New Sustainability Management Features in BC 27.0

 Business Central 27.0 introduces new tools to help businesses measure and manage their environmental impact. With Copilot-assisted data entry for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, companies can quickly estimate emissions from fuel, electricity, transportation, and other inputs. Automated calculations reduce manual effort, improve accuracy, and make sustainability reporting easier to maintain over time. These enhancements give organizations the insight they need to comply with regulations, support corporate responsibility goals, and make more sustainable business decisions. 

  Accurate and consistent data is critical for sustainability reporting. To protect data integrity, Business Central now locks the Emissions Unit of Measure once entries exist in the Sustainability Ledger. This ensures that emissions are always tracked in the same unit across all accounts and reporting periods, preventing mismatches that could compromise calculations or compliance.

What this feature does:

• Restricts changes to the Emissions Unit of Measure field on the Sustainability Setup page once ledger entries are created.
• Prevents errors from unit mismatches in emissions reporting.
• Supports reliable calculations and clearer audit trails. 

Best practice recommendation:

• Finalize your chosen emissions unit of measure during the initial configuration stage to guarantee consistent reporting.

This update aligns with best practices in environmental data governance and helps organizations strengthen the accuracy and credibility of their sustainability reporting.

 Scope 3 emissions — indirect emissions across the supply chain — often make up the largest share of a company’s carbon footprint. They’re also the most difficult to measure, since data comes from multiple sources like vendors, transfers, and manufacturing. Business Central 27.0 addresses this challenge by introducing Scope 3 value chain process automation, using standard ERP processes to streamline data collection, calculation, and reporting.

What this feature does:

• Automates the collection and calculation of Scope 3 emissions for projects and project tasks.
• Tracks emissions based on consumed items and resources.
• Supports regulatory compliance and sustainability goals by improving accuracy and consistency.
• Helps businesses make informed project and supply chain decisions with emissions data built into ERP processes.

How it works in practice:

1. Configure emissions on items and resources by entering CO2e per Unit.
2. Use the Project Journal to record consumption of items and resources, including Total CO2e.
3. On the Sustainability Value Entry page, assign emissions data to specific projects and tasks using Project No. and Project Task.
4. Review the Total CO2e field on Project and Project Task pages for consolidated values. 

Limitations:

• This feature currently supports only the Average model for emission calculation.

By embedding emissions tracking into standard ERP workflows, this update helps organizations integrate sustainability into everyday business processes while improving compliance and decision-making.

  The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) requires companies in the European Union to provide transparent and standardized sustainability disclosures. Business Central helps organizations meet this requirement by enabling businesses to map transactional data to required taxonomies, supporting the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and other frameworks.

By integrating these taxonomy elements directly into ERP processes, companies can prepare accurate, comprehensive reports more efficiently, saving time and reducing the risk of noncompliance.

What this feature does:

• Lets businesses configure taxonomies using various transactional data sources.
• Provides an initial setup with demo data, which can be customized to reflect actual operations.
• Enables aggregation of sustainability data for specific reporting periods.
• Integrates with the ESG Reporting tool to prepare data for CSRD submissions.
• Provides a preconfigured CSRD template in the ESG tool where missing metrics can be added.
• Establishes a foundation for future integration with other ESG reporting standards.

How it works in practice:

1. Configure taxonomy mappings in Business Central.
2. Aggregate data for the desired reporting period.
3. Switch to the ESG Reporting tool to apply the preconfigured CSRD template.
4. Add any additional metrics not captured in Business Central.
5. Generate the CSRD-compliant reporting file.

This feature helps EU-based businesses meet evolving sustainability regulations while ensuring reporting is accurate, transparent, and aligned with global ESG standards.

 Tracking multiple greenhouse gases can be complex, especially when exact measurements aren’t available for every gas. Business Central now makes this easier by allowing you to record all gases as CO2 equivalents (CO2e). This approach simplifies data entry, improves accuracy, and ensures emissions reporting is consistent and compliant with environmental regulations.

What this feature does:

• Lets businesses track emissions using CO2e values instead of individual gas measurements.
• Provides accurate and compliant reporting while reducing complexity.
• Minimizes data entry errors by standardizing how gases are recorded.

How it works in practice:

1. Go to the Sustainability Setup page in Business Central.
2. Enable the Use All Gases as CO2e toggle.
3. Field captions for gases will update to reflect CO2e equivalents — for example:
   • CH4 becomes CO2e for CH4
   • N2O becomes CO2e for N2O

1. Field values represent carbon equivalents, not the original gas values.
2. Business Central automatically sets the Carbon Equivalent Factor to 1 for all three gases in emission fees.

