It's not going away. In fact, it’s just getting started. Facility service providers are being pulled into more and more conversations about sustainability because their clients need help. Reporting requirements are growing and operational waste is one of the hardest parts to track. That’s why a new opportunity is starting to take shape.

Over the past year I've talked with cleaning firms, waste management companies, and sustainability professionals in Europe to understand how they are handling the pressure. In this article I will describe what I've learned, the big problem with sustainability reporting today, and what a new kind of service—live waste reporting—can do for your business.

If you want to learn about this new service, keep reading. If you run a facility service business yourself, this could be your chance to offer an innovative service and turn your company into a go-to strategic sustainability partner. Sound interesting? Let’s start by taking a look at the state of sustainability reporting today. As you might know, it’s pretty bad.

An extra business task

Sustainability reporting, it can be argued, isn’t a core business for most companies. Consider this example. A regional IT company operating in Denmark helps customers set up their IT infrastructure and adopt best practices. This is what generates their revenue. This is their core business. Yet, in 2025, this IT company also dedicates resources to reporting their environmental impact. They pay for sustainability managers, consultants, software tools, and audits. The costs add up. So why do they do it?

The first reason is no surprise. New regulations have arrived. The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) came into effect in 2023. It’s not the first, nor the only piece of legislation about sustainability reporting, but the CSRD is leading the way. It is massively increasing the reporting requirements for 50,000 or so European companies that fit the bill’s criteria. And the EU is not alone. Countries like the UK, New Zealand, and Singapore have mandatory ESG reporting requirements—and governments around the world are following suit.

There are other reasons to report, too. Companies want to create a positive image for themselves or gain credibility with strategic partners. This has created an industry of sustainability certifications, like the ISO 14001 standard. Not to mention, tracking emissions and operational waste is also simply one of the most effective ways to save costs. In some sectors, manufacturers might even be able to turn their waste into a byproduct and generate new revenue streams. But whatever the reason for doing it, sustainability reporting isn’t easy. 

Luxury reporting

No matter how a company chooses to do it today, sustainability reporting is complicated and expensive. Measuring environmental impact is an emerging science that takes real expertise. That’s why the first solution could be predicted. Just like financial reporting, many companies without the in-house resources have been outsourcing the reporting task to consultants. These sustainability consultants are experts that help companies navigate a complex regulatory landscape and become compliant. They do this by diving head first into the client’s manufacturing, suppliers, and operations to fish out all the relevant data. 

Unfortunately, the demand for sustainability reporting is growing rapidly, and these consultants are in short supply, which means that they are expensive. And, more importantly, considering the oceans of data they have to gather, these consultants spend many, many hours on their clients too. End-of-year sustainability reports can easily cost hundreds of thousands of euros. Hiring a team of sustainability consultants is a real luxury, and a truly enormous expense for the average company. In our opinion, that just isn’t right. It should be more accessible than that. Well, there might be options.

Consultants in disguise

Another solution has arrived in recent years. It’s still not perfect. Many companies are opting for ESG software products to make sustainability reporting easier. But even the software products available to “average” companies can cost €15,000+ a month–a not-so-insignificant sum for any company, let alone one that hasn’t achieved great financial success. 

Upon closer inspection, the reason for the cost is clear. Many of these software products are simply sustainability consultants in an oversized trench coat. Due to the messiness of sustainability data, consultants are still often needed to do the grunt work of collecting data and making subjective judgement calls. Consulting hours are often a hidden cost or add-on fee. The truth is that ESG software doesn't replace sustainability consultants, it supports them. It certainly makes their work more efficient and comprehensive, but software doesn’t solve the big, underlying problem with sustainability reporting. And we need to solve the big problem first. 

The illusion is broken

The big problem with sustainability reporting is that most sustainability data is all too often inaccessible or indeterminable. It’s the reason sustainable reports are complicated and expensive. When you scrape away the glossy lacquer on most sustainability reports, you find guesswork. And when you look behind the scenes of putting together a sustainability report, sustainability professionals are scrambling to find any data at all. They call suppliers. Suppliers don’t answer. They receive new data at the very last second. Sudden changes to reports before submission are not uncommon. And it’s all due to an easy mistake. 

