ESG data, which stands for environmental, social, and governance data, refers to the information organizations collect and report on how they impact the planet, engage with stakeholders, and ensure accountability in leadership. It’s how businesses measure performance on issues ranging from carbon emissions and energy efficiency to workforce diversity and board accountability.
For modern enterprises, ESG data has become an important resource. Investors, customers, employees, and regulators all want proof that companies are operating responsibly, and ESG data is how that proof is delivered.
When used well, ESG data can guide strategy, reveal inefficiencies, highlight risks, and strengthen relationships with stakeholders. But managing it presents substantial challenges, as the data is often scattered across departments, systems, and suppliers. Without the right approach, organizations can end up with incomplete, inconsistent, or siloed information that’s extremely difficult to use and understand.
In this article, we’ll walk you through the three types of ESG data, explore the ways organizations can put it to work, and examine common challenges that stand in the way of effective ESG data management.
Types of ESG data
ESG data is collected across three broad categories: environmental, social, and governance. Taken together, these three types of ESG data provide a comprehensive overview of how responsibly a company operates and how it manages risks and opportunities across its business.
Environmental data
Environmental data captures an organization’s impact on the natural world. This includes greenhouse gas emissions across Scopes 1, 2, and 3, along with other pollutants like particulate matter or sulfur dioxide. It also tracks energy consumption, the balance between renewable and non-renewable sources, water usage, and waste generated. Organizations may also report on land use, deforestation, or biodiversity impacts to demonstrate how their operations affect ecosystems. This data helps businesses understand their environmental footprint, identify inefficiencies, and measure progress toward decarbonization and sustainability goals.
Social data
Social data covers an organization’s impact on people: employees, customers, suppliers, and the broader community. It reflects workforce health and safety, including things like incident rates, safety certifications, and time lost due to injuries. It encompasses diversity and inclusion (DEI) metrics, gender pay gaps, and living wages. It tracks employee engagement, often through survey results, turnover rates, and participation in reskilling and training programs. And social data also highlights outward-facing efforts like contributions to charity, volunteerism, and investments in local projects. These measures indicate how well a company creates equitable and supportive conditions for the people it affects.
Governance data
Governance data addresses the systems and policies that keep an organization accountable. It includes the composition and independence of boards, executive compensation, and ethical safeguards like anti-corruption policies, whistleblower protections, and conflict-of-interest disclosures. Governance data also covers transparency measures like tax reporting, audit practices, supply chain due diligence, and risk management frameworks. These metrics reveal an organization’s approach to leadership, providing a foundation for earning stakeholder trust and maintaining long-term resilience.
How ESG data is used
ESG data has become a mission-critical driver of business decisions, with organizations relying on it for everything from shaping strategy and improving efficiency to managing risk, building reputation, and strengthening stakeholder trust. Here are some of the most impactful ways you can put your ESG data to work.
Strategic decision making
ESG data can shape long-term strategy. When sustainability metrics are tracked alongside financial and operational data, leaders gain a fuller view of how the company is performing and where it needs to improve. This broader perspective makes it possible to balance short-term performance with long-term resilience.
For example, companies can model how rising carbon prices will affect future operating costs and shift investments toward low-emission technologies before regulations or market changes make them unavoidable. Procurement teams can use supplier ESG data to decide whether to diversify vendors or build regional buffer stocks, reducing exposure to supply chain disruptions. And leadership can benchmark performance against peers to identify where they’re lagging, then direct resources to close those gaps.
To make ESG data actionable, organizations set targets at the corporate, business-unit, and facility levels to ensure goals are relevant and measurable. And they link those targets to budgets and KPIs to measure progress, provide transparency, and keep initiatives on track. Used this way, ESG data drives both sustainability outcomes and lasting business success.
Operational efficiency
ESG data also plays a role in improving day-to-day efficiency. By revealing how resources are consumed and where waste occurs, it helps organizations streamline operations, cut costs, and optimize performance.
Energy audits, for example, can uncover inefficiencies in systems like HVAC, leading to upgrades or adjustments that significantly reduce consumption. And improved waste management practices—like recycling, upcycling, and switching to digital workflows—can lower expenses while also reducing environmental impact. Some businesses go further by adopting circular economy models, designing products for longevity and reuse, which minimizes raw material needs and generates substantial savings over time.
Social data offers another dimension, providing insight into workforce health and productivity. By linking absenteeism or injury rates with performance metrics, organizations can identify when ergonomic improvements, stronger safety protocols, or targeted health programs are needed. Acting on these insights reduces absenteeism while improving employee well-being.
Capturing and analyzing this information effectively requires robust ESG data management technology and processes. Platforms like Tango Energy & Sustainability automate and centralize data collection, ensuring accuracy and providing real-time visibility.
Risk management
ESG data serves as an early warning system for a wide range of risks, from climate-related disruptions to governance failures.
