESG consultancy and the guide to choosing a sustainability consultant.
Read the detailed guidance and references
An adviser who builds a baseline and then leaves it in a workbook nobody else can read has sold a result, not a method.
Ask for the method as a document: the boundary, the consolidation approach, the methods by category, the threshold for restating, and the sources of every factor.
The disclosure side of that work, from the S1 structure to the FCA’s statements, is the subject of the guide to sustainability reporting consultancy.
The assurance side is set out below, because it changes who can do what.
Where judgement sitsExplore
Module 01 / 04
Materiality
Which sustainability-related risks and opportunities could reasonably be expected to affect the company’s prospects.
Module 02 / 04
First baseline
The boundary, the consolidation approach and the base year every later figure inherits.
Module 03 / 04
Methodology
Methods by Scope 3 category, the recalculation threshold, the written method a reviewer reads.
Module 04 / 04
Assurance readiness
Evidence a practitioner can sample, and an independence question answered early.
Materiality
A judgement software can record but cannot make
Materiality is the clearest case of a judgement no tool can make for a company.
UK SRS S1 asks whether omitting, misstating or obscuring information could reasonably be expected to influence the decisions of primary users of general purpose financial reports (¶18).
It sets no thresholds for materiality (¶B19), lets an entity leave out information that is not material even where a standard lists it (¶B25), and requires materiality judgements to be reassessed at each reporting date (¶B28).
So the reasoning has to be written down where next year’s team, and any assurance practitioner, can read it.
Read the detailed guidance and references
S1 ¶B10 adds that an entity need not undertake an exhaustive search for information to identify the risks and opportunities that could reasonably be expected to affect its prospects.
The UK test is single, financial materiality, framed by effects on cash flows, access to finance or cost of capital (¶3).
The EU’s CSRD asks for both an undertaking’s impacts on sustainability matters and their effect on the undertaking, under Article 19a(1) of the Accounting Directive, which is a wider exercise.
How that double test works is set out in double materiality.
Software can hold a materiality register — topics, sources, the decision and its date — which is useful precisely because ¶B28 makes the exercise annual.
The test
S1 ¶18Could omitting it influence primary users’ decisions?Thresholds
NoneS1 ¶B19: none specified or predeterminedNot material
Not disclosedS1 ¶B25, even where listed as a minimum requirementEach year
ReassessS1 ¶B28: at each reporting dateThe first baseline and the method
The choices every later figure inherits
The first baseline is where an adviser most often adds value, because its choices are hard to change later.
The GHG Protocol’s Corporate Standard requires a choice of consolidation approach — equity share, or control, and under control financial or operational — and every figure inherits it.
Its 2019 Inventory Guidance leaves the significance threshold for restating a base year to the company, giving 2 percent only as an example; for a science-based target the SBTi’s figure is 5% or less, as the GHG Protocol’s technical assistance records.
Those are judgements with consequences for years, which is why they belong in a written method rather than in a consultant’s head or a vendor’s default setting.
Read the detailed guidance and references
An adviser’s first baseline and a platform’s configuration should be the same document read twice.
Where they differ — a platform default overriding the agreed approach, or a workbook formula nobody transferred — the second year’s figures stop matching the first.
For the carbon footprint specifically, the adviser’s side is described on the guide to carbon footprint consultancy.
SECR keeps last year beside this year in the directors’ report, under Schedule 7, so a baseline that cannot be reproduced shows up in the comparatives.
- 1
Choose the consolidation approach
Equity share, financial control or operational control — one, for the whole group.
- 2
Draw the boundary
Entities, sites, joint ventures and leased assets, on that approach.
- 3
Pick the base year
The year a trend and any target are measured from.
- 4
Set the recalculation threshold
The company’s own figure for when the base year is restated.
- 5
Write it down
A methodology document the software is then configured from.
The one named role
ESOS requires a lead assessor — who may be on your payroll
ESOS is the one UK regime here that names a role, and even there the law does not require an outside firm.
The Environment Agency’s Phase 4 guidance says an undertaking must appoint a lead assessor from an approved register, and puts the duty to check the accreditation on the undertaking.
The lead assessor may be an employee: where they are not independent of the participant under regulation 30, two responsible officers sign off rather than one.
The Phase 4 notification of compliance is due by 5 December 2027, and no lead assessor is needed where total energy consumption is less than 40,000 kWh.
