SM is best thought of as a strategic framework for information management and it has evolved as a response to the growing need for holistically managing sustainability at the enterprise level. Industrial organizations have traditionally managed these processes in an ad hoc way at the facility and departmental level. For example, different people and departments would often be responsible for energy, carbon, and environmental compliance, making it very difficult for executives to have a clear picture of what was going on with the organization.
For many industrial companies, the disjointedness of ad hoc processes is creating a bottleneck when it comes to improving business performance. The need for a more pervasive solution is quickly becoming apparent, and it’s materializing as ESM. Companies taking this approach are viewing it through the lens of an enterprise initiative, rather than one of departments or business units.