By tracking environmental indicators, companies can anticipate floods, heatwaves, resource shortages, and other natural events that threaten operations or supply chains. For example, organizations can combine satellite rainfall data with real-time traffic information to anticipate flooding and reroute shipments, avoiding delivery delays and costly last-minute adjustments. And scenario modeling, like simulating crop failures, allows companies to prepare contingency plans for events they can’t predict with certainty but know are possible.
ESG data also helps mitigate governance and social risks. Systematically tracking audit results, compliance breaches, employee or customer complaints, and whistleblower reports allows organizations to identify emerging issues before they escalate into crises.
Regulatory compliance
As ESG disclosure requirements expand around the world, reliable data has become essential for compliance.
In the EU, businesses must navigate overlapping frameworks like the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), and the Emissions Trading System. In the U.S., although a proposed federal Climate Disclosure Rule was cancelled before taking effect, state-level requirements remain active. California’s Climate Accountability laws (SB 253 and SB 261) set stringent disclosure standards, and other states are advancing similar legislation.
Maintaining ESG data protects organizations by providing credible, substantiated evidence of adherence to these requirements. Leading companies go further by embedding ESG into their business strategy, making compliance part of day-to-day operations. They actively monitor regulatory changes in the regions where they operate or source materials, ensuring internal practices and supplier activities remain aligned. They also prioritize materiality, focusing resources on the ESG issues most relevant to their financial and operational health.
Finally, aligning internal KPIs with recognized reporting standards like GRI, SASB, CSRD, and CDP helps ensure consistency and comparability across disclosures. Modern data platforms like Tango streamline this process by mapping data to multiple frameworks at once.
Supplier Engagement
An organization’s ESG performance extends beyond its own operations to the suppliers it relies on. Investors, customers, and regulators increasingly expect companies to demonstrate responsible sourcing, and lapses anywhere in the supply chain can lead to reputational, legal, or financial consequences. Weak communication with your suppliers risks exposing a business to unethical labor practices, excessive emissions, or other sustainability failures.
ESG data provides the visibility needed to manage these risks. By collecting and analyzing information on supplier practices, companies can compare vendors, identify high-risk partners, and ensure alignment with their sustainability goals. This requires continuous data collection and regular screenings across the value chain.
Engagement is also key. Working with suppliers to establish common ESG data reporting frameworks reduces confusion and ensures consistent, comparable disclosures. And providing training, resources, or incentives can further strengthen participation, enabling even smaller suppliers to meet expectations.
Investor relations
For investors, ESG data has become a core indicator of business sustainability. It shows whether a company is managing material risks, pursuing responsible growth, and demonstrating resilience over time.
When organizations can clearly link ESG outcomes to financial results—like emissions reductions that lower energy costs or governance reforms that reduce risk exposure—they benefit from more favorable capital conditions. Lenders and investors view them as lower risk, which can reduce borrowing costs and expand access to capital. Conversely, organizations with poor or inconsistent ESG data risk exclusion from ESG-focused funds or being flagged as high-risk investments.
Sustainable investments account for more than a third of all assets under management worldwide, tying access to capital directly to ESG performance. And standardized reporting projects like the ESG Data Convergence Initiative reinforce this shift by giving partners comparable benchmarks to track progress across portfolios.
Brand reputation
ESG data plays a direct role in shaping a company’s public perception. Transparent reporting on environmental, social, and governance practices signals an organization’s commitment to sustainability and social responsibility. This strengthens trust among stakeholders and appeals to customers who prefer to support companies with strong ethical standards. A recent survey from PwC found that 80% of consumers are willing to pay more for sustainably produced or sourced products, making ESG performance a competitive differentiator as well as a reputational one.
But the credibility of that reputation depends on reliable data. Companies must be able to substantiate their claims with accurate metrics or risk accusations of greenwashing—vague or exaggerated sustainability statements that erode trust.
Organizations that communicate their ESG commitments openly and back them up with verifiable data build goodwill and customer loyalty. Those that fail to do so risk reputational damage that can be far more difficult to repair than to prevent.
Talent attraction & retention
In addition to overall brand reputation, a strong ESG strategy also helps attract and retain talent. Most employees want to work for organizations that reflect their values, and ESG data provides the proof that a company’s commitments are real. Demonstrating measurable progress fosters loyalty among existing staff while positioning the company as an employer of choice for new recruits.
A 2023 SHRM survey found that 75% of HR executives believe ESG strategies improve employee engagement, 60% say they enhance retention, and 64% report they help attract skilled talent. SHRM also found that among workers at organizations with ESG goals, 86% said the focus on ESG makes them proud of their work, gives their job more meaning, and increases their desire to stay. These effects are especially pronounced among younger generations, with Gen Z placing particular importance on ESG when evaluating employers.
ESG social commitments also support more diverse, inclusive, and flexible workplaces. Programs like mentorship opportunities, employee resource groups, and diversity training help create equitable career paths. Flexible work models, including remote and hybrid options or shorter workweeks, can improve balance and productivity, while benefits like childcare support strengthen overall employee well-being. Together, these efforts make employees feel valued, engaged, and invested in the company’s long-term success.