Read the detailed guidance and references
Regulation 30(4) defines independence exhaustively: in the last twelve months the assessor must not have been an employee, a director or person exercising management control, or a shareholder of the participant, nor the spouse or civil partner of one.
So a consultant who holds shares in the participant is outside the business and still not independent, and two responsible officers sign.
Where ISO 50001 certification covers total or significant energy consumption, the participant is deemed to have complied with the duty to appoint a lead assessor, and still notifies.
ESOS software and lead assessors do different jobs: the first holds the energy data by purpose, the second signs the assessment; the advisers are described in the guide to ESOS consultancy.
The approved registers are kept by professional bodies under regulation 12, against a fixed competence standard.
Lead assessor
Approved registerSI 2014/1643 reg 12; EA Phase 4 guidance §7.2Not required
Under 40,000 kWhreg 21(3); or where ISO 50001 covers the energyIndependent assessor
One officer signsreg 30(3); independence defined in reg 30(4)Any other case
Two officers signreg 30(3) and (3A)Assurance readiness and independence
Assurance is optional; independence decides who can give it
No UK rule requires a company to have its sustainability figures assured.
A listed company that does obtain assurance states who provided it, which disclosures were assured and which standards were used, under UKLR 6.6.6R(8)(d) as made by PS26/19, and need not explain an absence of assurance.
Readiness is the adviser’s job and the software’s evidence: source documents linked to lines, a change history, and a method a practitioner can follow.
Independence then limits who can do the assurance, which matters if the same firm built the numbers.
Read the detailed guidance and references
The IESBA’s International Ethics Standards for Sustainability Assurance are effective for assurance engagements on periods beginning on or after 15 December 2026.
Under R5600.17, a firm must not provide a non-assurance service to a sustainability assurance client that is a public interest entity if the service might create a self-review threat, as the IESBA’s staff questions and answers set out.
For other clients there is no blanket ban: R5600.9 requires the firm to identify, evaluate and address threats to independence under the conceptual framework, and R5600.18 sets out an exception for advice and recommendations.
The FRC’s ISSA (UK) 5000 was issued on 12 November 2025 for voluntary use, and its ¶34 points practitioners to the IESBA Code’s independence provisions; PS26/19 deliberately does not name it, asking only which standards were used.
The practical point is to decide early whether the adviser who builds your baseline could later assure it, because the answer may be no.
The UK assurance position in full is on sustainability assurance.
Before an assurance engagementExplore
Module 01 / 04
Is it required?
No UK rule requires sustainability assurance; SECR has no statutory audit.
Module 02 / 04
The listed statement
Who provided any assurance, which disclosures, which standards — UKLR 6.6.6R(8)(d).
Module 03 / 04
The standard
ISSA (UK) 5000, issued for voluntary use; independence through the IESBA Code.
Module 04 / 04
Self-review
For a public interest entity, no service that might create a self-review threat — R5600.17.
The common combination
Adviser for the judgements, software for the process, your team for the result
A sequence many companies follow, set out as an illustration rather than a rule: no instrument prescribes it.
It works when each step names who decides, who runs it and who keeps the file.
- 01 / Scope01
Name the duties and outputs
SECR, UK SRS, PPN 006, ESOS, customer requests — the list decides what is bought. - 02 / Judge02
Materiality and the first baseline
Often adviser-led: boundary, consolidation approach, base year, material topics. - 03 / Write03
The methodology document
Owned by the company, assigned in the contract, used to configure the software. - 04 / Run04
Software carries the process
Data collection, factor versions, entities and the audit trail, year after year. - 05 / Review05
Judgements reassessed each year
Materiality at each reporting date; the baseline restated when the threshold is crossed. - 06 / Assure06
An independent practitioner, if sought
Not the firm whose service might create a self-review threat, for a public interest entity.
Read the detailed guidance and references
Some vendors sell software and advice together: 6 of the 68 vendors this guide lists mention experts, advisory or consultants in their own one-line description (Compare Your Footprint, Green Project Technologies, Position Green, Sami, Trace, Zevero).
That count reads the vendors’ words, not their products, and a bundled offer still needs the same written split of roles.
Where the advice is about acting on the number — targets, reduction plans, a carbon price — the guide to carbon management consultancy covers that side, and many companies run it on the same platform as the inventory.
