Sustainability Reporting - Software versus Spreadsheets
11/09/2026
If you are still using spreadsheets to collect and manage your sustainability data for corporate reporting, risk management and your AASB S2 reporting compliance obligations, you will have costs and risks that you probably don't realise.
Spreadsheets are powerful tools. Easy to use and fast to start. Few realise the cost of a spreadsheet.
Risks of Spreadsheets.
Errors and often hidden. We have all realised to our horror, that the totals sent to the boss for the quarterly report were wrong because my spreadsheet didn't count all of the cells in the range.
No Audit trail - when you make a mistake and change something there is no log to indicate a change was made. This makes reporting inconsistent and unreliable. Confidence in your numbers from other stakeholders will be low. "Are you sure these emissions figures are accurate to be in our annual report. God help you it they are not.
No transparency - When someone says "can you share the numbers with me" how are you going to do that ? Sending an excel link to the boss isn't ideal. The boss wants to manage by exception and have confidence to have easy access to accurate information 24/7. The boss isn't the only stakeholder. The manager of facility A and the manager of Site B want different data. You don't or cant share the spreadsheet with them, so you sent the data in 2 separate emails. It takes you a couple of hours and you incorrectly transcribe some of the data.
Changes aren't easy - The company acquires another business. you need to add them to your now large sustainability spreadsheet, The new business is complex with many different locations and divisions. You decide to rebuild the company sustainability spreadsheet for the new entity.
Manual Entry - Every this is a manually entered number. Errors happen. Fixing errors doesn't work, can't be audited and leave you with egg on your face.
Mobile data not possible - Most well developed software applications like SustainaPass provide you the opportunity to securely enter data in the field with a mobile device. This can not be achieved with a spreadsheet based system. This makes it harder to report on time or adjust to a problem because the data available to management so they can make decisions.
Your business cant utilise AI - AI , LLM's and automation opportunities are lost without well structured and quality data. You cant deploy AI initiatives to improve your business.
What are the lessons from using spreadsheets over a dedicated sustainability application
- Higher costs - manual entry, errors, lack of transparency is costly. It can be calculated.
- Risk of non compliance and fines
- Risk of reputational damage
- High professional services fees to fix your data for reporting
