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ESG self-assessment tools are invaluable in fostering transparency, accountability, and driving continuous improvement in sustainable business practices. We have collected some of the most useful self-assessment tools that can help SMEs evaluate their sustainability progress, help calculate revenue and savings, as well as assist companies on how to incorporate sustainable procurement elements.
What are self assessment tools?
Self-assessment tools encompass a range of methodologies, frameworks, and software applications designed to help organizations evaluate and measure their performance across environmental, social, and governance dimensions.
Why should I use self-assessment tools?
Self-assessment tools are essential for organizations as they provide a structured approach to evaluating performance, identifying areas for improvement, fostering transparency, driving continuous growth, managing risks, meeting regulatory requirements, making informed decisions, and demonstrating commitment to stakeholders.
How do I use self-assessment tools?
- Select the Appropriate Tool
- Understand the Assessment Criteria
- Data Collection and Documentation
- Complete the Assessment Questionnaire
- Evaluate Progress and Identify Gaps
- Develop Action Plans for Improvement
- Implement Changes and Track Progress
- Periodic Re-Assessment
We have collaborated with Sustainability Advantage to provide you with a repository of self-assessment tools that have been researched and designed in a way that meet the unique challenges that SMEs face on their sustainability journey.
Sustainability Assessment and Reporting Tools
Basic Sustainability Self-Assessment Tool:
BSAT is a comprehensive, generic sustainability self-assessment tool. It can be used by any-size organization, in any sector, in any country. It is especially helpful for SMEs, and large organizations with minimal / no sustainability staff. It uses less than 20 multiple-choice questions to score the organization’s sustainability performance and makes suggestions for improvement.
Net-Zero Ambition Disclosure Tool:
This free, open-source spreadsheet / table, is a SME-friendly net-zero self-assessment tool that compares how mainstream net-zero assessments used by large companies assesses organizational commitment to net-zero. NAD is designed to cover the same questions in an SME-friendly way.
Financial Impacts of Climate Form:
The Financial Impacts of Climate Form (FICF) is a free, open-source tool, designed to help companies develop qualitative TCFD-aligned disclosures of climate-related information. It assesses the financial impacts as low / medium / high, and time horizons as short-term / medium-term / long-term.
Sustainability Business Case Tools
Sustainability Advantage Worksheets:
This is an Excel version of The New Sustainability Advantage (NSA) book. The worksheets help users calculate how much more revenue, savings, and profit the company could make if it simply implemented proven, best-practices sustainability strategies. It monetizes the potential pot of gold at the end of the sustainability rainbow if the company went all-in on smart environmentally- and socially-beneficial actions.
The Sustainability ROI Workbook is a “book” cleverly disguised as an Excel workbook. It is a tool that helps build a business case for any sustainability-related project. The workbook helps users identify, quantify and monetize all potential direct and indirect costs and benefits associated with a sustainability project. The tool includes a sample project that illustrates how the calculations work and the worksheets interact. Users replace the example text and data with their project’s information. The workbook automatically does the return on investment (ROI) calculations for the project: its payback period, the internal rate of return (IRR), and the net present value (NPV) of its future cash flows.
Sustainable Procurement Tool
Sustainable Procurement Toolkit:
The free, open-source Sustainable Procurement Toolkit contains templates and tools that enable the rapid and smooth integration of core sustainable procurement elements into any current procurement system. Tools include: SP Bid Appraisal Template, SP Supplier Assessment Tool, SP Product Specifications Checklist and SP Sample Terms & Conditions (Ts & Cs). The toolkit also offers a bonus tool, which helps companits calculate the ‘Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)’.
The free, open-source Net-Zero Procurement (NCP) Toolkit contains templates and tools that enable the rapid and smooth integration of a core net-zero and circular procurement elements into any existing procurement system. The Toolkit contains four core elements: NZP Bid Appraisal Template, NZP Supplier Disclosure Tool, NZP Sample Terms & Conditions (Ts & Cs) and NZP Sample Product Specifications. This toolkit also comes with a bonus tool which monetizes all ongoing direct and indirect costs, benefits and value associated with an acquisition.
Additional Carbon Calculators
Carbon calculators are tools designed to estimate the carbon emissions associated with activities, products, services, or entire organizations. The below calculators quantify the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emitted as a result of specific actions or processes.
Here are three free carbon calculators that are easy to use and have been designed with SMEs in mind:
