September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › Finance › Equity and corporate › ESG and carbon reporting › Enterprise · September 2026 Edition

ESG and carbon reporting for enterprise buyers

Asked as “ESG reporting software”, and as “carbon accounting platform”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 50 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
38%
Contested · Watershed 20%
38Workiva ESG20Watershed10IBM Envizi32others

38% of first choices, contested.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for an enterprise B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Workiva ESG38%5%42endorsed leader
02Watershed20%9%33accepted challenger
03IBM Envizi10%21%38accepted challenger
04Sweep6%5%19accepted challenger
05Persefoni4%14%28accepted challenger
06Normative2%9%11accepted challenger
07Enablon2%27%11criticized challenger
08Salesforce Net Zero Cloud2%33%18criticized challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
12SAP Sustainability Control Tower0%43%21criticized challenger
11SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability0%21%19accepted challenger
09Novisto0%10%20accepted challenger
10Diligent ESG0%0%15accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
Head to headHead-to-head pages are published for mid-market buyers, so these open on mid-market figures, not enterprise.
All twenty-eight head-to-head pages: the top eight products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
W01
02
03
04
05
06
E07
08
09
10
11
12
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Workiva ESG38%
02Watershed20%
03IBM Envizi10%
04Sweep6%
05Persefoni4%
06Normative2%
07Enablon2%
08Salesforce Net Zero Cloud2%
09Novisto0%
10Diligent ESG0%
11SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability0%
12SAP Sustainability Control Tower0%

What they warned about

Zero of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.20, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
SAP Sustainability Control Tower
43%
9 of 21 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“SAP Sustainability Control Tower (per active user/mo) become unpredictable/costly at thousands of users” Grok 4.20, budget prompt
Salesforce Net Zero Cloud
33%
6 of 18 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Certain large tech firms (e.g., Salesforce, IBM) are often avoided by consultants due to perceived inferiority compared to specialized ESG vendors.” Mistral Small, negative prompt
IBM Envizi
21%
8 of 38 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“steering clear of solutions from big tech firms like IBM, Salesforce, and others, as they may be inferior” Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt
Oracle
100%
4 of 4 labels negative · 4 of 12 models
“many specialized ESG consultants advise caution when relying on their core ERPs or CRMs for primary ESG reporting” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt

What they cite

Twelve of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited and eight the search results they consulted.

Sites the answers cite

66 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 1020 links across 252 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · Guideflow40 answers · 43 citations · 10 models
34 answers · 49 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Coolset26 answers · 26 citations · 10 models
25 answers · 27 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Pulsora25 answers · 26 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Horizon ESG17 answers · 22 citations · 8 models
17 answers · 20 citations · 7 models
17 answers · 17 citations · 8 models
16 answers · 16 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Emission Twin16 answers · 16 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Worldmetrics15 answers · 19 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Seedling14 answers · 18 citations · 8 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best esg reporting software”, “esg reporting platforms”, “esg reporting software”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Workiva workiva.com
Workiva ESG 38%
38%13022,20052458,186$23641
Watershed watershed.com20%72110,0006,80010,897$11117
IBM parent site
IBM Envizi 10%
10%86201,00034,098
Sweep sweep.net6%6833,10041,1217,2255
Persefoni persefoni.com4%811,300238,274$3267
Ditchcarbon ditchcarbon.com4%
Normative normative.io2%4512,10017,48623,975
Pulsora pulsora.com2%521022364
Enablon2%1,60044
Salesforce salesforce.com
Salesforce Net Zero Cloud 2%
2%16550,00060,6327,941,323 company$8,259115