Who owns the model and the files
Settle ownership before the work starts
At the end of either arrangement you need the model, the method and the data, and the law does not hand them to you by default.
Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the author of a work is its first owner, and an employer owns what an employee makes in the course of employment, subject to any agreement to the contrary.
A consultancy’s workbook is therefore, unless the contract says otherwise, the consultancy’s, and an assignment is effective only in writing signed by the assignor, under section 90(3).
Where a software vendor processes personal data for you, the UK GDPR processor contract must require it to delete or return that data at the end of the contract, at your choice, as the ICO’s guidance on Article 28(3)(g) sets out.
Read the detailed guidance and references
The Act’s “literary work” includes a table or compilation and a computer program, under section 3(1); that a calculation workbook falls within it is this site’s reading.
Put three things in the contract: an assignment, or a licence wide enough to use, change and pass on the model; the methodology as a deliverable; and an export of data, factors by version and evidence, in a format another tool can read.
The Article 28 duty covers personal data only — staff travel, names on expense claims — and the inventory itself needs its own exit clause.
The check beside this lists what a change of platform does to SECR, UK SRS, a validated target and a base year, which is the same list to hold against a consultant’s handover.
Step 1 · what the inventory feeds
Step 2 · what the move changes
Step 3 · 7 things the next report has to carry
- Before access ends, export activity data, every factor with its version, and the methodology notes, so each past figure can be rebuilt.Our reading of the consistency principle, GHG Protocol Ch 1
- Keep each year on the factor set for its own activity year; a new library does not license re-running old years on new factors.DESNZ 2026 methodology ¶1.10
- Scope 2 electricity uses the emission factors corresponding to the relevant year.GHG Protocol technical assistance
- Test the change against your own significance threshold; a significant change in calculation methodology can require the base year to be recalculated. The GHG Protocol sets no figure — you set and disclose one.GHG Protocol 2019 Inventory Guidance
- Last year’s energy and emissions still appear beside this year’s in the directors’ report.Sch 7 ¶18, ¶18A (quoted) · ¶20H (unquoted)
- The methodology statement describes the methods actually used this year.Sch 7 ¶16 (quoted) · ¶20F (unquoted)
- Where the comparatives are restated on the new method, say so in that statement, so the two columns are read on one basis.Our reading of the Sch 7 ¶16 · ¶20F
Duties are the cited provisions; lines marked “our reading” are this site’s.
Not advice on any product or contract.
Nothing you tick is stored or sent.
The cost lines on both sides
Compare lines, not headline prices
This site prints no consultancy day rate and no price of its own, because it has found no UK series for sustainability advisers with a published sample and method.
On the software side, 6 of the 68 vendors this guide lists publish a figure on their own pages and 4 a free tier or plan; the rest are recorded as Enterprise level · TBD, read 11 October 2026 and 30 September–1 October 2026.
What can be compared is the list of cost lines, and the hidden one on both sides is your own staff time.
The worksheet beside this totals a three-year cost from the figures in your own quotes; it holds no vendor or adviser price.
Read the detailed guidance and references
| Cost line | Software | Adviser |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed fee | Licence per year, often by entity, user or module | Scoped fee or days for a defined deliverable |
| Set-up | Implementation, integrations, back-year import | Discovery, data requests, first baseline |
| Judgement | Not included: configured from your method | Materiality, boundary, methodology |
| Each year | Annual uplift; added entities; supplier volumes | Re-performance, unless the method is handed over |
| Your time | Data owners feeding the platform | Data owners answering requests |
| Assurance | Evidence held; practitioner billed separately | Readiness work; independence may rule out assuring |
| Exit | Export of data, factors and evidence | Assignment of the model and the method |
A proposal that leaves a line blank has not priced it; ask for it in writing.
Your three-year cost · your numbers only
Three-year total £0
Licences, three years£0
Implementation and migration£0
Training and support£0
Added entities£0
Exit£0
Arithmetic on the figures you type, from the vendor’s written quote.
Added entities are counted for an average of one and a half years each. This page states no vendor price and estimates none.
Nothing is stored or sent.
Making the decision
Ten questions for either proposal
The same questions work for a software vendor, an advisory firm or a bundle of both, which is the point.
