SSE got audit-ready with Sweep

Key Takeaways

• SSE was dealing with a big data problem: lots of disparate datasets in various spreadsheets with multiple versions across different business units
• The company provided data annually to its auditors, who found it increasingly difficult to sift through and understand
• Sweep enabled SSE to efficiently collect climate and nature information from across its value chain and present it in one single source of truth , importantly, on regular intervals throughout the financial year
• Through Sweep, SSE could gain audit confidence and understand its data at a granular level, enabling the team to take decisive action to meet its sustainability goals
• The Sweep platform also enables SSE to collate data with much greater frequency, instead of being limited to its previous annual data collections - meaning SSE can track and act more quickly on its data

Background

SSE is a multinational energy company headquartered in Perth, Scotland. The firm is a leading generator of renewable and flexible thermal energy in the Great Britain and Ireland markets, and one of the largest electricity network companies in Great Britain. SSE develops, owns, operates and invests in the electricity infrastructure and businesses needed in the transition to net zero.  

Challenge

SSE has sustainability teams within both the parent company and its various business units. The teams have set science-based sustainability targets, and each year they are audited and assured by a third-party company. 

Their challenge was collecting and translating the vast amounts of sustainability data for all of SSE’s stakeholders to understand and then act upon.

The organisational structure at SSE encompasses many different activities and teams. The company’s original method of data collection relied on manual processes, requesting data via emails and telephone calls. This left the sustainability team navigating multiple versions and attachments across various email and messenger apps. 

The manual nature of data collection meant that key information about who within the business could supply specific data was not formally documented, and hard to track in the event of changes. 

Due to the cumbersome nature of the task, data was collected just once a year and added into a spreadsheet. This failed to provide the visibility required to spot trends and make changes for meaningful action. SSE’s auditors were also finding this spreadsheet increasingly difficult to navigate, posing a major threat to the company’s third-party assurance.

Solution

Over time, SSE’s sustainability team came to the conclusion that it could not continue with its existing methods, based on manual collection and spreadsheets. 

Initially, SSE tried to build an in-house data collection and management system. However, the sustainability and IT teams found that the task was complex and required more resources than had been anticipated. A tool was trialled, but the sustainability team found it fell short of their needs. 

Since switching to Sweep, SSE has been able to upload all the data they had previously collected in bulk into the Sweep platform, which then immediately formatted the data correctly, while also applying any necessary conversion factors.

While SSE was still in the “implementation” stage of the platform, Sweep could already enable its teams to get hands-on with the data and provide meaningful reports to management. Senior leaders throughout SSE can immediately see the hotspots in greenhouse gas inventory, giving them enhanced management information.  

SSE has been able to set an emissions baseline by inputting the last six years of emissions data, and now Sweep’s functionality enables the company to track progress against SBTi-validated targets.

Importantly, SSE can now work confidently with its auditors, providing accurate, transparent reporting and ensuring compliance and assurance for all of its stakeholders.

Looking to the future, SSE is preparing to comply with the upcoming European Union CSRD, due to its substantial operations in Ireland. Mindful that strong data management is key for CSRD compliance -and to avoid the substantial penalties for non-compliance- SSE’s sustainability team is already preparing by using its Sweep-managed data to find possible reporting gaps, and rectify them. The team also points out that it sees Sweep as a tool which would be valuable for collecting the additional social data which will ultimately be necessary to provide, for compliance with the non-environmental aspects of the CSRD. 

If you’d like to join SSE in harnessing the power of Sweep’s intuitive, powerful platform, book a demo today.