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Plan A
Plan A is a Berlin-born carbon accounting and decarbonization platform, founded in 2017 and acquired by Diginex in January 2026. Built for European enterprises navigating CSRD obligations alongside active emissions reduction, it combines TÜV Rheinland-certified carbon accounting with science-based decarbonization planning in a single workflow — with an explicit position that reduction must come before reporting.
Salesforce net zero cloud
Salesforce Net Zero Cloud is an enterprise ESG and carbon accounting platform built on the Salesforce Platform, letting organizations layer sustainability data on top of the financial, supply-chain and operational data already in their Salesforce ecosystem. It tracks Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions with a structured data model and workflow, uses Einstein generative AI to ease ESG reporting, and provides framework-specific report builders for CSRD, GRI, SASB, CDP and California climate disclosure laws. Launched as Sustainability Cloud in 2019 (with Salesforce as its own first customer) and rebranded Net Zero Cloud in 2022, it is best suited to enterprises already invested in Salesforce.
Plan A
Salesforce net zero cloud
Sustainability Impact
15/20
19/20
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Features & Capabilities
15/20
17/20
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Value for Money
16/20
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14/20
Ease of Use
16/20
🏆
15/20
Trust & Maturity
14/20
18/20
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Pricing
enterprise
enterprise
Year founded
2017
2019
Best for
European mid-market to large enterprises at Stage 3 maturity — organizations with a CSRD obligation on the horizon, a commitment to SBTi, and a need to move from compliance baseline to active decarbonization plan within a single platform.
Medium-to-large enterprises already invested in Salesforce that want carbon accounting and ESG reporting (Scope 1, 2 and 3) managed on the same platform as their financial, supply-chain and operational data — with Einstein AI easing the reporting burden and built-in report builders for CSRD, GRI, SASB, CDP and California climate disclosure laws.
Categories
Carbon & ClimateCarbon Accounting
Carbon & ClimateCarbon Accounting
Carbon Scopes
Scope 1 (Direct emissions)Scope 2 (Indirect energy)Scope 3 (Value chain)
Scope 1 (Direct emissions)Scope 2 (Indirect energy)Scope 3 (Value chain)
Key features
- TÜV Rheinland-Certified Carbon Accounting — GHG Protocol and SBTi Aligned Plan A's carbon accounting methodology is certified by TÜV Rheinland and aligned with the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard and SBTi criteria. The platform covers Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions across all 15 categories using AI-assisted data mapping, automated anomaly detection, and customizable calculation methods developed in collaboration with a Scientific Advisory Board. The certification is operationally significant for European enterprises: it provides documented third-party confirmation of methodology alignment that can be presented to auditors, CSRD reporting reviewers, and SBTi technical staff without requiring the organization to reconstruct its methodology rationale from scratch.
- Decarbonization Planning and ROI Scenario Modeling Plan A is built on the premise that carbon accounting exists to produce a reduction plan, not merely a disclosure. The platform includes science-based decarbonization scenario modeling — allowing organizations to test the emissions impact and financial ROI of specific reduction initiatives before committing resources. Scenarios can be modeled at Scope level, by business unit, by geography, or by supplier category. The output is a structured reduction roadmap aligned with SBTi pathways, with progress tracking built into the same platform as the measurement. For organizations that need to demonstrate a credible decarbonization trajectory — to a board, a regulator, or an SBTi reviewer — the scenario tool connects the baseline footprint to a forward-looking strategy in a way that static reporting cannot.
- CSRD-Aligned Reporting and ESG Framework Integration Plan A's reporting module supports CSRD disclosure preparation with pre-structured ESRS E1 outputs covering GHG emissions, transition risk indicators, and climate targets. The platform is SOC 2 and GDPR compliant, with an audit trail maintained across data ingestion, calculation, and output generation. Through the Diginex acquisition (completed January 15, 2026), Plan A's carbon accounting capability is being integrated with Diginex's broader ESG reporting infrastructure spanning 19 global frameworks — extending the platform's reach beyond carbon-only disclosure toward a more complete CSRD data point coverage. This integration is in progress as of mid-2026; buyers evaluating the combined platform should confirm the current state of ESRS social and governance coverage with the vendor directly.
- Carbon Accounting Built on the Salesforce Platform — Data Where the Business Lives The defining feature of Net Zero Cloud is not a specific emissions calculation — it is where the platform lives. Built natively on the Salesforce Platform as a set of objects and an app enabled by permission-set licenses, Net Zero Cloud lets companies layer their sustainability data on top of the financial, supply-chain and operational data already in their Salesforce ecosystem. This is a genuine data-architecture advantage for Salesforce-native enterprises: instead of managing emissions in disconnected spreadsheets divorced from the systems that generate the underlying activity data, sustainability becomes part of the same structured data model, workflow engine and reporting infrastructure that runs the rest of the business. It tracks the full emissions picture — Scope 1 (direct), Scope 2 (purchased energy) and Scope 3 (value chain, including supplier emissions) — along with carbon conversions, waste, water and energy/resource tracking. Because it uses a structured data model and workflow capabilities rather than generic reporting, emissions insights become part of broader operational reporting, and the platform can layer sustainability metrics against real financial and supply-chain records. For an organization already committed to Salesforce, this integration is the reason to choose Net Zero Cloud over a standalone carbon tool; for one not on Salesforce, it is a far weaker draw.