Tick the ones your duties need, copy them, and send the same list to every proposal.
An answer that names a judgement the software will make, or a file the adviser will keep, tells you what is missing from the arrangement.
A blank answer in writing is not a yes.
Questions for a software or advisory proposal · tick the ones that apply
The pass tests are our reading of the cited provisions.
Nothing you tick is stored or sent.
The vendors
68 vendors, in their own words
Every vendor this site files under ESG reporting or carbon accounting, listed alphabetically, which ranks nothing.
The registry covers 73 vendors across all categories, read 11 October 2026 and 30 September–1 October 2026; the filter narrows this list.
68 vendors · esg reporting, carbon accounting
“Altruistiq helps companies with complex value chains go faster and further on sustainability”
“Intelligent AI that measures, reduces, and reports Scope 1–3 and LCA emissions in line with CDP, SBTi, CSRD, and CBAM requirements”
“Benchmark Gensuite is a unified EHS management software platform built on a single architecture—connecting safety, environmental compliance, and operational risk across every site”
“AI workflows that extract answers from your documents with full source references”
“Our software provides companies and financial institutions with precise accounting of the emissions caused by making, shipping and using critical commodities and products around the globe”
“We support financial institutions, companies, governments, and consumers in making the right decisions - efficiently, confidently, and at scale”
“Measure, reduce, and report your Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions”
“The professional benchmarking and reporting platform built for sustainability consultants, SMEs, and the platforms that serve them”
“Coolset gives supply chain and ESG teams the structure, automation and guidance to meet complex compliance requirements like EUDR, PPWR and CSRD, and manage Scope 1-3 emissions”
“One AI-enabled EHS software platform to drive performance across employee health, safety, quality, environmental, and sustainability”
“Cozero helps enterprises steer decarbonization with the same rigor as financial performance, from data collection to investment decisions and regulatory disclosure”
“Datamaran’s AI platform empowers business leaders to confidently navigate the complex ESG landscape by transforming vast amounts of information into actionable insights”
“Dcycle is an ESG software platform founded in 2020 that helps companies collect, manage, and govern sustainability and non-financial data”
“Deepki centralizes your sustainability data, strategy and operations in one place so you can act on carbon, climate risk, and finance”
Diginex describes carbon accounting, sustainability reporting, supply chain, human rights monitoring and ESG investor intelligence for asset managers, banks and companies.
Diligent’s carbon accounting page describes a solution that “automatically collates your data and produces up to 80 different pre-configured audit-ready reports”.
Ecologi describes itself as a B Corp-certified climate action platform.
EcoOnline sells software to manage EHS and compliance.
“The Emitwise platform is now part of Green Project, where the team continues to build and deliver end-to-end decarbonization solutions”
“Enablon is Wolters Kluwer’s integrated software platform for environment, health and safety, PSM, and enterprise oversight, with ESG capabilities embedded as part of a broader risk approach”
“Collect, analyze, and report sustainability, financial, and risk KPIs with 10+ software modules – individually or in line with official standards”
“Manage safety, compliance, ESG, sustainability and operational risk from a platform built to keep programs reliable across sites, teams and operational change”
“The climate management platform built on AI, backed by dedicated sustainability experts”
“Measure, report, and reduce your company's emissions on one audit-ready sustainability management platform”
Greenomy offered ESG reporting software for “compliance with key frameworks, including CSRD, EU Taxonomy, and VSME”, in Position Green’s words.
IBM describes Envizi as a “compliance ready solution for ESG data”.
“Ideagen Carbon Accounting is an AI-powered solution designed to address complex multi-region ESG reporting challenges in carbon accounting”
IntegrityNext describes itself as a “supply chain sustainability intelligence & orchestration platform”.
“Bring safety, environment, and quality workflows into one connected platform”
IsoMetrix sells software to “manage their environmental, health, safety, sustainability, and social risks”.
“Makersite’s Product Lifecycle Intelligence software brings together your cost, environment, compliance, and risk data in one place”
“Manglai is a platform to manage all of your environmental impact”
“Measurabl makes subjective sustainability data objective”
Microsoft Sustainability Manager
“Track and reduce your environmental impact using data and AI”
A carbon management platform that, in Novisto’s words, “simplifies the collection, calculation, and reporting of corporate carbon footprints”.
