Business Central Introduces Sustainability Features

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Introduces Sustainability Features

In an era where sustainability is no longer a choice but a necessity, Microsoft has taken a significant step forward by integrating sustainability management into Dynamics 365 Business Central. This addition is a welcome move, enabling businesses to track, manage, and improve their environmental impact directly within their ERP system.

Key Benefits of the Sustainability Feature

1. Streamlined Sustainability Reporting

With built-in sustainability journals and scorecards, businesses can easily track carbon emissions, energy consumption, and other key sustainability metrics. This eliminates the hassle of using multiple tools and spreadsheets, making reporting more efficient and accurate.

2. Enhanced Decision-Making

By having sustainability data readily available within Business Central, companies can make more informed decisions about their operations, supply chain, and resource management. This empowers businesses to optimize processes, reduce waste, and improve overall sustainability efforts.

3. Improved Regulatory Compliance

Governments around the world are enforcing stricter sustainability regulations. With Business Central’s new feature, organizations can ensure they are meeting legal requirements while also preparing for future compliance needs.

4. Strengthened Brand Reputation

Consumers and investors are increasingly favoring companies that prioritize sustainability. By leveraging this new feature, businesses can showcase their commitment to environmental responsibility, helping to build trust and improve brand perception.

5. Simplified Vendor and Product Certification Management

The ability to manage sustainability certifications for products and vendors ensures that companies can make responsible purchasing decisions. This feature helps businesses choose partners that align with their sustainability goals.

A Step in the Right Direction

Microsoft’s addition of sustainability management in Dynamics 365 Business Central is a game-changer for businesses looking to integrate sustainability into their core operations. By making sustainability tracking easier and more accessible, Microsoft is empowering businesses to take actionable steps toward a greener future.

As more companies strive for sustainability, tools like this will play a crucial role in helping organizations stay ahead of regulatory requirements, improve efficiency, and build a more responsible business ecosystem. With Microsoft’s commitment to innovation, we can expect even more advancements in this space, making sustainability an integral part of modern business management.

From MS: This feature is available in Business Central starting from 2024 release wave 1.This solution is still in early stages of development and new set of features will be added with the next release.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/finance-sustainability-setup

With this feature, you can:

• Set up emission factors for different sources and categories of GHG emissions.
• Record emission data in sustainability journals, either manually or by using predefined calculation methods.
• Record emission data directly working with purchase documents.
• Record purchase of carbon credit using purchase documents.
• Calculate internal carbon fee.
• Recalculate emission of all gasses to CO2 equivalent using formulas.
• Post emission entries (and carbon credits) to the sustainability ledger, where you can view and analyze the emission data by various dimensions.
• Set scorecards and goals and compare them with baseline and targeted values.
• Generate sustainability reports that show your organization's GHG emissions performance.
• Use financial reports for cross functional reporting.

From MS BCv26: 

We're continuing to build out the capabilities in Sustainability Management in response to customer feedback and new regulations. With the Sustainability Management capabilities in Business Central, you can:

Collect sustainability information

• Use sustainability journals and purchase documents to gather data directly or via formulas. Track emissions per company, country, region, or facility, and purchase carbon credits directly in Business Central.
• Import emission factors from external sources to ensure accurate calculations using exposed APIs.

Track progress

• Use the modern sustainability Role Center to monitor all sustainability information and various KPIs. Scorecards and goals help you easily track progress against your baselines and targets.

Get easy insights and reporting

• Leverage standard reports or modern Excel reporting with analysis views for your sustainability entries. Compare your sustainability entries with statistical or GL entries using Financial Reports, and report different greenhouse gases or CO2 equivalents, as well as water and waste management.
• Customize reports to focus on specific sustainability metrics relevant to your business, ensuring tailored insights for your unique sustainability objectives and reporting requirements.

Sustainability Account list, this can be used on Purchase line and Gen. Journal

For example: on Purchase Invoice in v26 below fields are added

On General Journal in v26 below fields are added

Sustainability Journal

Sustainability ledger entries

Sustainability Account Categories

What are your thoughts on this new feature?