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 20 sites; 1 of them are among the sites the models cited here (gartner.com). The first result for “best esg reporting software” is workiva.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best ESG reporting software for an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which carbon accounting platform would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade ESG reporting platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best ESG reporting software for a large company that needs predictable total cost across thousands of users?”Scale-constrained“We are a 5,000 person company with SSO, SOC 2 and procurement review requirements evaluating a ESG reporting software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which ESG reporting platforms should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Workiva ESG
Three alternativesDiligent ESG, IBM Envizi, Watershed
PersefoniChanged
Three alternativesIBM Envizi, Normative, Plan A
no first choice
Five alternativesIBM Envizi, Novisto, Position Green, Watershed, Workiva ESG
Workiva ESG
Two alternativesAPLANET, Sweep
no first choiceagainst: SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability, Workday
GPT-5.4 miniWorkiva ESG
Two alternativesDiligent ESG, IBM Envizi
WatershedChanged
One alternativeNormative
Workiva ESG
Four alternativesDiligent ESG, IBM Envizi, Nasdaq Metrio, SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability
Workiva ESG
One alternativeIBM Envizi
against: Nasdaq Metrio, Novisto, SAP Sustainability Control Tower
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashWatershed, Workiva ESG
Five alternativesIBM Envizi, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud, SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability, Wolters Kluwer
WatershedChanged
Three alternativesPersefoni, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud, Sweep
Workiva ESG
Five alternativesIBM Envizi, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud, SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability, Sweep, Watershed
IBM Envizi
Three alternativesAuditBoard, Novisto, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud
no first choiceagainst: Oracle, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, Workday
Perplexity SonarWorkiva ESG
Four alternativesBenevity, Diligent ESG, IBM Envizi, Pulsora
WatershedChanged
Four alternativesNormative, Persefoni, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability
Workiva ESG
Nine alternativesBenchmark Gensuite, Diligent ESG, Diligent One Platform, IBM Envizi, Novisto, Persefoni, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability, Watershed
Workiva ESG
Three alternativesEnablon, IBM Envizi, SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability
no first choiceagainst: Persefoni, Plan A, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud, SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability, Sweep, Watershed
Grok 4.20Workiva ESG
One alternativeIBM Envizi
WatershedChanged
Three alternativesNormative, Persefoni, Sweep
Workiva ESG
Five alternativesIBM Envizi, Novisto, Persefoni, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, Watershed
Obi ESG
Four alternativesAPLANET, CarbonTool, Novisto, Workiva ESG
against: Enablon, Horizon ESG, IBM Envizi, Persefoni, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, Watershed
IBM Envizi
Four alternativesBrightest, Enablon, Sweep, Workiva ESG
against: Greenly, IBM Envizi, Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, Normative, Oracle, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud
Mistral SmallSweep, Workiva ESG
Two alternativesOneTrust, Riskonnect
Ditchcarbon, NormativeChanged
One alternativeGreenly
Workiva ESG
Five alternativesIBM Envizi, Novisto, Persefoni, Pulsora, Watershed
IBM Envizi, Workiva ESGagainst: Enablon, SAP Sustainability Control Towerno first choiceagainst: IBM Envizi, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud, SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability
DeepSeek V4 FlashWorkiva ESG
Four alternativesDiligent ESG, IBM Envizi, Normative, Watershed
WatershedChanged
Five alternativesIBM Envizi, Normative, Persefoni, Terrascope, Workiva ESG
Persefoni, Watershed, Workiva ESG
Four alternativesIBM Envizi, Novisto, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud
Brightest
One alternativeAPLANET
against: IBM Envizi, Persefoni, Watershed, Workiva ESG
Sweep, Workiva ESGagainst: IBM Envizi, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, Salesforce Net Zero Cloudagainst: Benchmark Gensuite, Enablon, Oracle, Persefoni, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability
Llama 4 MaverickWorkiva ESG
Four alternativesESG:ONE, Emission Twin, Guideflow, Sustaenia
Sweep, WatershedChangedno first choiceEnablon, IBM Envizi, Workiva ESGWorkiva ESG
Four alternativesIBM Envizi, MetricStream's ESGRC, Sweep, Watershed
against: IBM Envizi, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud
Qwen 3.7 FlashWorkiva ESG
Nine alternativesCority, Diligent One Platform, IBM Envizi, Novisto, OneTrust, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability, Watershed, Wolters Kluwer
IBM EnviziChanged
Three alternativesNormative, Persefoni, Watershed
Workiva ESG
Six alternativesEnablon, Persefoni, SAP Business Network, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud, SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability, Watershed
Microsoft Power Platform
Four alternativesPersefoni, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud, Watershed, Workiva ESG
no first choiceagainst: EcoVadis, IBM Envizi, Oracle, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud
Kimi K2Pulsora, Watershed, Workiva ESG
Four alternativesNovisto, Persefoni, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability
WatershedChanged
Four alternativesIBM Envizi, Persefoni, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud, Sweep
Workiva ESG
Seven alternativesIBM Envizi, MSCI ESG Manager / Reporting Service, Novisto, Persefoni, SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability, Sustainalytics, Watershed
Workiva ESG
One alternativeIBM Envizi
against: SAP Sustainability Control Tower
no first choicenothing named
GLM 4.7 FlashXWorkiva ESG
Six alternativesCoupa, Enablon, Novisto, Refinitiv/和讯库, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud
WatershedChanged
Two alternativesPersefoni, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud
no first choice
Fourteen alternativesDiligent ESG, Ditchcarbon, Emission Twin, FigBytes, IBM Envizi, Novisto, Persefoni, Position Green, Pulsora, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability, Sweep, Watershed, Workiva ESG
against: Seedling
Horizon ESG
Three alternativesAPLANET, CarbonTool, ESG:ONE
against: IBM Envizi, Novisto, SAP Sustainability Control Tower, Workiva ESG
no first choicenothing named
MiniMax M2.5Persefoni
Four alternativesCoolset, Enablon, Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability
Ditchcarbon, Salesforce Net Zero CloudChanged
Two alternativesGreenly, Terrascope
Workiva ESG
Four alternativesNovisto, Persefoni, Pulsora, SAP Sustainability Control Tower
SmartSuite
One alternativeLocus Technologies
no first choiceagainst: SiGREEN
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency.
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:56yes99 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:23yes36 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:34yes2022 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:42yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 20:20yes3319 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:05yes2013 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:49yes911 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:30yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:11yes933 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:15yes1139 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:23yes1431 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:14yes515 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:06yes99 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:54yes36 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:22yes1722 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:06yes206 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 17:59yes3218 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:45yes53 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:04yes1616 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:56yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:03yes1023 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:19yes2546 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:48yes2843 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:52yes512 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:55yes1515 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:01yes814 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:34yes1925 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:41yes178 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 21:06yes1516 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:19yes911 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:38yes1724 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:38yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:51no032 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:14yes2646 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:08yes14124 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:15yes2540 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:59yes1811 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:56yes57 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:57yes1628 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:19yes208 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 18:24yes3823 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:31yes55 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 18:36yes2641 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:53yes510 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:32no035 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:26yes2661 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:36yes1230 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:42yes1649 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:53yes1814 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:30no011 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:14no018 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:04yes2015 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 20:05yes1414 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:31no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:50yes2829 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:20yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:49no033 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:27yes2562 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:12yes1446 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:45yes916 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:25yes3416 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:26yes56 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:54yes1031 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:34yes208 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 20:18yes2218 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:30yes1310 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 20:17yes2576 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:26yes54 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:59yes9102 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:00yes3048 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:50yes1152 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:38yes1329 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Diligent read as Diligent ESG
Diligent (formerly MultiLogix / HighBond) read as Diligent ESG
IBM read as IBM Envizi
Microsoft Sustainability Manager read as Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability
SAP read as SAP Sustainability Control Tower
Salesforce read as Salesforce Net Zero Cloud
Sphera read as SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability
Wolters Kluwer CCH Tagetik read as CCH Tagetik
Workiva read as Workiva ESG
Workiva (ESG) read as Workiva ESG
Workiva (WKN) read as Workiva ESG
Unresolved, counted raw
Cozero
Locus Technologies
MSCI ESG Manager / Reporting Service
MetricStream's ESGRC
Microsoft Power Platform (Power BI + Dataverse + Copilot)
Obi ESG
SiGREEN
Sustaenia
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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