“Net Zero Now exists to provide a simple, credible and affordable route to Net Zero for SMEs and to celebrate and promote those that achieve this vitally important goal”
“Normative is a carbon accounting platform that helps companies calculate, report, and reduce Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions using 349,000 verified emission factors”
“One home for your ESG data, mapped to every framework and rating”
“Novata is a sustainability data management platform built for private market investors, deal teams, banks, and companies that need a scalable way to collect, manage, and act on sustainability data”
“One digital solution for sustainability planning, data management, reporting, analysis and action - built for enterprise”
“Our platform empowers organizations to accurately measure and manage scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions with direct and actionable information”
Oracle Fusion Cloud Sustainability
“Oracle Fusion Cloud Sustainability is a new offering to capture environmental, social, and governance data for any kind of activity that has a sustainability impact”
“osapiens is the AI platform for compliance and supplier intelligence to help companies manage risk and become more resilient”
Persefoni describes software and AI tools to manage an organisation’s “sustainability data, disclosures, and performance”.
“Your certified software for reliable emissions intelligence to measure, report and reduce your carbon footprint”
“We guide businesses in understanding their emissions, empower them to develop carbon reduction plans, and supporting them on their journey to net zero”
Position Green describes “a sustainability reporting and management platform that combines powerful software with expert advisory services”.
“Pulsora is an AI-powered sustainability and carbon management platform that automates data collection, measurement, and reporting workflows for sustainability teams”
“Digitally handle occupational safety, quality, sustainability, and environmental management”
“It leverages the full power of the Salesforce ecosystem by pulling an organization’s sustainability data into one place and creating actionable insights to guide strategic decisions”
“Measure your full carbon footprint, build your net zero strategy and develop in-house expertise with a single partner”
SAP Sustainability Footprint Management
“Decarbonize your value chain and calculate your corporate and product carbon footprint at scale with ERP-centric, AI-enabled carbon management”
“Seedling is an all-in-one carbon accounting and Net Zero planning platform for businesses of up to 2000 FTEs”
ServiceNow Operational Sustainability Management
“ServiceNow Operational Sustainability Management helps organizations manage, visualize, and report on sustainability efforts and risks across environmental, social, and governance (ESG) programs”
“SimaPro is life cycle assessment software that helps organizations measure, analyze, and reduce environmental impacts using robust datasets, scientific methods, and transparent modeling”
SINAI describes “audit-grade Scope 1–3 accounting, automated compliance reporting, complete supply chain visibility” and decarbonisation planning for global enterprises.
“Small99 Hero creates a pathway to net zero for you based on your industry, outlining how long your Net Zero journey will take and how much it will cost”
“Sphera unifies risk, safety and sustainability into a single enterprise-wide view — connecting intelligence across operations, products and supply chains”
“Sweep's AI turns sustainability data into measurable business performance”
“Manage sustainability metrics intelligently in medium-sized businesses - through automated processes, AI-powered carbon accounting, and audit-proof ESG reports”
“Terrascope is an enterprise carbon management and decarbonisation platform for companies with complex supply chains”
“Trace combines AI-powered software with expert advisory support to help organisations meet their mandatory climate and sustainability reporting obligations, efficiently and with confidence”
“Unravel Carbon is the climate platform helping companies with global supply chains make data-driven decisions”
“Carbon accounting is often the first step companies take toward climate disclosure, compliance, and action—and with Watershed, it’s part of your complete enterprise sustainability platform”
Workday (supplier sustainability)
“Turn sustainable sourcing into a competitive advantage with Workday supplier sustainability solutions”
“Workiva Carbon is an end-to-end carbon accounting software solution that enables organizations to measure, manage, collaborate on, and report emissions data”
“Worldfavor is a supply chain due diligence platform founded in Stockholm in 2016”
“Carbon management software with experts built in, so you can move from measurement to action without spreadsheets or one-off consulting projects”
Alphabetical, which ranks nothing. Each description is the vendor’s own words from its own site, read 11 October 2026 and 30 September–1 October 2026; prices appear only where the vendor publishes one. No product here has been tested by this site.
Of these, 6 mention experts, advisory or consultants in their own one-line description, which shows that the line between software and service is often drawn inside one contract.
This site lists no consultancies by name in this guide and ranks none; the questions above apply to any firm.
