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The Best ESG Software for Your Business
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By Stephanie Safdie, US Copywriter, on 08/11/2026
Updated by Agnès Potier-Murphy
Choosing the best ESG software for your business can feel overwhelming: dozens of platforms promise to help you track, report, and improve your environmental, social, and governance performance, but it's rarely obvious which one actually fits your business.
The short answer: ESG software is any platform that helps a company monitor, measure, and report on its environmental, social, and governance performance, automating work that used to live in spreadsheets. Demand for it keeps climbing even as some governments pull back on ESG mandates — analyst firm Verdantix found in 2025 that investor pressure alone is enough to keep adoption growing, regardless of regulatory shifts.
In this article, we'll explore:
What ESG software actually does, and how it differs from ESG ratings
Why investor pressure is keeping adoption high, even as regulations shift
A side-by-side look at five leading platforms: Workiva, Sweep, Novisto, Cority, and Greenly
What to check before you commit to a platform
What is ESG software?
ESG software is a category of business technology that helps organizations collect, manage, and report data on their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Rather than tracking this information manually across spreadsheets and email threads, it centralizes the data, automates reporting against frameworks like CSRD, GRI, and TCFD, and gives teams an auditable record of their sustainability progress over time.
Think of an app that tracks how many steps you take per day. If you have a goal of how many steps you’d like to take everyday, it is paramount that you keep a log of your current activity in order to develop new ideas to increase your step count. The same goes for any goal, including seeking to improve your company’s ESG criteria.
Here's a quick snapshot of how the five platforms compared in this article differ, before we get into the details:
| Platform | Best for |
|---|---|
|
Workiva
|
Combining ESG and financial reporting on one platform |
|
Sweep
|
Carbon-focused ESG data management for global teams |
|
Novisto
|
A centralized ESG "system of record" for mid-to-large companies |
|
Cority
|
Industrial or high-compliance sectors already using EHS software |
|
Greenly
|
Companies that want carbon accounting and ESG reporting on one platform |
ESG software is used to gather valuable data for companies in regards to ESG, which in turn can allow them to make improved decisions regarding their resource allocation, efforts to mitigate transition risk, and which policies are most worthwhile to align with their personal goals.
Remember, ESG stands for environmental, social, and governance:
- Environmental – which refers to the factors that could have an impact on the planet, such as with excess emissions, efforts to manage and reduce water usage, mitigate air pollution, and seek to ethically source materials.
- Social – which refers to efforts to implement Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) practices, implement fair working rights, and create a safe and secure workplace for all places in which the business operates.
- Governance – which refers to how a company demonstrates leadership, such as with how business ethics are conveyed, how policies are developed, executed, and followed, audits are completed, and the way in which intellectual property is protected.
ESG data collection and software can help companies ensure that they are implementing all of the possible mechanisms to ensure their environmental, social, governance criteria remains in excellent working condition.
Why is ESG software important?
ESG software is more important than ever before seeing as investors, customers, and stakeholders are learning to utilize all your ESG data from ESG reports when deciding whether to invest their time or money into the company.
Therefore, ESG software is a valuable tool that can be used as a buffer to ensure companies are making the most of every opportunity that comes their way – seeing as ESG software can help companies to remain proactive in their ESG strategy and prevent them from disappointing key stakeholders during pivotal moments of business.
Why ESG Data & Risk Management Are Relevant Today
Here are a few other reasons why ESG software is crucial in today’s world:
- Engaging Stakeholders – It is more difficult than ever to keep key stakeholders engaged, and this is one of the areas where ESG software and improved data management could help – seeing as this tool helps companies to gain insight on issues before diving into a larger one. This provides stakeholders with more opportunities to voice their opinion and feel essential to the company’s direction. Even as regulatory pressure eases in some markets, investor demand is what's sustaining this shift — Verdantix's 2025 research found that despite reduced compliance pressure, investor pressure is driving continued adoption of ESG software to improve data quality and reporting.
- Better Decision Making – Seeing as ESG software allows for greater insight ahead of potential problems with sourcing for materials, production, and how those products or services will affect surrounding communities and the planet. Therefore, ESG software can help companies to better understand how their actions will impact others – and make choices accordingly with this new information. PwC's 2025 Global Sustainability Reporting Survey found that more than two-thirds of companies already reporting under CSRD or ISSB gained real business value from the process itself, beyond just filing the disclosure.
