The transition to a net-zero economy is challenging for organisations in many ways. Not only do they have to identify appropriate decarbonisation strategies, but they have to measure and report against an evolving set of diverse sustainability standards.

Persefoni's Net Zero Navigator was designed to help with this important task, and won plaudits from our judges for providing an effective means of driving down carbon emissions and linking it to financial indicators – and for making decarbonisation actions tangible to staff and external stakeholders.

The platform enables organisations to establish an emissions baseline by visualising their current carbon footprint against key benchmarks and internal targets. Net Zero Navigator automatically generates science-based targets and leverages proprietary datasets to provide industry and geography-specific recommendations.

One of the platform's key features is its integration of financial key performance indicators with decarbonisation actions. Persefoni says this functionality helps businesses visualise the financial impacts of their sustainability efforts over time, addressing the need to balance environmental goals with economic objectives. For financial institutions, Net Zero Navigator incorporates the financed emissions standards developed by the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials.

The platform – which was developed in partnership with consultancy Bain & Company includes analytics modules such as Climate Trajectory Modeling and Climate Impact Benchmarking, with the latter using data from over 6,000 companies that disclose their environmental impact to the CDP, which was originally known as the Carbon Disclosure Project. These tools provide insights for optimising decarbonisation strategies and making informed investment decisions.

The cloud-based platform provides an efficient means to automate reporting efforts across mandatory and voluntary standards such as Europe's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, California's SB253 and the International Sustainability Standards Board. Net Zero Navigator can also connect with other business software systems through the OpenAPI standard.

Recent enhancements to Net Zero Navigator include the digitisation of Bain's research and decarbonisation knowledge, a streamlined user interface, expansion to global markets, and increased reporting functionality.

Future plans include introducing pre-formatted reports segmented by geographic regions, expanding capabilities to include water and waste reduction, and enhancing integrated benchmarking capabilities.