- Einstein AI and Framework Report Builders — Easing the Disclosure Burden ESG reporting is notoriously complex and time-consuming, and Net Zero Cloud's second major strength is reducing that burden through AI and structured report builders. Einstein, Salesforce's generative AI, is embedded to suggest report content and automate elements of carbon accounting, emissions tracking and metrics like building energy intensity — alleviating the manual effort that consumes ESG professionals and helping organizations of all sizes and industries get to compliance faster. On top of the AI, Net Zero Cloud provides framework-specific report builders that walk users through disclosure for both voluntary and mandatory frameworks: CSRD, GRI, SASB, CDP, and California's climate disclosure laws are supported, with more added as regulations emerge, and outputs align with the GHG Protocol. It also includes out-of-the-box goal setting for Science Based Targets (SBTi) with tracking toward them, and "what-if" scenario modeling to project outcomes and make confident carbon-reduction decisions. Automated data collection simplifies gathering information from multiple sources, with stakeholder engagement, task tracking and submission validation to ensure timely, accurate data. For transport-heavy organizations, it calculates precise fleet and ground-travel emissions, including correcting odometer errors — the kind of practical accuracy that matters for defensible reporting.
- Enterprise Maturity, the Salesforce Origin Story, and the Partner Ecosystem Net Zero Cloud carries the credibility of Salesforce's decade-long sustainability commitment and its "own first customer" origin. Salesforce launched Sustainability Cloud in 2019 as an in-house solution for its own carbon accounting, iterated through limited-access versions, then broadened it into a full ESG solution and rebranded it Net Zero Cloud in 2022 — meaning the product was battle-tested on Salesforce's own net-zero journey before reaching general availability. It is designed for organizations at every stage of the sustainability journey, from calculating a corporate carbon footprint for the first time, through developing emission-reduction strategies, to reporting data to investors and stakeholders, and is particularly relevant for high-emitting industries such as manufacturing, energy and utilities, retail and consumer goods, and travel, transport and hospitality. A mature implementation-partner ecosystem supports deployment: PwC offers acceleration of sustainability reporting on Net Zero Cloud with robust carbon accounting audits, and firms like Cherry Bekaert provide carbon accounting, digital dashboards and tax-credit filing services around the platform. This combination of a proven origin, enterprise-grade platform infrastructure, and a professional-services ecosystem makes Net Zero Cloud a substantial enterprise ESG offering — provided the buyer is, or is willing to become, a Salesforce customer.
Pros
- Plan A's explicit positioning — that decarbonization must come before disclosure — is a philosophical stance with operational consequences. The platform is built so that the measurement leads directly to a reduction roadmap, and the reduction roadmap leads to a compliant disclosure, in a single workflow. For European mid-market organizations that need to demonstrate a credible SBTi pathway alongside their CSRD reporting obligations, this sequence is built into the product rather than requiring a separate strategy engagement. The TÜV Rheinland certification of the methodology provides the documentation anchor that makes the resulting footprint defensible in both an SBTi technical review and a CSRD assurance engagement.
- The platform's accessibility for organizations without a large sustainability team is a practical differentiator at the mid-market level. AI-assisted data mapping, automated anomaly detection, and ready-to-use calculation methods reduce the time and specialist knowledge required to build a first Scope 3 inventory. The AI-driven data processing retains organizational context — memorizing naming conventions and custom data structures across reporting cycles — so the second year of carbon accounting takes materially less time than the first. For organizations that cannot justify a full-time sustainability data function but face a CSRD reporting obligation for FY2027 data, this reduction in operational friction is financially material.
- The Diginex acquisition opens a strategic dimension that Plan A as a standalone platform could not offer: integration with ESG reporting coverage across 19 global frameworks, supply chain transparency infrastructure, and AI-driven analytics from Matter DK. For Plan A's existing customer base — which includes BMW, Deutsche Bank, Visa, Chloé, and Trivago — the combined platform trajectory points toward an end-to-end solution that links regulatory compliance, value chain emissions, and decarbonization strategy. The integration is a work in progress, and buyers should evaluate the current state carefully. But the strategic direction addresses the fragmentation problem that carbon-only platforms structurally cannot solve alone.
- The Salesforce Platform integration is a genuine, and genuinely differentiated, advantage for the large installed base of Salesforce customers. Because Net Zero Cloud is built natively on the platform, an enterprise can layer sustainability data on top of the financial, supply-chain and operational data it already runs in Salesforce — turning emissions from a disconnected spreadsheet island into part of the same structured data model, workflow and reporting infrastructure as the rest of the business. For a Salesforce-native organization, this eliminates the integration project a standalone carbon tool would require and lets sustainability insights sit alongside real business data, which is exactly what makes ESG reporting defensible and decisions grounded. No standalone carbon specialist can match this for a company already committed to Salesforce.
