As environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting has grown in importance and scope, Sphera has grown with it. Since our founding in 2016, we’ve greatly expanded our offerings and capabilities to help our customers better navigate the rapidly changing ESG landscape. As Sphera marks its seventh anniversary, we’re celebrating how we’ve evolved as a company and what we’ve achieved over the past year.
In October 2022, Sphera completed its acquisition of riskmethods, a Munich, Germany-based software company that specializes in supply chain risk management (SCRM). Its cloud-based SCRM software allows companies to manage and mitigate supply chain risks proactively in real time, which has become crucial as supply chain disruptions continue.
This technology enables companies to monitor supply chains for ESG and sustainability risks. It also bolsters our operational ESG and risk management solutions. We’ve welcomed riskmethods colleagues and customers to Sphera over the past months, and I look forward to seeing what we accomplish together in the years to come.
In addition to expanding our suite of software products, we’ve also teamed up with leading companies to expand their capabilities. For example, we’ve been collaborating with long-time Sphera customer Eastman, an innovative global specialty materials company, on a forthcoming iteration of our Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Automation software that’s specifically tailored to meet the needs of the chemical industry.
Our LCA Automation software helps businesses with complex products reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions more effectively at each stage of production. Carbon footprint calculations can be especially complex in the chemical industry, given that manufacturers must account for the carbon footprint of both the raw materials they purchase and the manufacturing process. We’re excited to be collaborating with Eastman to create an LCA automation solution for chemical manufacturers.
In the meantime, we recently rolled out our LCA Automation for Discrete Manufacturing solution, which allows discrete manufacturers to create LCAs quickly and at scale across their entire product portfolios by automatically importing primary product data based on the bill of materials (BOM) to calculate emissions.
In the last year, Sphera teamed up with ERM, the world’s largest pure play sustainability consultancy, to deliver enterprise operational ESG solutions in Latin America. The partnership aims to enable customers to meet their goals and evolve their ESG and sustainability programs.
Sphera and ERM worked together to help YPF, a leading Argentinian energy company, move from manual data collection and analysis to the SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability software. SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability allows YPF to aggregate its environmental data across 150 sites into a single repository, reducing data collection time. It’s been an honor to work with ERM to help YPF and other companies meet their ESG goals.
And in June, Sphera announced its SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability–Portfolio Management software solution. It helps financial institutions measure their portfolio’s carbon footprint, assess climate-related risks and opportunities, create a climate strategy and meet ESG reporting requirements in line with Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) and GHG Protocol standards.
The solution uses AI and advanced analytics to help financial institutions accurately collect, calculate and report their portfolio emissions, which are the emissions that stem from financial service activity such as investments, loans and services. The modular software on Sphera’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform was developed with expert guidance from Blackstone, and Sphera is working with PwC to leverage the solution for financial institutions. We’re grateful for Blackstone’s guidance in developing a solution that helps financial institutions identify and manage climate-related risks and opportunities accurately.
For ESG success, the right insights are just as important as tools and partnerships. To make these insights available, Sphera hosted its second annual ESG Virtual Summit in April 2023. Our 2023 ESG Virtual Summit featured 26 speakers, including experts from Blackstone, Estée Lauder, BASF, PwC, ERM, Eastman, Sustana, Arcadis and more.
Across three days and 10 sessions, over 1,100 attendees heard about the top ESG challenges companies are currently facing and how to overcome them. Attendees learned how to address Scope 3 challenges, prepare for ESG disclosure requirements and solve ESG issues within their supply chains. If you missed the live presentation, the sessions are available on demand.
This past year also brought a number of awards for Sphera:
- Sphera won a 2022 Stratus Award for Cloud Computing, which highlighted our SpheraCloud SaaS solution. It’s the first solution to seamlessly integrate Environment, Health, Safety and Sustainability (EHS&S), Operational Risk Management (ORM) and Product Stewardship functions into one platform.
- Shortly after being acquired by Sphera, riskmethods was named a Pioneering Digital Procurement Solution Provider in the 2022 ProcureTech100. Its SaaS solution was recognized for helping customers achieve greater supply chain resilience through AI, big data and machine learning.
- In June, our SCRM solution was named Risk Management Solution of the Year in the 2023 SupplyTech Breakthrough Awards for its ability to help companies identify and manage supply chain risk at scale and in real time.
- Sphera was also recognized as a market leader in the Green Quadrant EHS Software report by Verdantix, a leading independent research and advisory firm. Sphera’s offering that facilitates data collection and data checks for Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions received a perfect score in the 2023 report.
Our mission to create a safer, more sustainable and productive world has never been more important. By working together with our colleagues and partners, I’m certain we’ll continue to meet our goals, as well as help our customers meet theirs. With the right data, software and expertise, we can create a better future for us all. I’m proud of what we’ve achieved as a company these past seven years, and I can’t wait to see what we accomplish next.
–Paul
Learn more about Paul Marushka.
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