How b2b SaaS companies should to choose their partners & customers sustainably

Selecting sustainable customers and partners is crucial for B2B SaaS companies as it aligns values, enhances brand reputation, fosters positive long-term relationships, mitigates risks, encourages innovation and learning, differentiates the company in the market, contributes to global sustainability goals, engages employees, appeals to investors, ensures compliance, and promotes economic resilience, all while fostering a mutually beneficial ecosystem of responsible practices and shared goals.

Evaluating ♻️ contributions

Calculating how individual B2B SaaS customers/part contribute to or decrease the sustainability of the product involves assessing various relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that can provide insights into their impact. Here are some KPIs to consider:

Carbon Emissions Impact

Measure the carbon emissions attributed to a specific customer’s product usage. Formula: Customer’s carbon emissions from product usage (e.g., energy consumption, server usage) / Total carbon emissions from all customers.

Resource Efficiency

Evaluate how efficiently a partner uses computing resources, such as storage and data processing.

Formula: Customer’s resource consumption / Total resource consumption from all customers

Feature Usage Efficiency

Assess which features a customer uses most frequently and whether these contribute to sustainability.

Formula: Customer’s feature usage with sustainability impact / Total feature usage from all customers with sustainability impact. Here’s how you could calculate it:

• Identify Relevant Features: Determine which features of your product are designed to promote sustainability, such as energy-saving modes, carbon footprint tracking, or waste reduction tools.
• Usage Measurement: Track the usage of these sustainability-focused features for each customer over a defined period (e.g., a month).
• Total Feature Usage: Sum up the total number of interactions or engagements with the identified sustainable features for all customers during the same period.
• Calculate Efficiency: for each customer calculate their percentage of feature usage efficiency using the formula: (Customer’s usage of sustainable features / Total feature usage for all customers) * 100.

Example:

Let’s say you have two sustainable features: “Carbon Emissions Tracker” and “Energy Saving Mode.”

Customer A interacts with the “Carbon Emissions Tracker” 50 times and the “Energy Saving Mode” 30 times during a month.

Customer B interacts with the “Carbon Emissions Tracker” 20 times and the “Energy Saving Mode” 10 times during the same month.

Total interactions with these features across all customers during the month are 300 for “Carbon Emissions Tracker” and 200 for “Energy Saving Mode.”

Feature Usage Efficiency for Customer A:

(50 + 30) / (300 + 200) * 100 = 33.33%

Feature Usage Efficiency for Customer B:

(20 + 10) / (300 + 200) * 100 = 16.67%

This calculation provides insight into how effectively customers are using sustainability-focused features within your product. It allows you to identify which customers are making the most of these features and potentially encourages other customers to increase their engagement with sustainability-enhancing functionalities.

Waste Reduction Impact

Measure a customer’s contribution to waste reduction through digital processes.

Formula: Customer’s waste reduction through digital processes / Total waste reduction from all customers through digital processes

Collaboration Effect

Evaluate whether a customer’s use of collaboration tools reduces the need for physical meetings and travel.

Formula: Customer’s travel-related emissions reduction / Total travel-related emissions reduction from all customers

Data Privacy and Security Practices

Assess how a customer handles data security and privacy, minimizing data breaches and unauthorized access.

Formula: Customer’s data security and privacy compliance score / Maximum data security and privacy compliance score

End-of-Life Responsibility

Measure how well a customer decommissions the software and manages data when it’s no longer needed.

Formula: Customer’s responsible end-of-life practices / Total responsible end-of-life practices from all customers

Customer Feedback on Sustainability

Collect feedback from customers about how they perceive the sustainability features and practices of the software.

Adoption of Sustainable Practices

Assess whether a customer adopts recommended sustainable practices promoted by the software.

Formula: Customer’s adoption of sustainable practices / Total adoption of sustainable practices from all customers

Customer-Specific Sustainability Metrics:

Depending on your software’s capabilities, track metrics relevant to each customer’s sustainability goals, such as water usage reduction or waste minimization.

It’s important to note that calculating these KPIs requires access to relevant data points from each customer’s usage of the software. Not all customers may contribute equally to sustainability goals, and these KPIs can help identify areas where individual customers could enhance their contributions. Additionally, offering customer-specific insights into their sustainability impact can help encourage positive changes and collaboration towards more sustainable practices.