- Manage ESG Risks – ESG risks refer to the problems that could arise in a business if a company refuses to acknowledge the impact of their environmental, social, or governance criteria. The good news is that ESG software can help companies to prevent these ESG risks from occurring in the first place, and allow for overall improved sustainability management. These ESG tools also make it easier to spot risks before they become costly.
- Improved Chances at Investments – Investors are taking an interest in ESG in order to ensure they commit to sustainable companies that can demonstrate long-term viability and consistent success. This means that opting to use ESG software can help increase the chances at new financial opportunities and resources for your business to grow.
- Practice Reporting for Other Disclosures – With new environmental regulations on the rise, it is becoming essential for companies to familiarize themselves with the importance of clearly delineating their company’s activities in order to comply and demonstrate transparency. Therefore, using ESG software can not only make adhering to future policies easier, but also help companies avoid other predicaments down the road – such as accusations of greenwashing.
The shift toward technology is accelerating: PwC found that AI use in sustainability reporting nearly tripled in a single year, from 11% to 28%. Here's a quick recap of what ESG software delivers, at a glance:
| Reason | Benefit to Business |
|---|---|
| Regulatory Compliance | Ensures adherence to ESG-related laws and standards, reducing legal risks and penalties. |
| Improved Investor Relations | Demonstrates transparency and commitment to sustainability, attracting ESG-focused investors. |
| Operational Efficiency | Automates data tracking and reporting, saving time and reducing human errors. |
| Enhanced Brand Reputation | Shows dedication to environmental and social responsibility, improving public perception. |
| Risk Management | Identifies and mitigates ESG-related risks before they impact business performance. |
| Cost Savings | Optimizes resource use and energy efficiency, leading to financial savings over time. |
| Competitive Advantage | Positions the company as a leader in sustainability, differentiating from competitors. |
Ultimately, ESG software is becoming a vital tool to help companies not only grow more aware of their current impact across ESG criteria – but to help them grow their business.
Our Top 5 ESG Softwares
How we picked these platforms: Workiva, Novisto, and Cority are all named Leaders in Verdantix's Green Quadrant: ESG & Sustainability Reporting Software (2025). Sweep is named a Leader in Verdantix's separate Green Quadrant: Enterprise Carbon Management Software (2026), reflecting its carbon-specific focus. We also compared each platform's own stated capabilities directly: reporting frameworks supported, data scope, and target company size. Greenly is included as Greenly's own platform, evaluated against the same capability criteria as the four above.
Workiva
Workiva offers a cloud-based platform for companies to monitor, manage, and report on their ESG activity, and was named a Leader in Verdantix's Green Quadrant: ESG & Sustainability Reporting Software (2025).
Workiva's platform lets teams track sustainability goals alongside financial reporting, applying the same audit-ready rigor to ESG data as it does to SEC filings – a useful fit for public companies managing both disclosures in parallel.
Sweep
Founded in Paris and London, Sweep is a carbon and ESG data management platform structured around three pillars: Track, Disclose, Act. It opened its first US office in 2025.
Sweep was named a Leader in the 2026 Verdantix Green Quadrant and the IDC MarketScape for carbon and sustainability management software. It automates Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions tracking, supports CSRD and GHG Protocol disclosure, and includes supplier engagement tools for managing value-chain data — see our best carbon accounting software roundup for more carbon-specific options.
Novisto
Novisto is an ESG data management platform built as a "system of record" for sustainability data – helping mid-to-large companies collect, audit, and report ESG information with the same rigor as financial data. It was named a Leader in Verdantix's Green Quadrant: ESG & Sustainability Reporting Software (2025).
Novisto supports CSRD, SASB, GRI, and CDP reporting, and integrates AI-powered benchmarking so companies can compare their sustainability performance against selected peers. It's particularly suited to organizations that need a centralized, audit-ready repository for both quantitative and qualitative ESG data.
Cority
Cority is an EHS+ platform that unifies environmental, health and safety, quality, and sustainability data in one system, used by more than 1,500 organizations, including Dow, Toyota, and NASA.
Cority was named a Leader in Verdantix's 2025 Green Quadrant for both EHS Software and ESG & Sustainability Reporting Software. Its sustainability module tracks Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions against more than one million emission factors and generates disclosures aligned with CDP, GRI, SASB, TCFD, and CSRD.
Cority is a strong fit for companies in industrial or high-compliance sectors – such as manufacturing, chemicals, or energy – that need ESG reporting integrated with existing safety and compliance workflows, including managing sustainability risk across the supply chain. It stands out as one of the more compliance-focused ESG software providers on this list.
