5 minutes06/03/2025
Today, EHS and ESG efforts are far more than routine checklists or regulatory obligations. They’ve become a direct reflection of a company’s values, risk posture, and long-term business strategy. A strong EHS & ESG program can enhance reputation, attract investment, and drive operational resilience.
The cost of inefficiency
Manual EHS and ESG processes may seem workable at first glance. But they quickly become a drag on day-to-day operations. When teams rely on spreadsheets, paper files, or disconnected systems, even basic tasks—like tracking incidents or compiling reports—become tedious and time-consuming. These delays can ripple across the organisation, slowing projects and clouding visibility.
Instead of focusing on high-impact initiatives, employees get bogged down in administrative work: searching for documents, double-checking entries, and chasing down data from other departments. It’s not just inefficient, it’s frustrating.
An astounding 88% of spreadsheets contain errors¹. This means a simple mistake can have outsized consequences, from flawed reports to missed compliance deadlines.
Manual systems also create silos
Without centralised data, teams work in isolation, duplicating efforts and missing out on shared insights. Information often sits buried in personal folders or static files, making it hard to monitor trends or respond to evolving risks in real time.
In short, the more a company grows, the more these manual inefficiencies pile up—and the harder it becomes to scale operations without slipping into chaos.
Manual processes can result in non-compliance
Manual management of EHS & ESG initiatives can expose you to considerable compliance risks and subsequent financial repercussions. Errors and oversight can lead to substantial regulatory fines, litigation costs, and irreparable reputational harm. Penalties for non-compliance with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) include fines of up to 5% of a company’s net worldwide turnover².
The hidden costs of manual work
Running EHS and ESG programs without digital support leaves the door wide open to costly mistakes. When critical data is scattered across multiple platforms or stored in static files, there’s no way to spot patterns or address issues early. Small oversights can quietly snowball into expensive incidents that require serious damage control. Take incident reporting: if someone logs a safety event on paper or emails it to the wrong person, a response could be delayed for hours or not happen at all. That kind of breakdown not only puts people at risk but can drive up injury rates and insurance premiums.
On top of that, manual work consumes far more time and manpower than most teams can afford. Instead of focusing on strategy or process improvement, employees are stuck pulling data from different sources, verifying numbers, and building reports from scratch. It’s tedious work that adds up quickly. Employees spend 3.6 hours each day searching for information, severely limiting their productivity and effectiveness³.
