Manual Excel reporting worked until it didn’t. Learn how NTT DATA Business Solutions built a centralized sustainability data platform that replaces spreadsheets with clear dashboards and scorecards, improving data quality, speeding up validation, and enabling more reliable ESG reporting worldwide.
When Reem Shamia joined the Global Sustainability & Portfolio team at NTT DATA Business Solutions in 2024, one thing stood out right away: all environmental data was collected in a massive Excel sheet. Practical? To a point. Scalable? Not quite.
ESG reporting is more than collecting numbers – it’s about drawing conclusions and turning them into action. For example: If the analysis reveals high fuel consumption from company cars, the company can assess whether all trips are necessary, whether meetings could be held online, or whether alternative modes of transportation should be considered.
Such insights can be gained much more efficiently with a reliable tool that facilitates collaboration and provides all stakeholders with clear and useful information. Together with colleagues from the Smart X unit in Denmark, the Global Sustainability team developed such a tool: It does not only replace the spreadsheet, but it also changed fundamentally how NTT DATA Business Solutions collects and manages its environmental impact.
This is a great opportunity to apply our core competencies to improve internal efficiency.
Before the new tool was in charge, all the data was collected with Excel – a popular tool for a reason: It is user-friendly, flexible and quick to set up. So, like many organizations, NTT DATA Business Solutions relied on Excel for collecting the data needed for their environmental reporting.
To do so, each of the company’s facilities had a dedicated tab to enter their so-called activity data: figures reflecting Scope 1 and 2 emissions, such as fuel use for company vehicles, heating energy and electricity consumption. A final tab aggregated the global results.
But collecting and validating the data this way came with serious challenges: Did the units use dots or commas in their numbers? Did figures end up in the right cell? Were they aligned with the previous year’s numbers? “We had to review everything thoroughly – line by line and column by column,” says Reem Shamia, Senior Expert – Global Sustainability at NTT DATA Business Solutions.
The foundation of credible sustainability reporting is reliable data. And even though the sustainability team did the best they could, the Excel approach was time-consuming and error-prone. What’s more, the sustainability team couldn’t access the analytics directly.
With a background in both sustainability and tech, Reem quickly saw what could be possible: “This is a great opportunity to apply our core competencies to improve internal efficiency.”
Before the new ESG reporting tool was even a thought, the Danish unit Smart X had already developed a robust digital solution to tackle a related challenge: understanding and optimizing energy use across company buildings.
Emil Bekker, Manager at Smart X at NTT DATA Business Solutions in Denmark, explains the original pain point: “Our buildings had so many systems – one for lights, one for heating, another for water usage. But nothing connected them all. Our job was to collect everything in one place.“
Their solution was the Sustainable Buildings Platform – a centralized tool that collects and manages real-time data from sensors, systems, or applications within a building or site. It provides an overview of building performance and helps local facility teams to optimize their energy use. Imagine: adjusting climate and lighting systems based on usage of space or detecting inefficiencies early. This platform laid the foundation for the new, company-wide sustainability reporting tool.
Our buildings had so many systems – one for lights, one for heating, another for water usage. But nothing connected them all. Our job was to collect everything in one place.
Sustainable buildings platform – Environmental performance dashboard
Seeing the potential, Reem Shamia and Emil Bekker joined forces. Their goal: to build a tool that could collect, validate, and analyze environmental data in one place and more reliably than Excel ever could.
They transitioned the data from the former Excel sheets to a platform that is capable of aggregating information and generating analysis reports. From there, they developed a comprehensive scorecard and an interactive dashboard that visualizes the emission data, including sources, distribution and underlying activity metrics. The team built a tool that automates critical steps, provides data insights and visualizes the environmental impact. With integrated scorecards and dashboards, it transforms raw data into intuitive, comparable visualizations – empowering teams to track progress and make informed decisions over time.
Each subsidiary still inputs its own data – but now they can see the impact. They can compare figures with previous years and explore insights at any level of detail from business unit to country to facility view. “It empowers our local sustainability teams to validate their data, identify trends and shape their emissions reduction plans accordingly,” says Reem Shamia.
For the sustainability team, the benefits are equally significant. They now have access to comparable and verified data across all business units. They finally have the flexibility they need: detailed and dynamic reports across Scopes 1 and 2 (and potentially Scope 3).
Moreover, the new tool is built to scale. While it’s developed for internal use, it could also benefit companies looking to start their climate action reporting without significant upfront investment. Compared to other market alternatives, the tool is rather affordable. As Emil Bekker puts it: “We basically bundled together components from Microsoft Azure in a smart way.“ On top of that, the tool includes a launch pad where reports and data can be shared. The tool follows green software principles – meaning for example that the platform doesn’t run when nobody is using it: a consumption-based billing plan.
This project shows what is possible when tech and sustainability truly collaborate. The new platform is a transparent, easy-to-use and future-proof solution. It’s a real asset for day-to-day work and can provide strong momentum for the overall sustainability strategy. And this is only the beginning. Reem is already thinking about what the tool could tackle, too: “How can we integrate business travel data to get to emissions? How can we calculate the impact of remote working and employee commuting,“ she is wondering. More features are already on the horizon because the tool was designed to meet any sustainability manager’s practical need – and to grow with them.
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