- The AI-assisted reporting and framework coverage meaningfully reduce the ESG compliance burden. Einstein generative AI suggesting report content and automating elements of carbon accounting addresses the real pain of manual, time-consuming ESG reporting, and the framework specific report builders — CSRD, GRI, SASB, CDP, California climate disclosure laws, aligned to the GHG Protocol — turn data into disclosures with structured guidance rather than manual assembly. Out-of-the-box SBTi goal setting, "what-if" reduction scenario modeling, automated data collection with validation, and precise fleet-emissions calculation round out a capable enterprise reporting toolkit. For organizations facing tightening, multi-framework disclosure requirements, this reduces both effort and compliance risk.
- The enterprise credibility, proven origin and partner ecosystem are strong. Built and battle-tested on Salesforce's own decade-long net-zero journey ("own first customer") before general availability, backed by Salesforce's enterprise platform infrastructure, and supported by a mature implementation ecosystem including PwC and Cherry Bekaert, Net Zero Cloud is a substantial, well-supported enterprise ESG platform. It suits organizations at any stage of the sustainability journey, from first footprint to investor-grade reporting, and is especially relevant for high-emitting industries like manufacturing, energy, retail and transport — with the reassurance of a vendor that has made sustainability a core corporate value for over a decade.
Cons
- The Diginex acquisition, completed January 15, 2026, introduces a transition period whose duration and impact on product stability are genuinely uncertain. Integration of two distinct technology stacks — Plan A's carbon accounting engine and Diginex's ESG reporting infrastructure — is a complex technical process. The platform's roadmap will be shaped by the priorities of the combined entity rather than by Plan A's standalone strategy. Organizations evaluating Plan A in mid-2026 should ask explicitly about product roadmap commitments, data migration guarantees, and the contractual terms that apply if the integration changes the platform materially. This is not a reason to avoid the platform; it is a reason to evaluate with the same diligence applied to any software that has recently changed ownership.
- Plan A's Scope 3 depth and enterprise scalability are competitive for the European mid-market but less developed than the specialist tools at the enterprise tier. Organizations with highly complex global supply chains, a Scope 3 Category 1 inventory spanning thousands of suppliers in multiple geographies, or significant financed emissions (PCAF Category 15) will encounter the ceiling of Plan A's methodology before the ceiling of their own data complexity. <a href="/ai_tool/watershed/">Watershed</a> is purpose-built for the former; <a href="/ai_tool/persefoni/">Persefoni</a> is purpose-built for the latter. Plan A is not trying to compete with either on those dimensions — it is not positioned there by design — but buyers evaluating across the full market should calibrate expectations accordingly.
- Plan A's pricing is enterprise-negotiated and not publicly disclosed, which places it in the same evaluation challenge as Watershed and Persefoni. Unlike Normative, which offers two named tiers (Essential and Premium), Plan A does not publish a tier structure. For mid-market organizations where budget predictability is a constraint, the absence of published pricing creates friction at the evaluation stage. The venture funding history — approximately $27 million raised between 2021 and 2023 — and the Diginex acquisition at approximately €55 million suggest a platform that is priced for the organizations that can commit at enterprise contract level, not for teams evaluating on a trial or annual-renewal basis.
- Net Zero Cloud's dependency on the Salesforce ecosystem is simultaneously its biggest strength and its biggest limitation, and for non-Salesforce organizations it is a real drawback. Reviewers consistently cite high price and dependency on Salesforce infrastructure as the primary concerns. For an enterprise not already on Salesforce, adopting Net Zero Cloud effectively means buying into the Salesforce ecosystem to get a carbon tool — a far larger commitment than licensing a standalone specialist, and one where much of the platform-integration advantage (the whole point of Net Zero Cloud) doesn't apply. The value proposition is strongly conditional on being, or becoming, a Salesforce customer; buyers should be honest about which side of that line they're on before evaluating.
- For buyers seeking best-of-breed carbon science, Net Zero Cloud is an ESG data and reporting platform rather than a carbon-science specialist. Organizations wanting the deepest emission-factor libraries, the most sophisticated supply-chain (Scope 3) carbon modeling, or the most advanced decarbonization analytics may find dedicated carbon platforms — Watershed, Persefoni, Normative, Sweep — deeper in those specific dimensions. Net Zero Cloud's strength is integrating sustainability data into the Salesforce ecosystem and easing multi-framework reporting, not pushing the frontier of carbon accounting methodology. Buyers whose primary need is carbon-science depth rather than ecosystem integration should compare against a specialist.
- The premium pricing and enterprise orientation place Net Zero Cloud out of reach for smaller organizations and make it disproportionate for narrow needs. As an enterprise platform licensed via the Salesforce model, it is calibrated to medium-to-large organizations with the budget and the platform commitment to justify it. SMEs that simply need to calculate and report a carbon footprint will find it expensive and heavier than necessary, and organizations whose need is specifically physical climate risk (Jupiter, ClimateAI), supplier ESG due diligence (IntegrityNext, EcoVadis), or renewable procurement (LevelTen) should use the appropriate specialist rather than expecting Net Zero Cloud to cover those adjacent domains — it is a carbon accounting and ESG reporting platform, focused on that job.
