Our 2023 Product Highlights Wrap Up and a Look to the Future

To cover off our busy 2023, this article will cover the product highlights that led the way this year, the product updates that are on the radar for 2024, and what we’re expecting for the sustainability industry in the future.

A year of remarkable progress

Our development team was very busy this year, building and rolling out some of our largest projects to date. Standout achievements include:

• We have refreshed our UtilityHUB product as we continue to work towards a unified utility and carbon management system.
• The release of the Spend-Based Emissions tool in early 2023 was a significant step for our carbon accounting customers.
• Big improvements to our PDF ingestion process which will help users extract data from electricity, water, and gas providers' invoices more efficiently.
  Development of new data review process to replace the utility bill review process, which will enable larger organisations with multiple sites to stream their data into a single system for quick analysis.

2023’s remarkable progress could not have been achieved without the input we had from our clients during the development of our new products. Thank you to everyone who took the time to send us their thoughts and feedback during the development of our new and updated features. The input you have given has helped us bring functionality and updates into our system that many clients have been excited for. Stay tuned for 2024’s releases—we can't wait for you to experience these updates.

More features: 2024’s new releases

In 2024, we'll continue with enhance across the BraveGen suite including:

1. Additional integrations which will continue to streamline options for how we can bring data into our software.
2. File map improvements which will take your Scope 3 reporting to the next level with fully automated and compliance-friendly reporting.
3. Emissions data reviews which make analysing your carbon footprint easier, allowing you to audit and QA emissions data.

An additional focus for us in 2024 will be on expanding our product to better serve our Australian clients and the Australian market. We often find that larger sustainability software providers overlook the challenges and needs of both Australian and New Zealand businesses, so we’re looking forward to helping where we can.

Our future predictions for business sustainability

Carbon accounting will become increasingly mandatory

Carbon accounting is increasingly mandated for big businesses in New Zealand and across the globe, resulting in greater pressure both for the businesses affected and those that supply them (via the requirements for Scope 3 supplier reporting). Over the next five years, we expect carbon accounting will become mandatory and fold into regular accounting practices, even for smaller businesses, whether through legislation or from stakeholder expectations.

Spreadsheet reporting will decline

We expect to see a decline in the use of spreadsheet reports for carbon reporting. For complex organisations, spreadsheets aren’t robust enough to handle all the data needed to report on emissions year on year. With many moving parts—suppliers adding more data, annually changing emission factors—effectively managing a spreadsheet is too difficult. And it’s thanks to those moving parts that spreadsheets won’t hold up under external validation.

As we round off a year marked by big accomplishments, the ESP team stands poised to help more organisations reduce their emissions and meet their NetZero goals. Our responsibility lies in figuring out how we can help organisations transition towards a cleaner, greener future and we feel that the product improvements made this year, and those planned for 2024, will help our clients get closer to a better future even quicker. We hope you have a restful and exciting holiday break and look forward to working with you in 2024.