The adviser side, guide by guide
Consultancy guides, by the job you need done
Each guide below sets out what that kind of adviser does, the rules behind the work and the questions to ask, without naming a preferred firm.
ESG strategy and reporting across topics: ESG consultancy.
The disclosure itself, UK SRS and the FCA’s statements: sustainability reporting consultancy.
The inventory and the first baseline: carbon footprint consultancy.
Targets and reduction plans: carbon management consultancy.
The ESOS lead assessor: ESOS consultancy.
This site has tested no products and assessed no firms
Nothing on this page is a rating, ranking or recommendation of any product or adviser.
This site sells no software and no consulting; it is a reference resource built from the instruments cited below.
Frequently asked
ESG software vs consultant, answered
ESG software vs consultant: which do I need?
It depends on what is missing.
Software helps where the work repeats: the same data collected every year, from many sites or entities, with an audit trail.
An adviser helps where the work is a judgement: a materiality assessment, the first baseline, a methodology, readiness for assurance.
Many companies use both: an adviser for the judgements in the first year, and software to run the process afterwards.
Does UK law require ESG or sustainability software?
No. SECR, UK SRS, the FCA’s listing rules, PPN 006 and ESOS each require an output — lines in a report, a disclosure, a plan or a notification — and none of them, on this site’s reading, names a software product or category.
A spreadsheet with a written method can carry a small inventory; software earns its place through scale and repetition.
Does UK law require a sustainability or ESG consultant?
Only in one place, and not necessarily an outside one.
ESOS requires a lead assessor from an approved register, unless energy use is below 40,000 kWh or ISO 50001 covers it, and the lead assessor may be an employee; where they are not independent of the participant, two responsible officers sign off instead of one.
Nothing in SECR, UK SRS or the FCA’s rules requires an adviser.
When should I use ESG software and when a consultant?
Use software when you know what to measure and need to do it again, consistently, across many entities.
Use an adviser when you do not yet know what to measure: the boundary, the consolidation approach, which topics are material, which Scope 3 categories matter, or how to get ready for an assurance practitioner.
The decision section on this page turns that into ten questions to put to either proposal.
Can software do a materiality assessment?
Software can record and organise one, but the judgement is the company’s.
UK SRS S1 sets no materiality thresholds (¶B19) and requires materiality judgements to be reassessed at each reporting date (¶B28), so the reasoning has to be written down somewhere a reviewer can read next year.
The EU’s double materiality, under ESRS, is a different and wider exercise.
Is it common to combine ESG software with consulting?
It is a common pattern, and some vendors sell both.
Of the 68 vendors this guide lists, 6 mention experts, advisory or consultants in their own one-line description.
The combination works when the roles are written down: who makes each judgement, who runs the process, and who owns the files.
Who owns the carbon model a consultant builds for us?
Read the contract first.
Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 the author of a work is its first owner, an employer owns what an employee makes in the course of employment, and an assignment of copyright is effective only in writing signed by the assignor.
So unless your contract assigns or licenses the workbook and method, do not assume they are yours.
What happens to our data when an ESG software contract ends?
It depends on the contract, so negotiate the exit before you sign.
Where the vendor processes personal data for you, the UK GDPR processor contract must require it to delete or return that data at the end, at your choice.
For everything else — the inventory, the factors by version, the evidence — ask for an export another tool could rebuild from.
Can the consultancy that prepared our figures also assure them?
Not always.
Under the IESBA’s ethics standards for sustainability assurance, effective for periods from 15 December 2026, a firm must not provide a non-assurance service to a public interest entity it assures if the service might create a self-review threat (R5600.17); for other clients it must evaluate the threat under the conceptual framework (R5600.9).
Assurance itself is optional in the UK.
How much does an ESG consultant cost compared with software?
This site prints no consultancy day rate and no price of its own: it has found no UK series for sustainability advisers with a published sample and method.
On the software side, 6 of the 68 vendors this guide lists publish a figure and 4 a free tier or plan.
Compare the cost lines instead: licences or days, implementation, your own staff time, and the cost of leaving.
Sustainability software or consultant for a small business?
Often neither at first.
SECR reaches an unquoted company only when it is large, which means exceeding two of £36m turnover, £18m balance sheet and 250 employees, judged over two consecutive years after the first.
