In this episode of Sustainable Intelligence, Nick Donoghue, Lead Product Manager at Novata, discusses what it takes to design sustainability software that actually works. From meeting diverse compliance needs to unlocking real business value, Nick shares insights on integrating sustainability across an organization, choosing the right tools, and making data work harder. Whether you’re a sustainability leader or simply curious about the tech driving ESG progress, this conversation delivers practical takeaways and a clear-eyed view of what matters most.
About Sustainable Intelligence
Novata’s Sustainable Intelligence podcast brings honest, forward-thinking conversations about sustainability in the private markets. From carbon accounting to turning data into impact, each episode explores how investors and business leaders are tackling real challenges, meeting rising regulations, and building long-term value. Join us for expert insights, practical strategies, and authentic dialogue that empower action and progress in the evolving sustainability landscape. Listen to more episodes on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Conversation with Nick Donoghue (Transcript)
Ella Williamson: Welcome to Sustainable Intelligence, where we discuss all things sustainability for the private markets. I’m Ella Williamson and I’m thrilled to be your host. Joining us today is Nick Donoghue, Lead Product Manager at Novata. Nick has spent nearly 15 years in sustainability, specializing in manufacturing and complex supply chains.
Before joining Novata, he led product at Manufacture 2030, scaling it into a best-in-class platform used by global giants like GSK, Ford, Unilever, and Toyota, and thousands of their suppliers to measure and reduce carbon. Today we’re getting into the technical side of sustainability, what it takes to build software that actually works across industries, geographies, and across ESG frameworks. So Nick, to get us started, I’d love to know a bit more about your role at Novata and where you fit in?
Nick Donoghue: So I’m a Product Lead in the product team at Novata, focusing on the sustainability management and carbon management platform that we’re building for portfolio companies.
Ella: Brilliant. So just a small job there, Nick. And being in that role, what have you found are the biggest needs and requirements that companies demand across the sustainability space? Has anything really shifted in how they’re approaching ESG this year?
Nick: So in terms of the underlying needs that customers are looking for, I think we still see a spectrum based on compliance needs, which is about license to operate. Have I provided the right information of the right quality to the right stakeholders? And then we have true value creation needs: can I differentiate my products? Can I reduce my costs? Can I attract and retain my workforce? And companies are working across those based on their maturity, ambition, and how they see this as a long term strategy for value creation.
Ella: So it sounds like there’s a pretty broad spectrum of needs and the point you made there about balancing reporting requirements, but also being able to show that, showcase that value. That’s something that we definitely are working towards. Now, in terms of the practical side of things, when it comes to companies trying to actually operationalize sustainability, are there any key challenges that you’ve seen they tend to run into? And where do things start to get a little more tricky in your experience?
Nick: There are many challenges operationalizing sustainability, and I think the key one is not linking it back to creating value for the business. And that value can come in many forms, but certainly when sustainability seems, tends towards being a compliance effort or a marketing-only effort and not really tied in and integrated with how the business creates value, then you see teams being quite isolated and ring fenced in the business, having to beg and borrow from other teams to access data, to influence projects. So certainly in my experience in the market, the best teams, the ones who, or the best businesses, sorry, who are actually making use of sustainability as a way of creating value, are integrating it across procurements, risk, finance, marketing, sales, operations, and tying their activities back to clear KPIs that they can track and measure, so that they can justify their activities both in the short term and in the long term.
Ella: Thank you for that, Nick. I think that’s a really important point you made about bringing your entire company on this journey and ensuring that they all understand the value that this can bring to the business. But until you are fully integrated, that’s not going to be the case. What have you found that companies actually require when you speak to them about what they need from a sustainability tool or sustainability software? And if you could boil it down to the three top things, if that’s possible, what would they be?
Nick: I’ll give you a nuanced answer and I know that’s not ideal from a top three, quick perspective, but sustainability’s a really broad church of needs and requirements. Once you’ve identified the problem and therefore the range of solutions that might be needed to solve it, we start to look at other factors. A big one for me at the moment, based on how many tools there are and how many have come into the market, is based on your tolerance of risk as a customer.
What’s the stability of that product offer? Like how secure is it? How stable is the vendor? What are their other customers like? Because that will tell us a lot about the security profile. It will tell us a lot about the financial health of the vendor and so on. So that I put as a hygiene factor. And then we, if we look at sustainability in reporting and data management specifically, I think there are two big factors there, so ease of acquisition, how easy is it to acquire data from different pools in the business, be they in other systems, in other people’s heads, from other teams? And then how do you help organize that effort to bring the right information together? And once you’ve got it together, the second one is using the information. So how do we clean it, sort it, transform it, store it so that we can turn it both into the compliance needs around reporting and frameworks that businesses have to deal with depending on which parts of the market they’re operating in and which investors they’re reporting to, which customers they’re reporting to, but also them turn it into meaningful metrics that they can track as part of that linking to value creation.
Ella: Brilliant. I love the point you made there about prioritizing what’s really important to your business and keeping that top of mind when choosing the right tool. In your opinion, is there anything that you think makes a sustainability platform truly valuable beyond collecting data in a spreadsheet or a different dashboard that you may already have access to in the business?