This update streamlines sustainability tracking, especially when businesses only have access to carbon equivalent data, making reporting faster and more reliable.

 Sustainability is more than just environmental performance — it also includes social and governance (ESG) factors. Business Central now extends its Sustainability features to support broader ESG reporting, giving companies the ability to track important employee-related metrics alongside environmental data. This helps businesses comply with evolving regulations, improve transparency, and demonstrate a stronger commitment to corporate responsibility.

What this feature does:

• Builds on existing environmental tracking by adding social and governance data.
• Provides fields on the Employee Card for capturing key ESG-related information, including:
  • Engagement Type 
  • Board Member status
  • Manager Role
  • Working Hours
• Ensures companies can prepare more complete ESG reports for compliance and stakeholders.

By consolidating environmental, social, and governance data within one system, this enhancement makes ESG reporting more accurate, efficient, and aligned with global standards.

  Maintaining compliance and accuracy in sustainability reporting requires consistent controls. Business Central now supports approval workflows for sustainability journals, aligning them with the same process used for general journals. This provides businesses with a unified, efficient approval system that reduces administrative overhead while ensuring compliance with internal controls and regulations.

What this feature does:

• Adds approval workflows for both standard and recurring sustainability journals.
• Uses the same familiar approval process already available for general journals.
• Provides Send for Approval and Cancel Approval Request actions directly within the journals.

Business impact:

• Streamlines the approval process across all journal types.
• Reduces the risk of errors by ensuring sustainability entries are reviewed before posting.
• Creates consistency and reliability in journal approvals for finance and sustainability data alike.

This enhancement makes sustainability reporting more efficient and reinforces good governance practices across business operations.

 Accurate energy reporting is essential for meeting CSRD and ESG standards. Business Central now makes this easier by allowing businesses to track energy consumption by source, ensuring greater transparency, compliance, and efficiency in sustainability reporting. This not only meets regulatory requirements but also strengthens trust with stakeholders by demonstrating responsible energy management.

What this feature does:

• Enables tracking of consumed energy for specific energy sources in Sustainability Journals and Purchase Invoices.
• Records energy usage in sustainability ledger entries for comprehensive reporting.
• Supports compliance with CSRD and other ESG standards.
• Reduces administrative burden by streamlining how energy consumption is tracked and reported.

Energy sources you can specify include:

• Solar
• Wind
• Fossil fuels
• Other renewable or non-renewable categories 

By consolidating energy data into sustainability reporting, this feature gives businesses a clearer picture of their environmental impact while supporting efficient compliance with global reporting standards.

  Scope 3 emissions — indirect emissions from upstream and downstream activities — represent the largest share of most companies’ carbon footprint. They’re also the most complex to measure, requiring data from suppliers, internal operations, transfers, and transportation. Business Central 27.0 now streamlines this process with Scope 3 value chain process automation in purchasing, making data collection, calculation, and reporting more accurate and efficient.

What this feature does:

• Automates emissions tracking as part of the purchase process.
• Creates a Sustainability Ledger Entry when emission values are posted with purchase invoices.
• Creates a linked Sustainability Value Entry referencing the Item Ledger Entry for detailed CO2e tracking.
• Tracks emissions through related processes, including item charges and external transportation.
• Uses a Default Sustainability Account on the Item Charges page to apply emissions automatically.
• Allows users to enter emissions values per purchase document line, ensuring granular tracking.
• When item charges are applied, related emissions are also applied to the associated items.

Limitations:

• Currently supports only the Average model for emission calculation.

Business impact:

• Provides a structured, automated way to calculate Scope 3 emissions in purchasing.
• Ensures emissions are consistently recorded across invoices, item charges, and logistics.
• Reduces manual work while aligning with regulatory requirements and sustainability goals.

This feature embeds sustainability into standard ERP purchasing workflows, helping businesses better understand and manage their indirect environmental impact.

 Some products have a greater environmental impact than others. With Business Central 27.0, you can now flag and track items of concern — products associated with higher emissions — to improve compliance, strengthen sustainability reporting, and support smarter decision-making. Monitoring these items helps businesses reduce their carbon footprint while maintaining operational efficiency.

What this feature does:

• Adds an Item of Concern field on the Sustainability FastTab of the Item Card page.
• Requires entry of at least one default emission value:
  • Default CO2 Emission
  • Default CH4 Emission
  • Default N2O Emission
• Ensures items flagged as high emitters are consistently tracked in sustainability reporting.

