An Enterprise Architecture approach to ESG Management

Enterprise architecture – what is it all about?

Enterprise architecture is where business and IT meet. It concerns the entire orchestration and strategic, harmonized development of an organization’s business capabilities and processes, applications, data and IT infra. It is typically a multidisciplinary task within an organization, and it comes with its own dedicated set of tooling. With ESG reporting becoming increasingly prevalent, adopting an enterprise architecture approach can help prepare your organization for upcoming ESG reporting obligations.

ESG data collection & management

One of the many challenges ESG reporting may hold, is the gathering of data from various sources across the organization. Data typically resides in a variety of systems, and may require extraction, translation and loading steps across systems and data warehouses before everything adds up. Adopting an enterprise architecture approach will help you in identifying data sources, locations and movements across your application landscape and fosters the development of shared data definitions.

ESG Performance Management

Once your data sources are identified, the required ETL steps are identified and in place and your data is presentable, you’re bridging the gap between data and information. This allows you to place your insights in context and to identify and establish the right ESG performance metrics. By setting the proper metric definitions and adopting the right architecture, business, application, data and IT principles, you’re setting yourself up for an ESG reporting mechanism that is sustainable in itself: by making sure to adopt a robust architecture, you can be flexible in the various data sources and leave all options open for future changes in your landscape whilst maintaining your ESG reporting capabilities.

From monitoring to improving

Once you’ve got a good understanding of how your enterprise architecture set up, where your data is coming from and what it looks like, it may quickly become visible where things can be improved from an environmental, social or governance standpoint: whether it is optimization across your supply chain, shifting towards using more energy-efficient computing power, reducing the carbon footprint of your data storage (e.g. by deleting obsolete data) or auditing your suppliers on their sustainability policies… action starts with insight, and institutionalizing enterprise architecture in your organization can be a fine way of creating just that.

Want to get started on Enterprise Architecture?

Data collection and management, performance management and identification of improvement initiatives are just three examples of how Enterprise Architecture can help you navigate an ever-increasing complex environment of upcoming ESG reporting obligations. While the concept of enterprise architecture may seem overwhelming, getting started doesn’t necessarily require a large project. Want to know where to get started, or want to know more in the domain of Enterprise Architecture and 2-cnnct’s track record in it? Let’s have a (virtual) coffee! Schedule an introductory meeting here or leave your details below and we will get back to you.