ESG content accelerator

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of ESG content accelerator

    The ESG Content Accelerator application serves as a centralized repository of sustainability frameworks, citations, metric definitions, and emission factors. It is designed to expedite the adoption and consistent reporting of operational sustainability frameworks within your ServiceNow instance. Customers can easily install the application from the ServiceNow Store and launch it via the ESG Content Accelerator icon.

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    Key Features

    • Frameworks and Regulations: The application includes major sustainability frameworks such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and others. Additional frameworks like SustainableIT.org, European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS/CSRD), and International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) standards are available in later versions, with ongoing updates expected.
    • Emission Factors: The application provides a library of emission factors sourced from recognized providers, enabling accurate estimation of emissions per activity or output. Available emission factors include those from eGRID (US EPA), UK GHG factors (DEFRA and DESNZ), and the US Environmentally-Extended Input-Output (USEEIO) model. Administrators can activate, update, or create custom emission factors, streamlining emissions calculations.
    • Metric Definitions and Citations: Facilitates alignment of metric definitions with citations from various frameworks, promoting interoperability and consistent sustainability reporting. Users can select and activate citations for specific frameworks and install metric definitions in an inactive state for further customization, eliminating manual creation efforts.
    • Update and Integration: The application supports integration of framework and emission factor updates as new versions become available, ensuring your sustainability data stays current.
    • Information Access: Users can access detailed descriptions of frameworks and emission factors via information icons, aiding understanding and selection.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Accelerates implementation of widely-recognized sustainability frameworks within your ServiceNow environment.
    • Ensures consistent and interoperable sustainability reporting across multiple standards and regulations.
    • Reduces manual effort by preloading metric definitions and citations aligned to frameworks.
    • Provides flexibility to customize emission factors or use trusted standard values for accurate emissions calculations.
    • Keeps your sustainability data up to date with version-controlled updates directly managed through the application.

    The ESG content accelerator application is a centralized repository of frameworks, citations, metric definitions, and emission factors. Using this application accelerates the adoption of operational sustainability frameworks.

    You can install ESG content accelerator from the ServiceNow Store. After installation, you can launch the application by selecting the ESG content accelerator icon (Unified content management icon.).

    Frameworks and regulations

    The application contains the following frameworks and regulations.
    • Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
    • Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)
    • Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
    • United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
    • SustainableIT.org (Available on version 18.0.3)
    • European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS/CSRD) (Available on version 18.0.3)
    • The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) (Available on version 19.1.0)
    • IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards (ISSB) (Available on version 19.1.0)
    Note:
    The list of frameworks supported isn’t exhaustive and may evolve over the future releases.

    Emission factors

    An emission factor is a coefficient that quantifies the emissions released per unit of activity or output. It is used extensively in environmental science, engineering, and regulatory contexts to estimate the amount of pollutants or greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere from various sources. The ESG content accelerator also contains several emission factors. For more information on emission factors, refer to Emission factor library.

    Emission factors are sourced from certain standard content providers. These content providers publish the emission factors for a variety of industries and geographies. As an ESG administrator, while you can create your own emission factor to calculate your emissions, you can also use the emission factors provided through the ESG content accelerator application. Using the emission factors through the ESG content accelerator application saves your time and effort. The following emission factors are provided by this application.
    • eGRID
    • GHG Emission Factors by US EPA
    • UK GHG factors (From DEFRA and DESNZ)
    • US Environmentally-Extended Input-Output (USEEIO)

    You can activate or update the ones that meet your requirement. Whenever there is a latest version of the emission factors available, you can update it using the ESG content accelerator application.

    Note:
    Selecting the information icon on any tile displays the description of the framework or the emission factor.

    Benefits of the ESG content accelerator application

    The following are the benefits of the ESG content accelerator application:
    • Provides the ability to choose the framework you want to use.
    • Facilitates the alignment of the metric definitions with the relevant citations from different frameworks. This helps achieve interoperability between citations of different frameworks and ensures consistent reporting of operational sustainability performance across various standards and regulations.
    • Enables you to choose the citations that are associated with a particular framework and install them in the active state in your instance.
    • Allows the installation of the metric definitions, which are associated with the citations, in the inactive state.
    • Eliminates the need to manually create the metric definitions.
    • Enables the users to edit the metric definitions.
    • Aims to integrate updates as they become available and are listed in the versions under the respective frameworks and regulations.

    Workflow of the ESG content accelerator application

    The following figure displays the life cycle of the ESG content accelerator application.

    Workflow of how the Unified content management application works.

    For more information see, Activate or update a framework and install citations using the ESG content accelerator.