Greenly

Reviewed by the AiGreenTools Editorial Team · Last Updated: June 2026

Picture the Organization Greenly Is Built For

A 300-employee manufacturer based in Lyon. Twelve product lines. Suppliers in three countries. The sustainability manager was hired eight months ago, previously worked in marketing, and has just completed an online GHG Protocol course. Three things landed on her desk last month: a request from their largest retail customer for a Scope 3 Category 1 carbon footprint (for that customer’s CSRD report), an EcoVadis assessment invitation from another major buyer, and a board memo asking about CSRD obligations.

Her option set is: engage a consultant for €15,000–€25,000 and wait three months; buy an enterprise carbon platform that requires a 6-month implementation; or find a tool that guides her through the process with enough AI support that her non-specialist background is not a barrier to completing a credible first footprint.

That third option is where Greenly was built to sit. Not the platform for Sanofi’s CSRD program. Not the platform for Watershed’s Fortune 500 decarbonization clients. The platform for the 2,500+ companies across Europe and North America that need to go from “we don’t know where to start” to “first footprint completed and shared with our customer” — without hiring a specialist they cannot yet justify and without waiting for an implementation that takes longer than the customer’s deadline.

What Is Greenly and How Does It Work?

What Greenly covers in one platform:

• Organizational carbon footprint: Scope 1, 2, and 3 across all 15 categories — GHG Protocol aligned
• CSRD/ESRS E1 reporting: ESRS data collection, XBRL tagging, xHTML export, double materiality assessment tooling
• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): Product Carbon Footprint for specific products — EU Battery Regulation, Ecodesign alignment
• EcoVadis integration: Pre-structured data export mapping to EcoVadis questionnaire requirements
• Supplier engagement: Scope 3 Category 1 primary data collection from suppliers
• SBTi target-setting: Science-based target alignment and real-time progress tracking
• CBAM compliance: Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism tracking for imports

How Does Greenly Compare to Normative and Plan A?

The honest comparison across these three platforms is a maturity and depth question, not a features question.

The selection logic: if ISAE 3000 assurance is required within 12 months, start with Normative. If CSRD with TÜV certification and a decarbonization roadmap is the priority, use Plan A. If the first milestone is a credible carbon footprint shared with a customer, completed by a non-specialist team in under 8 weeks, at SME budget — Greenly is the correct starting point.

Does Greenly Support CSRD Reporting?

Yes — Greenly has built CSRD-specific tooling for Wave 2 organizations (threshold: more than 1,000 employees AND more than €450M net turnover under Directive (EU) 2026/470, first reporting FY2027). The platform covers:

• Double materiality assessment: Guided DMA process aligned with EFRAG methodology
• ESRS E1 data collection: GHG emissions, transition risk, climate targets, energy consumption
• XBRL tagging: iXBRL data point tagging for ESAP submission
• xHTML export: ESAP-compliant file format for regulatory filing
• Implementation partner network: 100+ certified partners for organizations needing hands-on CSRD support

The documented time reduction from 1,000+ hours to under 100 hours for CSRD reporting reflects primarily the data collection automation — not the elimination of the expertise required to make sound materiality and disclosure decisions. Organizations approaching their first CSRD report should use Greenly’s tooling alongside qualified implementation partners, not as a standalone replacement for CSRD expertise.

For CSRD context, see our complete post-Omnibus CSRD guide. For carbon accounting platform comparison across the market, see AI in carbon accounting 2026.

Greenly and EcoVadis — Why the Integration Matters

EcoVadis assessment requests are becoming a standard commercial requirement for European suppliers. As CSRD-obligated buyers collect Scope 3 Category 1 data from their supply chains, and as CSDDD enforcement approaches, procurement teams are increasingly requiring suppliers to hold an EcoVadis rating as a condition of continued business. For an SME receiving its first EcoVadis invitation, the assessment process — gathering policies, certifications, performance data, and sustainability management evidence — can take weeks without structured support.

Greenly’s EcoVadis integration pre-organizes the sustainability data collected through the Greenly platform into the format required for EcoVadis questionnaire responses. An organization that has completed its carbon footprint in Greenly has already gathered most of the environmental performance data that EcoVadis requires — the integration converts that data into a structured EcoVadis submission rather than requiring the sustainability team to re-collect the same information for a different format.

This integration is the practical reason that SMEs receiving simultaneous demands for an organizational footprint and an EcoVadis assessment find Greenly more efficient than managing the two processes separately. See our EcoVadis review for the full context on what EcoVadis ratings measure and how they satisfy CSDDD due diligence requirements.

Life Cycle Assessment at SME Scale — Who Needs This Feature?

Life Cycle Assessment — calculating the full environmental impact of a product from raw material extraction through end-of-life — has historically been reserved for large organizations with specialist LCA software and qualified LCA practitioners. Greenly’s inclusion of LCA capability in the base platform changes the accessibility equation for SMEs facing product-level carbon obligations.

Organizations for whom Greenly’s LCA is operationally relevant:

• Battery manufacturers: EU Battery Regulation requires Product Carbon Footprints from 2024 — Greenly’s LCA provides the calculation methodology
• Manufacturers supplying automotive: OEM customer PCF data requests are standard across the European automotive supply chain
• Consumer goods companies: Retail customer sustainability requirements increasingly include product-level carbon data
• Companies subject to CBAM: Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism pricing requires embedded carbon calculations for covered imports (cement, iron, steel, aluminum, fertilizers, electricity, hydrogen)
• Organizations making environmental product claims: EU Green Claims Directive requires substantiated environmental performance claims backed by recognized methodology

Who Should Not Choose Greenly?

Organizations requiring assurance-grade methodology for ISAE 3000 limited or reasonable assurance should start with Normative. Normative’s TÜV SÜD-verified calculation engine, 100% audit pass rate, and named GHGP-certified advisor on every account provide the independent methodology validation that Greenly’s AI-guided approach does not. Several Greenly user reviews note that strong internal verification is necessary — for organizations whose footprint will undergo external assurance, that internal verification requirement transfers significant quality control responsibility to the sustainability team rather than the platform.

Large enterprises with complex Scope 3 Category 1 inventories spanning thousands of global suppliers, requiring AI-powered product-level decomposition and decarbonization scenario modeling integrated with supplier decisions, should evaluate Watershed. Watershed’s Product Footprints capability, 500,000+ emission factors, and decarbonization planning integration operate at a depth that Greenly’s Scope 3 tooling does not approach.

Companies where the primary CSRD challenge is full-ESRS ESG data governance — managing social and governance data points alongside environmental, coordinating 20+ cross-functional contributors, and providing finance-grade audit trails for assurance providers — should evaluate Novisto or Workiva. Greenly’s CSRD tooling addresses the ESRS E1 climate requirements well; it is not a full ESG data governance platform.

The Verdict on Greenly

Greenly’s value is precisely scoped: it is the best platform on the market for European SMEs and mid-market companies doing carbon accounting for the first time, without specialist expertise, facing commercial or regulatory pressure with a near-term deadline. The #1 G2 ranking reflects genuine user satisfaction among that population — the population for whom speed, accessibility, and breadth at SME pricing matter more than methodology depth and assurance-grade rigor.

For organizations that outgrow Greenly — as they approach their first assurance engagement, their first SBTi technical review, or their first CSRD filing under ISAE 3000 audit — the platform’s limitation becomes visible, and the upgrade path is clear: Normative for methodology rigor, Plan A for integrated decarbonization and CSRD, Novisto for full ESG data governance. Greenly serves the stage before those requirements materialize. For that stage, it is the right tool.