Greenly
Greenly is a carbon accounting and ESG reporting platform used by over 4,000 companies across more than 30 countries, built to bring emissions measurement and ESG disclosure into one system rather than two separate tools.
It combines automated Scope 1, 2, and 3 carbon accounting with ESG data collection, an automated double materiality assessment, and report generation mapped to major frameworks including CSRD, GRI, SASB, and TCFD, with AI-powered data processing to speed up disclosure.
Greenly tends to suit companies that want carbon accounting and ESG reporting handled on one platform, with dedicated project managers and ESG experts supporting each framework they report against.
How can you pick the best ESG software for your business?
Start from your reporting obligations and current data gaps, then work out how many people will actually use the platform day to day. From there, six checks are worth running before you commit:
- Framework alignment: does it map your data to the standards you report against, such as CSRD, California's SB 253, GRI, or SASB, without manual reformatting for each one?
- Data quality and traceability: can it handle both quantitative and qualitative data, and show you where each figure came from if a regulator or investor asks?
- Room to grow: will it still fit if you add frameworks, entities, or a heavier reporting load next year?
- Security: how is your data stored, who can access it, and what certifications does the vendor hold?
- Usability: will the people entering data each month find it straightforward, not just the person who chose it?
- A live demo: ask to see the platform working with data close to your own before signing anything.
Customer reviews are worth reading for how a vendor performs once you're a paying customer, not just their sales pitch. The right ESG software is the one that fits your reporting obligations and your team, not necessarily the one with the longest feature list.
Frequently asked questions about ESG softwares
What is the best ESG management software?
There's no single best option; it depends on your priorities. Workiva suits companies that need ESG and financial reporting on one platform, Sweep and Novisto are strong all-around ESG data management platforms, Cority fits companies in industrial or high-compliance sectors that need ESG reporting tied to existing safety and compliance workflows, and Greenly suits companies that want carbon accounting and ESG reporting combined on one platform.
How do companies compare audit-ready ESG software providers?
Look for platforms that treat ESG data with the same rigor as financial data: audit trails, version control, and traceable data sources. Analyst firm Verdantix evaluates providers on criteria like this in its annual Green Quadrant reports, a useful independent reference point before committing to a platform.
What is the best ESG software for compliance?
Platforms with built-in support for CSRD, GRI, SASB, TCFD, and CDP make compliance easier, since they map your data to multiple disclosure standards automatically instead of requiring manual re-entry for each one. All five platforms compared in this article support multiple frameworks.
Which companies offer the best ESG software?
Workiva, Novisto, and Cority are all named Leaders in Verdantix's Green Quadrant: ESG & Sustainability Reporting Software (2025). Sweep is named a Leader in Verdantix's separate Green Quadrant: Enterprise Carbon Management Software (2026), reflecting its carbon-specific focus. Which one suits you best depends on whether you need financial-reporting integration, carbon depth, audit-ready recordkeeping, or existing EHS ties, covered in the comparison above.
What about Greenly?
If you'd like to see how Greenly's platform would work for your own reporting needs, book a demo and we'll walk you through it.
Beyond the platform itself, Greenly also runs ESG Connect, a community for sustainability professionals to share knowledge and build connections with peers working through similar reporting challenges.
UN Global Compact / IFC / World Bank, "Who Cares Wins: Connecting Financial Markets to a Changing World" (2004)
Greenly, "5 Questions About Transition Risks,"
Greenly, "Ethical Sourcing: Definition, Goals, and Keys for Implementation,"
Greenly, "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): Why Environment Matters Too,"
Verdantix, "Verdantix Green Quadrant Report Reveals ESG & Sustainability Reporting Software Vendors Shifting Strategies Amid Regulatory Flux,"
Verdantix, "Green Quadrant: Enterprise Carbon Management Software (2026),"
Greenly, "Why Is Stakeholder Engagement Difficult?,"
PwC, "Global Sustainability Reporting Survey 2025,"
Greenly, "Legislation Checker,"
Cority
Greenly, "Top Supply Chain Sustainability Software,"
Workiva
Novisto
Sweep
Greenly, "Best Carbon Accounting Software of 2026,"
Greenly, "Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Scopes 1, 2, and 3,"
Greenly, "CSRD Reporting,"
Greenly, "ESG Connect,"
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