How to monitor items of concern:

1. On the Item Card, mark the item using the Item of Concern field.
2. Enter at least one default emission value (CO2, CH4, or N2O).
3. Use the Items of Concern report to monitor:
   • Inbound transactions: purchases, production output.
   • Outbound transactions: sales, consumption, negative adjustments.

1. Review totals in the report for CO2e, CO2, CH4, and N2O emissions, grouped by inbound vs. outbound flows.

This feature gives businesses deeper visibility into high-emission products, ensuring better compliance with regulations and providing actionable insights for reducing environmental impact.

 Sustainability management touches every part of a business — from emissions tracking to workforce data, procurement, and production. The new Sustainability Manager Role Center in Business Central 27.0 provides a centralized workspace to monitor, manage, and act on all sustainability initiatives. By integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) features with value chain data, it gives managers a complete view of sustainability performance and compliance.

What this feature includes:

• Social and governance features: access to Employees, Qualifications, and Absences.
• Scope 3 value chain coverage across:
  • Work Centers
  • Machine Centers
  • Production BOM
  • Routings
  • Released & Finished Production Orders
  • Transfer Orders
  • Assembly Orders
  • Projects
• Water and waste management insights with dedicated cues and charts.
• Integration with purchase documents containing emission-related lines and targets for real-time updates.
• Greenhouse gas, water footprint, and waste data consolidated in one place.
• Set Up Cue for personalization of dashboards and metrics.

Business impact:

• Ensures sustainability managers can track emissions, water, and waste in real time.
• Provides visibility into both operations and compliance metrics.
• Supports timely adjustments to meet sustainability goals and regulatory standards. 
• Helps drive more sustainable business practices with clear insights across the organization.

This comprehensive role center turns Business Central into a powerful hub for sustainability operations, enabling managers to improve compliance, efficiency, and long-term strategic decision-making.

  Environmental regulations in the European Union are evolving rapidly, and businesses need tools to keep up. Business Central 27.0 introduces support for both the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), helping companies align with EU climate goals while reducing compliance risks. Together, these features encourage eco-friendly design, improve cost accuracy, and strengthen competitiveness through regulatory alignment.

Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM):

• Tracks and manages the carbon footprint of imported goods.
• Calculates carbon-related costs automatically based on product origin and EU pricing rules.
• Uses new fields on the Item Card, including:
  • Source of Emission Data
  • Emission Verified
  • CBAM Compliance
• Ensures imported goods reflect the required adjustments, giving clear visibility into sustainability costs and compliance status.

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR):

• Tracks product materials and applies environmental fees on sales.
• Supports industries where regulations require waste responsibility, including packaging, electronics, and batteries.
• Calculates collection and recycling fees based on material composition and weight.
• Configured through:
  • EPR Material Setup
  • Item Material Composition
  • Additional fields on the Item Card and sales documents.
• Helps companies comply with local requirements while promoting sustainable product design.

Shared framework:

• Both CBAM and EPR leverage the Excise Taxes framework to perform the necessary calculations.
• Important to note: these features may not yet support every document type required by specific authorities.

By embedding CBAM and EPR compliance into ERP processes, Business Central helps businesses stay ahead of regulatory demands, reduce environmental impact, and better manage sustainability-related costs.

Sustainability reporting often requires businesses to comply with multiple frameworks, which can mean complex workflows and repeated data entry. Business Central 27.0 simplifies this by integrating directly with the Project ESG Reporting app (preview). This connection allows businesses to collect and manage sustainability data in Business Central, then seamlessly transfer it for compliance reporting under standards like CSRD, ASRS, and BRSR — with support for additional frameworks planned in the future.

What this feature does:

• Collects and maintains sustainability data in Business Central, including:
  • Greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 1, 2, and 3)
  • Water usage
  • Waste intensity
  • Social and governance metrics (via statistical accounts)
• Aligns data with regulatory taxonomies for standardized reporting.
• Exports aggregated data to the Project ESG Reporting app, where users can:
  • Add contextual information or notes.
  • Map metrics from Business Central to predefined reporting concepts.
  • Associate metric values with assessments.
• Generates regulatory-compliant reporting files for submission.

Business impact:

• Eliminates repetitive data entry between systems.
• Streamlines compliance reporting for SMBs handling complex ESG requirements.
• Improves collaboration between Business Central and other Microsoft applications.
• Strengthens alignment with evolving global sustainability standards.

By embedding ESG reporting into the ERP workflow, this feature helps businesses reduce compliance overhead while maintaining accurate, transparent, and audit-ready sustainability data.