A small business answering customer questionnaires may need a written Scope 1 and 2 method and a spreadsheet before it needs either a platform or an adviser.
Is the choice different for carbon accounting software and a carbon consultant?
The logic is the same, narrower.
Carbon accounting software repeats the inventory; a carbon footprint adviser sets the boundary, the consolidation approach, the base year and the Scope 3 methods the software then runs.
The carbon guides on this site cover each side separately.
Has this site tested any ESG software or consultancy?
No. This site has tested no products, assessed no firms and sells no services.
The page is built from SECR, UK SRS, the FCA’s rules, ESOS, PPN 006, the GHG Protocol, the assurance standards and the law on copyright and data processing, each cited to its provision; the vendor directory quotes what each vendor publishes about itself.
Sources
Primary sources
Every requirement on this page traces to the provision listed here.
Vendor descriptions and prices are cited on each vendor’s profile to the vendor’s own page.
Checked against 22 sources fromDepartment for Business and TradeFinancial Conduct Authoritylegislation.gov.ukGOV.UK (DESNZ, Defra)Environment AgencyCabinet Office
- Department for Business and TradeUK Sustainability Reporting Standards S1 and S2
Published 25 February 2026 for voluntary use.
- Department for Business and TradeUK SRS S1 General Requirements (PDF), ¶¶3, 18, 23, B10, B19, B25 and B28
The materiality test, no thresholds, judgements reassessed each reporting date.
- Financial Conduct AuthorityPS26/19 — final rules on UK SRS reporting by listed companies
Comply or explain across UK SRS for UKLR 6, 14, 15, 16 and 22, periods from 1 January 2027.
- Financial Conduct AuthorityPS26/19 (PDF): Chapter 2 and Appendix 1, UKLR 6.6.6R(8)(d)
The assurance statement; no explanation where assurance is not sought.
- legislation.gov.ukSI 2008/410, Schedule 7 Parts 7 and 7A
The SECR lines and the size test.
- GOV.UK (DESNZ, Defra)Environmental Reporting Guidelines, including SECR requirements
No statutory requirement to have SECR information audited.
- legislation.gov.ukSI 2014/1643 (ESOS), regulation 12 — approved registers
The register a lead assessor must be on.
- legislation.gov.ukSI 2014/1643 (ESOS), regulation 30 — responsible officers
One responsible officer where the lead assessor is independent; two otherwise.
- Environment AgencyHow to comply with ESOS Phase 4, §7.2
Appointing a lead assessor from an approved register; the Phase 4 dates.
- Cabinet OfficePPN 006 — Taking account of Carbon Reduction Plans in the procurement of major government contracts
A condition of participation for in-scope contracts above £5 million a year, including VAT.
- Cabinet OfficePPN 006 Technical Standard for completion of Carbon Reduction Plans
A procurement policy for in-scope contracts, not a duty on every company.
- GHG Protocol (WRI, WBCSD)A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard
Consolidation approaches: equity share, or financial or operational control.
- GHG ProtocolScope 1 & 2 GHG Inventory Guidance (2019)
Base-year recalculation and the company’s own significance threshold.
- GHG Protocol technical assistanceIn what scenarios would I need to recalculate base year emissions?
Records that the SBTi requires a threshold of 5% or less for recalculating target emissions.
- GHG ProtocolTechnical Guidance for Calculating Scope 3 Emissions
Calculation methods by category, from supplier-specific to spend-based.
- EUR-LexDirective 2013/34/EU (consolidated), Article 19a(1)
The EU’s two limbs: impacts, and effects on the undertaking.
- FRCISSA (UK) 5000, ¶34
Issued 12 November 2025 for voluntary use; independence through the IESBA Code.
- IESBAInternational Ethics Standards for Sustainability Assurance — final pronouncement
Effective for periods beginning on or after 15 December 2026.
- IESBAStaff Questions and Answers — IESSA (June 2025), Q34 and Q37
R5600.17: the self-review prohibition for public interest entities.
- legislation.gov.ukCopyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, s.3(1) and s.11
The author is the first owner; an employer owns an employee’s work.
- legislation.gov.ukCopyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, s.90(3)
An assignment of copyright is effective only in writing signed by the assignor.
- Information Commissioner’s OfficeUK GDPR: what needs to be included in a processor contract
Article 28(3)(g): delete or return personal data at the end of the contract.
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