Best ESG software: The Top 5 ESG Platforms in 2026

ESG software collects a company's environmental, social and governance data in one system, checks it, and turns it into reports that follow frameworks such as GRI, SASB and the TCFD recommendations. This guide compares five of the best ESG software platforms for US teams (Greenly, Workiva, Sweep, Novisto and Cority) and sets out the US reporting rules they have to support in 2026, starting with California's SB 253, whose first emissions reports are due on November 10, 2026. Investor demand keeps ESG reporting software in use even where regulation moves slowly, so the useful question for most teams is which platform fits their data, their frameworks and their auditors.

Emissions, energy, workforce and governance data usually sit in separate spreadsheets owned by different departments, so every ESG reporting cycle becomes a manual rebuild. ESG data management software, which many vendors also sell as ESG management software or sustainability software, gives those inputs a single owner, a single version and a history of who changed what. The same dataset can then feed an investor questionnaire, a CDP response and a California emissions report without being re-keyed.

The software typically covers three groups of data:

• Environmental: emissions, energy, water and waste.
• Social: workforce, health and safety, and labor conditions in the supply chain.
• Governance: policies, business ethics and audit records.

Regulatory pressure on ESG reporting is uneven, yet adoption of ESG software keeps rising. Verdantix found in 2025 that, even though regulatory and political uncertainty is reducing the need for ESG compliance, investor pressure is driving the adoption of ESG software to improve data quality, streamline reporting and boost sustainability performance. For a company, that makes the software a way to answer investor requests on time, whichever rules end up applying.

PwC's 2025 Global Sustainability Reporting Survey, which collected answers from 496 executives in 40 countries, found that 28% of companies that had reported under the CSRD or ISSB gained significant value beyond compliance from the data, and another 42% gained moderate value. Those seeing the most value use the insights across strategy, supply chain, workforce and risk decisions.

Among companies that had already filed, 47% told PwC that more effective use of technology would have improved their reporting process, and their use of AI in sustainability reporting almost tripled in a year, from 11% to 28%, and more than half of them now use central sustainability data storage, carbon calculation and disclosure management tools. US companies often face several frameworks at once: 94% of the US companies PwC surveyed said they are or will be required to report under the CSRD, and 87% said they will report using ISSB standards, whether voluntarily or because a regulation requires it.

What ESG software delivers, at a glance:

California's SB 253 is the one US rule with a live deadline in 2026: companies in scope must file their Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by November 10, 2026. SB 261 is paused by a court order, and the SEC has proposed withdrawing its climate disclosure rules altogether.

CARB's September 2026 notice limits first-year reports to Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions and adds Scope 3 from 2027, and the initial regulation behind the November 10 deadline became effective on October 12, 2026. According to a CARB press release on the initial regulation, SB 253 applies to US-based entities with more than USD 1 billion in annual revenue that do business in California, and SB 261 applies above USD 500 million. SB 253 reporting rests on a Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions inventory.

CARB will accept 2026 submissions whether or not limited assurance has been obtained, and a separate rulemaking will address Scope 3 reporting and independent third-party assurance for 2027 and later years. SB 261 requires a biennial report on climate-related financial risk. Under a court order, with the Ninth Circuit having temporarily enjoined enforcement, CARB is not enforcing it and reporting is voluntary.

At the federal level, the SEC announced a proposal to rescind its climate disclosure rules on May 29, 2026. The rules were adopted in March 2024 and stayed in April 2024 pending litigation, and the proposal had not been finalized when this article was updated.

For ESG compliance software, these rules mean a reliable Scope 1 and Scope 2 inventory, a record of where each figure came from, and a way to publish in the format the regulator expects. Greenly's SB 253 and SB 261 compliance service covers those steps, and the legislation checker gives a company a quick view, after a few questions, of how regulations affect it.

The best ESG software depends on your reporting setup, and these five ESG software companies suit different teams: Greenly is ideal for teams that want carbon accounting and ESG reporting on one platform, Workiva fits public companies that file with the SEC, Sweep is carbon-focused, Novisto suits enterprises reporting to many frameworks, and Cority serves industrial companies that already use EHS software.

Greenly is a carbon accounting and ESG reporting platform used by more than 4,000 companies in over 30 countries. Its ESG reporting platform combines Scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon accounting with ESG data collection that auto-fills 15 or more frameworks, including CDP and the CSRD, and supports TCFD and IFRS S2 climate reporting as well as California's SB 253 and SB 261.

Key features

• Carbon and ESG in one system: emissions are measured and reported in the same platform as ESG disclosures, including an automated double materiality assessment, aligned with EFRAG standards, for companies with EU reporting duties.
• California reporting: EcoPilot and a dedicated expert help prepare 2027 Scope 3 reporting, the SB 261 risk analysis maps physical and transition risks under TCFD on the same dataset as the SB 253 inventory, and reports export in the format CARB's intake platform requires.
• One dataset: the same data can feed ISSB, GRI or SASB reporting, with no second data collection.
• Sectors: Greenly publishes industry pages for manufacturing, tech and IT, retail, finance, automotive, chemicals, food and beverage, pharmaceutical and electronic goods.