Nick: Again, I know I’ve talked about this a lot already, bringing it back to, does it help you create and show how you’re creating value from sustainability. So there is definite value in your license to operate, complying with the various regulations that you need to comply with or the frameworks you need to comply with. But then depending on what else you are trying to target from your sustainability efforts, you should be able to link back value to that platform. So if it’s about plant optimization and energy efficiency, how can you track and show those improvements and those metrics as part of your sustainability effort? If it’s about cost of capital reduction because you can show that you are a more sustainable business, how are you doing that and how are you linking it back to the tools that you are using? So I think it comes down to how does that tool really help you execute on those ways that you are looking to create value for the business rather than just merely being a good source of information that you pull somewhere and bring it out when you need it?
Ella: And you touched upon there regulations, frameworks. I know that this space is moving very fast. How does that impact the way that you and your team shape the products that you build to make sure that businesses can still comply with these new regulations that are coming out?
Nick: Yeah, it’s lot of acronym soup out there when it comes to the regulations. And while there are some fantastic efforts to standardize increasingly the types of questions, there is still highly specific areas of the market, which have highly specific ways of asking for information to the point of, I think, sometimes we’d all say trending towards being overly bloated with data requests because at some point someone found it interesting to want to ask for a particular metric, and no one’s ever thought about questioning or taking that particular metric out of the request that they’re making or even the rules that they’re setting.
In Novata, we’re lucky to have a regulations team and an advisory team who are constantly scanning the market for the changes in these regulations and frameworks, and also trying to look for both the direct and the indirect overlap between them. So, where is there a good fit between let’s use a classic metric that may be asked by almost every framework, scope one emissions. Where can we help a customer calculate those emissions and then reuse them across as many frameworks as possible? But there are lots of indirect overlaps as well, where five different frameworks or regulations might be broadly asking for the same information, but in such a way that it’s ever so slightly different. And so there’s not a perfect fit. Behind the scenes we’re trying to work out with customers with those teams I mentioned, which we’re very lucky to have the support of, how we help people really ring everything they can outta the information they’ve collected because the value isn’t in collecting the information and it’s not in necessarily sharing the information, it’s then what you do with that information that really makes a difference. We really try and spend time ourselves helping customers through that so that they don’t have to.
Ella: That efficiency piece is super key. Being able to collect that data once and then be able to use it across multiple different frameworks and regulations is gonna be the real unlock to the future of adding value when collecting sustainability data. I couldn’t go today’s episode without asking you about AI being in the product space. Everyone’s trying to integrate it, but how is AI actually shaping sustainability workflows right now?
Nick: We are trying many with a real view on where they add most value on data acquisition. How do we help integrate different systems more seamlessly through AI? How do we help take unstructured information in PDFs and spreadsheets and turn it into structured information that you can use in compliance reports or a framework that you are trying to complete? How do we help drive down the time for those ad hoc requests that customers often throw at businesses they’re working with? You’re about to do a new tender with us. We’ve decided this year we need some different environmental data from you or some different social data. So, really thinking about the areas of high friction, where AI is a really good accelerator for customers. Then, of course, there’s the analytics side of things. Once you’ve got information coming together, how do you transform it? Make calculations, look for trends, look for anomalies that can really save you time later and help you use the information. And then, we can also start looking at how the information can help highlight potential opportunities for customers. So are there particular areas where actually there are some really interesting efficiency gains if they were to deploy new technologies or new product lines, for example? So there’s a lot of uses of AI, but again, I come back to is it materially impacting the workflows and changing the workflows that customers have to go through.
And one other thing I think is really interesting is at Novata, we’re working with a lot of small or medium sized businesses. They don’t necessarily have the resources in-house to have high degrees of expertise across lots of very specific topics, especially when it comes to things like plant optimization to green infrastructure to material changes. Using AI to pool all of the good practices, all of the knowledge, and effectively creating an experienced colleague that you can ask questions of and interrogate to get a really good sense of what’s possible so that you are more informed when you’re then talking to outside parties, outside consultants is a fantastic opportunity and use of AI especially in those smaller mid-size companies where they just don’t have that level of resource in-house.
Ella: Yes, it’s definitely become table stakes for tech platforms like ourselves, and so it’s fascinating to hear how you are thinking about embedding it and actually making it useful by improving the experience, but also reducing workload and then hopefully also uncovering insights for future cost savings, et cetera.
So sticking on how you are building products at Novata, looking ahead to 2026, the rest of this year, what would you say is different about how Novata is approaching product development from other players in the market? Is there anything specifically you are building or evolving to better serve sustainability teams globally?
Nick: Looking ahead to 2026, we’ve spent the last three or four years building a fantastic network of investors and their portfolio companies, and increasingly offering tools that those portfolio companies who are small to mid-size market and growing quickly can use to manage their own sustainability data, much like their investors manage regulations and compliance. As we move forward into 2026, we’re really thinking about how that network effect can create more value for all the parties inside of it. And how we start turning compliance and information collection and delivery into insights and metrics that can help drive real value for the portfolio companies.
