Fellowmind streamlines ESG reporting with Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability

In the face of climate change, organizations around the world are pursuing more sustainable practices. At the same time, many companies are on a journey toward digital transformation. Fellowmind has partnered with Microsoft to help its customers pursue both goals simultaneously. “Digitalization and sustainability go hand in hand,” says Louise Ol-Ers, Group Sustainability Manager at Fellowmind. “When a company brings all its emissions and business data together, it connects its green transition with the overall business, enabling it to drive greater impact in both areas simultaneously.” The strong commitment Microsoft has made to being carbon neutral by 2030 aligns perfectly with Fellowmind’s focus on promoting sustainable processes. This alignment ensures that Fellowmind’s solutions are built on a foundation that shares their vision for a sustainable future. Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability has features that make it an optimal choice for Fellowmind to build solutions on, because it provides the necessary tools and capabilities to their clients while adhering to high sustainability standards.

As a European leader in the complete Microsoft Cloud platform, Fellowmind empowers customers across industries with cutting-edge Microsoft technology to create connected companies by breaking down silos and integrating systems in the value chain. With a holistic approach to digital transformation, customers experience optimized operations, elevated customer engagement, and a business that fosters innovation for sustainable processes.

By leveraging the integration possibilities in the Microsoft Cloud platform, the company takes a holistic approach to its solutions, encompassing operations, customer engagement, security, cloud infrastructure, and remote work enablement. “On the human side, we help our customers ensure their people adopt and enjoy working with the technology,” Ol-Ers says. “We believe in putting people at the center of everything we do.”

Building sustainable solutions

In 2022, Fellowmind established its Center of Excellence for Sustainability in response to an emerging need for businesses to become more sustainable and to ramp up their green transitions. Fellowmind’s sustainability business focuses on the digitalization of ESG data collection and reporting, optimizing processes to reduce environmental impact, and increasing the number of customers enabling green transitions.

Microsoft Sustainability Manager offers a unified data intelligence system that integrates seamlessly with virtually any business system. This makes it particularly suitable for organizations at any stage of their sustainability journey. Additionally, Microsoft's Cloud for Sustainability provides robust Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) capabilities that empower organizations to accelerate their sustainability progress and drive business growth.

The technology also enhances data transparency and provides actionable insights through advanced AI-enabled products, such as Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft Fabric, enabling organizations to effectively track and achieve their sustainability goals.

The European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), a mandate from the European Union, now requires companies throughout the region to report sustainability information. Fellowmind works with its customers to establish an ESG data estate, calculate emissions, and automate carbon reporting to simplify CSRD compliance. To aid sustainability reporting and measurements, Fellowmind developed Footprint 365, a tool that uses the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability data model to calculate carbon emissions in real-time, creating an audit trail so customers can trace each emission back to its source activity and stay ahead of regulatory requirements.

Fellowmind also builds custom solutions for its customers. One customer, Drake & Farrell, is committed to reducing e-waste by receiving, sorting, and testing used electronics to refurbish or recycle them. Fellowmind developed a system that Drake & Farrell uses to manage its complex refurbishment and production logistics data. The ERP system relies on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and also uses Microsoft Power Apps to bring a user-friendly interface to workers on the floor.

“Combining the robustness of the Dynamics 365 ERP system and the flexibility of the Power Platform to address their refurbishment process has made it easier for their workshop personnel to gather data as they are processing incoming electronics,” says Ol-Ers. “With the improvement in data gathering, the company also gains better insights on emissions. Since the implementation by Fellowmind, Drake & Farrell have been able to refurbish 1.5 million electronic devices yearly, achieving 95% circularity, and have prevented 4.3 million kilograms of e-waste from ending up in landfills.”

OSTP, a Nordic-based company that specializes in manufacturing welded stainless steel tubular products and custom equipment for pressure corrosion applications, works with Fellowmind in pursuit of ambitious sustainability goals. Among other things, OSTP wanted to improve its ability to calculate total emissions and move toward real-time monitoring and management of its carbon footprint. In partnership with Fellowmind and Microsoft, OSTP launched a quotation app that provides customers with quotes containing emissions and prices in an accessible interface for OSTP Sales personnel. Fellowmind also helped OSTP bring its Microsoft data platform together with Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability capabilities, and the solution supports the company in its journey to becoming carbon neutral on its own sites by 2025. The ability to track data has already helped them reduce CO2 emissions by over 70% since 2021.

“They are using existing business data for a new purpose,” says Ol-Ers. “Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability brings all the data together in a safe place where it can support quicker, better change. Not only are they getting better, more immediate insights on their emissions, they are also able to share the data with their customers and internal personnel, becoming a transparent supply chain partner.”

Partnership for a better future

For the last 19 years, Microsoft has been a strategic partner for Fellowmind. As Fellowmind increases its focus on ESG data and reporting, its leaders recognize the top-tier technologies partnering with Microsoft extends to its customers. “With Microsoft technology, our customers get the support to improve their business processes and drive a greater sustainable impact at the same time,” says Ol-Ers. Fellowmind works closely with Microsoft to provide feedback on Cloud for Sustainability, helping to improve performance and adherence to EU reporting requirements. “We have customers from many different segments who have different needs, and we work together with Microsoft to better address those needs.”

Looking toward the future, Ol-Ers is eager to watch the emerging applications of AI within the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability. “We’re excited to gather feedback from our clients on how to improve Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability and are exploring options to develop extended solutions for specific industries with tailored integrations for sustainability-specific data suppliers such as energy companies,” she says. “With our shared commitment to sustainability, we strongly believe Microsoft and Fellowmind can address today’s challenges together. The greatest impact Fellowmind can have is helping our customers with their green transition.”