How to address ESG data management challenges
While ESG data creates significant opportunities, managing it effectively can be far from simple. Organizations face obstacles ranging from inconsistent data quality to poor coordination and outdated tools. Here are some of the most common challenges with ESG data and how they can be addressed.
1. ESG data gaps from suppliers
Supply chains are often one of the weakest links in ESG reporting. Many organizations struggle to obtain reliable information from their suppliers, and the challenge is especially acute for small and medium-sized enterprises that lack the leverage or resources to secure complete and consistent data.
Complicating matters further, suppliers are often inundated with conflicting disclosure requests, each formatted differently depending on the buyer. The result is fragmented or incomplete data that makes it difficult for companies to build an accurate picture of supply chain sustainability.
Bridging these gaps requires collaboration and support. Organizations must work with suppliers to adopt shared reporting frameworks aligned with industry standards. They can also provide training, resources, and even financial incentives to help suppliers establish consistent reporting practices.
Clear communication is equally important. When suppliers understand why data is being collected and how it will be used, they’re more likely to participate fully and provide accurate information. By partnering with suppliers in this way, companies can strengthen the quality of their ESG reporting while raising standards across their supply chains.
2. Poor interdepartmental coordination
Within an organization, different teams often track ESG metrics in isolation based on their own priorities. Procurement might focus on supplier disclosures, finance on cost-related impacts, and compliance on regulatory obligations. Without coordination, these efforts can result in duplicated work, conflicting data, and an incomplete view of the company’s actual ESG performance.
The problem is often compounded by manual processes and siloed systems that restrict access to information across departments. For many organizations, simply gathering ESG data from multiple teams is a time-consuming process requiring significant effort and negotiation.
To overcome these barriers, organizations must engage in deliberate cross-functional collaboration, with clearly defined ownership and responsibilities. Breaking down silos means reconciling different data frameworks, aligning team goals with overall ESG objectives, and integrating systems to enable seamless data sharing.
Implementing a centralized data platform like Tango is another key strategy for overcoming this issue. Tango consolidates energy data from utility providers into a single, structured source of truth.
3. Data gaps and inconsistent data quality
For many organizations, one of the toughest challenges in sustainability reporting is ensuring the data itself is complete and reliable. A recent survey from Deloitte found that 88% of executives rank data quality among their top ESG concerns, with more than half (57%) considering it their number-one ESG challenge.
The lack of a unified global reporting framework has left companies using different standards and methodologies, affecting comparability and leading to incomplete or inconsistent information. One supplier may provide detailed emissions data while another omits it entirely. Or two business units within the same organization may calculate the same metric using different methods and levels of accuracy. The result is data that can’t be trusted.
Addressing these issues requires an organized process for ESG data collection and governance. That begins with defining ownership so each team knows who is responsible for gathering, verifying, and updating specific metrics. It also means conducting a materiality assessment, identifying the most reliable ESG data sources for each type of information, and putting structured validation and review practices in place to ensure accuracy and credibility.
(For a more detailed look at determining what ESG data to capture and the process of collecting it, see our “ESG Data Collection Guide.”)
But even the best processes are difficult to sustain with manual or fragmented systems. To guarantee consistent data quality and avoid gaps, these practices need to be paired with a centralized platform like Tango to streamline collection, standardize inputs, and audit information for reliable reporting.
4. Lack of proper tools
Many organizations still rely on spreadsheets, manual workflows, and outdated systems to manage ESG data. While these methods may feel familiar, they’re also inefficient, error-prone, and unable to keep pace with today’s reporting demands. When data is scattered across different departments, formats, and sources, it becomes nearly impossible to track progress toward goals, verify claims, or make informed decisions.
Centralizing ESG data is essential to solving this problem. By consolidating inputs from across the organization into a single source of truth, companies can automate collection, improve accuracy, and streamline reporting. A centralized platform ensures data consistency, allows for real-time monitoring, and creates audit-ready records that meet evolving regulatory requirements.
Tango Energy & Sustainability was built precisely for this purpose. Rather than piecing together siloed systems or relying on manual processes, Tango brings all of your energy data together in one place. The platform automates ingestion from diverse sources, validates information for accuracy, and provides advanced analytics and dashboards that turn raw data into actionable insights.
Centralize and optimize your ESG data with Tango
ESG data can guide strategy, improve efficiency, mitigate risk, enhance brand reputation, and strengthen relationships with investors and employees. But too many organizations are still relying on fragmented systems, inconsistent processes, and manual reporting, leaving them unable to unlock the full value of their ESG data.
Tango brings all your energy data together in one automated platform, consolidating inputs from across your organization and beyond. Advanced analytics help you detect anomalies, forecast usage, and optimize costs, while intuitive dashboards make it easy to track KPIs and measure progress toward sustainability goals.
Want to see what Tango Energy & Sustainability can do for you?
