Firms Save Time, Money on Sustainability Reporting with Measurabl Software

Measurabl, a software startup for sustainability reporting formerly called GreenBox, is piloting the enterprise version of its software with firms including VMware, Clarion Partners and Gables Residential.

These “early adopters” test the software and provide feedback. In exchange, they receive discounted pricing on the enterprise platform.

Clarion Partners, a real estate investment advisor that manages $28 billion in total assets, says its large real estate portfolio makes reporting to the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) challenging and time consuming. Measurabl’s software and consulting has improved its reporting quality while reducing costs and staff time, the firm says.

Cloud infrastructure company VMware says it partnered with Measurabl to do a better job tracking sustainability metrics, reporting findings and making improvements.

Measurabl’s software allows users to complete multiple sustainability reports — such as GRESB, CDP and Global Reporting Initiative — at once thus simplifying the reporting process, Measurabl says. Its technology can sync with the user’s primary data sources, such as utility companies and travel providers, to import and format data, eliminating spreadsheets and calculations.

It uses a step-by-step “wizard” approach and its response-check feature validates data entry and alerts users to potential errors, the software company says.

Measurabl plans to release version 1.0 of its commercial platform during 2014 Q1.

The Global Reporting Initiative will next month launch a service to check whether the most critical disclosures in reports based on its G4 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines are located as stated, and can be easily found by readers. GRI says the new service reflects G4’s increased emphasis on the need for companies to focus — both in the reporting process and the final report — on those topics that are material to their business and their key stakeholders.