So, moving on to efficiency gains from carbon reductions, moving on to cost of capital measurements and how we can help bring in capital that is looking for greener, more resilient businesses to invest in and so on and so forth. I think it’s gonna be a really exciting year to be part of.
Ella: Brilliant. I’m very excited to see what comes out for the rest of this year and going into 2026. For anyone who’s listening today and is thinking about buying a tool and evaluating all the players in the market, is there one piece of advice that you’d give them before they choose a platform or solution?
Nick: Yes. I think to really think about what their needs are first, and to write them down somewhere. To look past the AI hype that we’re in at the moment, and think about that as a hygiene factor, that well integrated almost every tool should have at this point. And it’s not about whether you’ve got AI or not, it’s about how you are using these assets to help customers, and then also to speak to existing customers. Because there are lots of different options people can take in the market.
There are a lot of fascinating tools being built, great growth plans, really interesting ways of approaching the same type of problems. So really looking to speak to existing customers and work out what’s the experience they’re really getting once they’ve signed up. Is it meeting expectations? Is it delivering on the job needed? And that I think will help people make a better decision. It is interesting because of the breadth of tools available, because of the breadth of needs where sometimes we see potential customers looking for our tool, but without being really clear on what they need and how they’re going to deploy it. And the success of these tools is really that end-to-end journey from finding the need, identifying the options, picking the right tool based on those criteria, and then ensuring that it’s well deployed and integrated so that it can create the value that’s been promised. The journey doesn’t stop when you’ve picked the right tool.
Ella: Yeah, I think that’s a very good point. And choosing a tool just for the sake of it is definitely not the thing to do. You’ve gotta think how it’s gonna work for your team or for yourself as a sustainability leader, but also across your business and with other systems that you already have in place.
Now, we always finish these podcasts with a quickfire round, a bit of fun. There’s no right or wrong answers. So Nick, to start, number one, one product feature or enhancement that you are most excited about launching this year.
Nick: So one feature that’s really exciting is to add the start point of a product calculator into our carbon tool called the Carbon Navigator, which is a fantastic tool that works across businesses who are just starting on carbon right the way through to more mature businesses who want a straightforward, simple to use solution. And at the moment we’re working on a module for starting to track the basics of product emissions for things like processing end of life in scope three, which will be very exciting when we can deliver that to customers.
Ella: Brilliant. Everyone should be watching this space. Number two, which industry and this, in your opinion, do you believe is leading the charge when it comes to sustainability?
Nick: Very difficult to say, as you might expect me to answer. We’ve certainly seen some of the industries that are most likely to be affected by climate risks or securities related to climate. For example, security of supply, high degree of regulation. That’s where a lot of the momentum has been started, but all have got a long way to go. I think the examples there would be the chemical sector, the big players in the chemicals market have been working together for quite a while now around all of the common things of efficiency when you are creating chemicals, the uses of the chemicals, different ingredients that go into the chemicals and so on.
And there’s some really strong industry groups and momentum there. And that has a huge effect on the underlying economy because chemicals go into almost everything that we work with. Food would be another example. I’ve worked with food businesses for many years and they were thinking about security of supply 15 years ago when I first started, and thinking about how climate models, if we’re not careful, will start to impact availability of produce, for example. And how therefore you need to be not only doing the right thing as a business, but also thinking about how you secure that supply for the future. And pharmaceuticals would be the sort of final one I throw in there as another industry group who are certainly making the right noises in this sector.
Ella: Brilliant. So chemicals, food, and pharmaceuticals. Good answers.
And finally, one thing you wish every product manager knew about building sustainability software.
Nick: That it’s no different to building any other bit of software. We’re really trying to focus on identifying problems and opportunities for our customers and then solving them in a scalable way, which while there’s domain knowledge that comes with that, at its core, it’s the same as good product management in any sector. We’re thinking about how we can help customers move faster, do more, solve pain in a way that works not just for that one customer, but across a wider customer base.
And I think that goes for any product manager in any domain. You just add the acronym soup that we have to deal with in sustainability onto the top of it. Just to make it that little bit more challenging at times.
Ella: Yes. Like you said, it is all about solving the problems and needs of our customers, and I do believe that our product team here at Novata does a fantastic job at that. So Nick, it’s been wonderful having you on today. You’ve shared so many interesting insights and we’ve never actually had an episode about the actual product itself and how you build something that is really delivering what our customers require.
My key takeaways from today,looking beyond the AI hype and actually picking a tool that is addressing the priorities of your business and is gonna work within your business after deployment. Number two, as new frameworks, as new regulations come out, look where there’s those overlaps and really enable our customers to be able to reuse that data across different places is going to be a real unlock and value provider for our customers.
And finally, I loved the way you described the “network effect of sustainability,” whether that’s sharing data across your network, whether that’s leaning on peers for different advice, whether that’s thinking about the solution that you are using and how you are actually going to deploy that within your business and your network.
I think that’s a really valuable point. So Nick, thank you so much for all your insights. Until next time, let’s keep building sustainable intelligence together. Find out more at novata.com.
