Sage acquires carbon accounting platform Spherics to expand sustainability capabilities

Sage, the leader in accounting, financial, HR and payroll technology for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs), has announced that it has completed the acquisition of Bristol-based Spherics, a carbon accounting solution to help businesses easily understand and reduce their environmental impact.

The acquisition reinforces Sage’s commitment to sustainability, in line with its purpose of knocking down barriers so everyone can thrive. Sage has pledged to fight climate change and help protect the planet, by halving its own emissions by 2030 and becoming net zero by 2040, by supporting SMBs to get to net zero, and by advocating for policy and regulatory frameworks to support the transition to a low carbon economy.

Spherics automates the process of calculating emissions by ingesting data from a customer’s accounting software and matching transactions to emission factors to create an initial estimate of their carbon footprint. The software then guides the customer to refine this estimate by submitting further data for a more accurate calculation – supporting SMBs on their journey to net zero.

“We know that SMBs care about the impact they have on the environment, and they want to work with suppliers that can help them understand and address it”

Spherics also helps SMBs apply carbon emission factors to procurement categories (such as delivery, accommodation, electricity and travel) to estimate the associated carbon footprint of a transaction. This approach supports customers with spend-based analysis and aligns with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the globally agreed standard for measuring carbon emissions.

“We know that SMBs care about the impact they have on the environment, and our research shows that they want to work with suppliers and partners that can help them understand and address it,” says Amaya Souarez, EVP Cloud Operations, Sage. “The acquisition of Spherics represents an important milestone in our sustainability strategy. By combining Spherics’ innovative software with Sage’s digital network, we are connecting businesses with their customer and supplier emissions data, enabling easy and collaborative climate action across value chains which helps to reduce carbon.”

“Our vision and mission align very much with Sage’s core values, and we are excited to embark on this new journey to help SMBs knock down barriers to a more sustainable future. Global emissions are still rising fast, and we need immediate and meaningful climate action across the world,” adds George Sandilands, CEO & Co-founder, Spherics. “Together with Sage we can help make a global impact on greenhouse gas emissions by supporting SMBs on their journey to net zero.”

Mickey North Rizza, Group Vice President, Enterprise Software, IDC also comments, “A company’s ability to integrate sustainability metrics into its growth strategy and to demonstrate its sustainability credentials transparently is becoming a strong differentiator globally.

“We see companies moving towards more integrated, outcome-driven ways of incorporating sustainability into every step of the business life cycle, and our studies show that organisations are investing in many application areas directly related to sustainability and ESG initiatives. In particular, the applications of supply chain, finance, and ERP are at the top of this investment with some of the largest benefits of elevated productivity, increased profitability, and decreased costs.”

Headquartered in Bristol, United Kingdom, Spherics will continue to be available as a market solution that integrates with Sage and other accounting software providers in the UK.