We all tried to bite off more than we could chew. Consultants and ESG software fell into the same trap of trying to find all data all at once, instead of creating simple ways to collect each type of sustainability data. That’s why, if we break down sustainability data one by one, we can start to see some opportunities for automating reporting a great deal. So that’s what we did. And we discovered that forward-thinking facility management firms are the solution to operational waste data. Here’s why.

Wasted opportunity

When it comes to sustainability data, operational waste stands out. Despite the simplicity of data like the weight of waste, typical ways of measuring it are problematic. Companies that want accurate data often turn to their landlord or facility management firm. They request measurements of their garbage, but this easily turns into a monstrous task. Many facility management companies only have the bandwidth for quarterly reports. If they do have more bandwidth, it’s still a challenge.

We talked to companies that had their cleaning firm write paper notes about the weight of garbage bins and pass them over. As you can imagine, that leaves a lot of room for error. Back-and-forth emailing ensued. They couldn’t read the notes. They spotted mistakes. Both parties spent hours and hours in a typical week dealing with this task. It should go without saying that paper notes aren’t ideal. But what other options do you have?

By and large, most companies simply rely on simply guessing. Many of the sustainability officers we talked to explained that despite wanting more accurate data about the waste their buildings generate, they estimated their emissions from waste based on the cost of the waste collection services. It works in a pinch, but is that really the best we can do? We think not.

The missing piece is you

If you’ve made it this far, it should be clear to you that the big problem with collecting waste data for sustainability reports is that it is either inaccurate or delayed, or both. We can fix both of those things with live waste reporting. When we interviewed sustainability officers in Europe, they say it is exactly what they need to meet new ESG reporting demands. The missing part is you–the facility service provider. That’s cleaning firms, waste management companies, and facility management firms.

The idea behind live waste reporting is simple. With live waste reporting software, facility service providers can give their clients access to verifiable waste data the moment it is collected. The data is automatically organized into European Waste Codes for compatibility with international sustainability standards. It’s like giving them an instant sustainability report anytime they need it. Let me explain how it works.

Second nature

We wanted to build a solution that can be installed practically anywhere in minutes. That way it is entirely flexible and therefore accessible to any facility management firm. All you’ll need for Trace is a minimal set-up at your client’s commercial space. It’s as minimal as printing a QR code and placing a scale. Any floor scale or hand scale will work. After that, you will invite your client to Trace, and have them set up the European Waste Codes they use for their reporting. Then you’re ready to get started.

During a typical visit to your client, just weigh any waste you collect and log it with Trace. Open your phone, scan the QR code, select the EWC, enter the weight, and verify the entry with a photo. It’s like scanning a supermarket item. After a couple of runs, it’ll feel like second nature. 

That’s it. All the data will instantly end up with your client as a ready-to-download report complete with time stamps, EWC categories, and even photo evidence for each entry. And just like that you’ve turned your business into a strategic sustainability partner and gained a new revenue stream.

Affordable sustainability

It’s happening already. Innovative facility management firms are starting to offload the sustainability reporting task for their clients–and helping them become more transparent, responsible, and efficient. But there’s more that they could do. Live waste reporting provides a deeper service to clients while also making it accessible to any facility management firm. 

Live waste reporting is the first step. But our mission is larger than tracking waste generated from commercial spaces. We want to make sustainability affordable for every company. If gathering sustainability data is simple, reporting will be simple. When reporting is simple, it is affordable. And when every company can see their impact, we are building a more responsible society.

For facility service business owners

Do you have commercial clients that ask for waste data, hold ISO 14001 certification, or otherwise struggle to prepare sustainability reports? Live waste reporting could be a valuable service to them.

Just contact us and we'll guide you through your entire set up. If you aren’t sure whether your commercial clients report waste, feel free to share this article with them to see if they recognize the challenges.