Best for: companies that want carbon accounting and ESG reporting on one platform.

Workiva is a cloud reporting platform that prepares ESG disclosures in the same audit-ready environment finance teams use for financial reporting. It connects sustainability reports, statutory disclosures, annual reports and SEC filings so that figures stay consistent across them, which suits public companies that publish ESG and financial disclosures side by side.

Key features

• Audit-ready environment: ESG disclosures are prepared under the same controls as financial reports.
• Connected sources: one dataset links sustainability reports, statutory disclosures and SEC filings.
• XBRL tagging: full XBRL and Inline XBRL capabilities for structured filings.

Best for: public companies that need ESG and financial reporting on one platform.

Sweep, a sustainability data management platform, was founded in 2020 and is headquartered in Paris and London. Sweep's core is carbon accounting software that tracks emissions data across the value chain and extends to disclosure. Sweep opened its first US office, in Denver, Colorado, in 2025.

Key features

• Value-chain carbon data: tracks emissions data across supply chains.
• Disclosure support: solution pages for California SB 253, the CSRD, ISSB, UK SRS and CDP.
• US presence: a Denver team leads its expansion in the US market.
• Segments and sectors: offers for enterprise, midmarket and financial institutions, a Starter package, and sector pages including consumer goods, retail, manufacturing, healthcare, and energy, utilities, oil and gas.

Best for: carbon-focused ESG data management for global teams.

Novisto is an ESG reporting platform built for ESG teams, with a workflow that collects data once and reports it to many frameworks. The platform supports more than 25 ESG taxonomies, with over 2,000 built-in metrics.

Key features

• Collect once, report to many: a metrics library of more than 2,000 metrics across all ESG categories.
• Framework solutions: dedicated solutions for CSRD, SASB, GRI and CDP.
• Integrated benchmarking: includes alignment with the S&P Global CSA benchmark.
• Customers: Novisto names SLB, the Emirates Group and Sanofi among the enterprises that use it.

Best for: enterprises that collect ESG data once and report to many frameworks.

Cority is an environment, health and safety (EHS) software company whose sustainability module sits next to its environmental, health and safety and quality tools. More than 1,500 organizations use Cority, among them Dow, Toyota and NASA. The sustainability module calculates Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions against a database of over one million emission factors.

Key features

• Framework mapping: disclosures aligned with CDP, GRI, SASB, TCFD and the CSRD.
• Emission factors database: more than one million factors for Scope 1, 2 and 3 calculations.
• EHS integration: ESG data sits alongside safety and compliance workflows.
• Sectors: Cority publishes industry pages for manufacturing, chemicals, mining and metals, oil and gas, construction, and energy and utilities.

Best for: industrial or high-compliance sectors that already use EHS software.

Start from your reporting obligations and your current data gaps, then count the people who will use the platform every month. Seven checks are worth running before you commit to any of these ESG software solutions or reporting tools:

1. Framework alignment: does it map your data to the standards you report against, such as California's SB 253 and SB 261, GRI, SASB, or the CSRD where it applies to you, without reformatting for each one?
2. Data quality and traceability: can it handle quantitative and qualitative data, and show where each figure came from if a regulator or investor asks?
3. Assurance readiness: does it keep an audit trail and evidence for every figure, ready for the assurance requirements that CARB plans to address in a separate rulemaking for 2027 and later?
4. Room to grow: will it still fit if you add frameworks, entities or a heavier reporting load next year?
5. Security: how is your data stored, who can access it, and what certifications does the vendor hold?
6. Usability: will the people entering data every month find it straightforward, whoever chose the platform?
7. A live demo: ask to see the platform working with data close to your own before signing anything, because that shows how the capabilities of sustainability software behave in practice.

Customer reviews show how a vendor performs after the sale, so they are worth reading alongside the demo. The platform that fits is the one that matches your reporting obligations and your team's daily work.

Companies in scope for SB 253 have to produce Scope 1 and Scope 2 figures by November 10, 2026 and keep the evidence behind them. Greenly's carbon footprint platform measures those emissions, and its California service adds built-in guidance that catches weak points before formal verification, and an export in the format CARB's intake platform requires. More than 4,000 companies in over 30 countries use Greenly.

SB 261 is paused, which leaves some companies unsure whether to prepare a climate risk report. Greenly maps physical and transition risks under TCFD on the same dataset as the SB 253 inventory, so teams that choose to publish voluntarily have the analysis ready.

To see how this works with your own data, book a demo.