How Conclusion is Driving Sustainable Change
Conclusion is an ecosystem of around 30 expert companies, united in delivering complete support in business transformation and IT services internationally. As a frontrunner in digitalisation and sustainable transformation, Conclusion faces a major challenge: complying with ever-changing regulations while simultaneously creating meaningful impact in their industry and beyond. We talk to Maaike Maranus – van de Vrande, Director Sustainability about her experience with Salacia, and the added value it brings to Conclusion.
Back to making true impact
Conclusion started preparing for reporting as early as 2021. With Salacia’s support, they conduct bi-annual and annual ESG reports, processing vast amounts of data. Adding up to more than 250,000 data points! Previously using Excel and numerous other data sources, such volumes were unmanageable. With Salacia, consolidation and calculation processes are now automated. Errors are identified quickly, supporting data quality to improve.
This solid foundation allows Conclusion to shift focus from manual checks to making strategic decisions based on trusted insights.
To Maaike, that’s what it’s all about: “I see the value of reporting, but with Salacia we can move through it faster and invest our time in what truly matters: making true impact.”
Insights Leading to Action
Mobility
“Mobility is one of the big themes for us, and within that, especially our car fleet. Seeing our data in Salacia confirmed that it has an enormous impact” Maaike explains. With thousands of employees, many of whom work flexibly on client sites, the fleet plays a central role in the company’s carbon footprint.
That’s why a decisive step was taken: since January 1, 2024, no fossil-fuel cars can be ordered anymore. Every car that leaves the fleet is replaced by an electric vehicle. The results are already visible. “What we now see is that the line is falling, because every fossil-fuel car is traded in for an electric one,” Maaike notes. At the same time, the number of kilowatt-hours charged is increasing, raising a new question: how green is the electricity being used? To answer that, Conclusion is engaging directly with fleet card providers and charging infrastructure suppliers to gain insight into the energy mix.
IT footprint
In addition to mobility, IT services and software make up a significant part of the company’s footprint. “We already knew this in theory, but now we are analyzing our IT impact in detail, mapping the specific footprint of our IT landscape,” says Maaike.
The company has started by approaching its three largest IT service providers to gain deeper insight into emissions and to explore ways to reduce them. By bringing suppliers into the dialogue, the company is not only improving its own ESG performance but also pushing the wider ecosystem forward. As Maaike explains:
“Change often starts with asking questions. And you can only ask the right questions once you have insights that trigger them. That is exactly what we get from using Salacia”
Almost an anticlimax
With more than 4.000 employees, Conclusion also felt a need for more insight into their S1 own workforce data. Gathering this social information in a confidential way results in detailed insights that Conclusion can act on, for example diversity and safety.
To get started, the team had to compile a detailed template containing information for every single employee. It was a huge task that took hours of meticulous work. By the time they were ready to upload everything into Salacia’s S1 module, the group gathered around one screen, bracing themselves for a long wait, given the effort the team had poured into building the templates.
Maaike recalls: “In less than half a second, all the data appeared neatly organized into tables and figures. It was almost an anticlimax. Our whole group was just staring at the screen, like – WOW.”
Value for Clients
By working with a certified platform like Salacia, Conclusion can share ESG data effortlessly with auditors, regulators and clients. This saves time and provides assurance. As Maaike puts it:
“With Salacia in place for our calculations and consolidations, we can demonstrate easily to our clients and stakeholders that our reporting is solid and reliable.”
Above all, these insights support Conclusion to future-proof its operations, and more. By recognizing that transformation can’t be achieved in isolation, and by using the right data to ask the right questions, they act as a catalyst for change across their entire value chain.
