How ISS gains visibility into global emissions with Watershed

Challenge

Managing a global sustainability program at scale

As a leading workplace experience and facility management provider, ISS serves over 40,000 customer organizations worldwide, deploying employees directly to customer sites to deliver services such as cleaning, technical support, workplace experience, and food services. With over 320,000 employees operating across a complex global footprint, ISS is committed to sustainability and has set an ambitious goal: achieving net zero emissions by 2040.

To reach this target, ISS needed to move beyond estimated emissions and gain clear, auditable, and actionable data—to move from reporting to real emissions reductions.

ISS operates in diverse industries, from finance and technology to life sciences, and plays a critical role in maintaining not just buildings and assets, but also the people and teams, and experiences connected to its customers’ businesses.

Recognizing the magnitude of the climate crisis, ISS set out to champion sustainable workplaces and make a measurable impact.

Navigating complexity: why estimations weren't enough

The ISS environmental sustainability team was tasked with measuring and managing emissions across its vast operational footprint while helping customers meet their own climate goals—a daunting challenge.

“Our business is complex,” explains Jason van Zuydam, Global Head of Climate Impact. “We work with customers at different levels of sustainability maturity, each of which contributes to our footprint—just as we do to theirs as a service provider. While estimates help identify trends, they don’t show real progress. We needed a way to get as close to an actual measurement as possible.”

Initially, ISS used spreadsheets with simple models to estimate and report emissions. However, without more detailed, granular data, it was difficult to take meaningful action.

“Hot spots are easy to identify, and so are blind spots—but actually doing something about them and measuring the impact requires high-resolution data.”

Dr. Jason van Zuydam,
Global Head of Climate Impact - Group Risk

The need for a centralized, reliable data system

ISS knew it needed more than just a reporting tool—it needed a system that could provide credible, reliable, and auditable emissions data: “To deliver operational change and drive real business decisions, you need numbers you can work with—you have to remove uncertainty,” van Zuydam explains.

ISS needed a centralized way to collect climate data, ensuring reports are consistent across business units and geographies, granular enough to inform targeted action, and credible and auditable for internal and external stakeholders alike.

But ISS wasn’t just looking for better reporting—it was looking for a true carbon management platform that could guide reductions, not just track them. “A key theme of our RFP was that we weren’t looking for a reporting tool,” explains van Zuydam. “We needed a management tool—something that would allow us to drill down into the data, maintain granularity, and actively manage our emissions.”

With Watershed, ISS found a partner that could help transform emissions data into action—bringing them closer to their net zero goal.

“It’s true what they say: that you can't manage what you don't measure—and we needed a tool to help us do both.”

Dr. Jason van Zuydam,
Global Head of Climate Impact - Group Risk

Solution

Beyond reporting: A true partnership

From the start, ISS took a strategic approach to selecting a sustainability platform that could do far more than generate reports. The team needed a tool that could maintain data granularity, adapt to ISS’s unique business model, and grow alongside their evolving needs.

With more than 320,000 employees and 40,000 customers across multiple industries, ISS operates one of the most complex business models in facility management. The team knew that no out-of-the-box solution would be able to fully accommodate their needs.

“Many platforms only think about one carbon footprint going out, which doesn’t align with how our business operates or where our needs are,” explains Hazel Weatherup, ISS’s Global Head of Sustainability Tech, Global IT, Digitalisation & Services.

As they evaluated solutions, van Zuydam and Weatherup—who oversees technology selection for the sustainability team—found that many platforms simply couldn’t handle the scale and intricacy of ISS’s operations.

“Several other companies bowed out [of our RFP] because they couldn’t handle the complexity of our business model and footprint—Watershed got it and was willing to work to understand our needs, which is critical.”

Dr. Jason van Zuydam,
Global Head of Climate Impact - Group Risk

Choosing a partner, not just a platform

For Weatherup, selecting the right sustainability platform meant finding a partner—not just a software vendor. “Climate is such an emerging field—it’s not like finance, where processes and tools have been established for a long time,” she explains. “This is a changing beast, and we wanted a partner to work on it with us.”

Watershed stood out for its:

• Collaborative approach to platform development
• Deep understanding of ISS’s unique business complexity
• Willingness to adapt the platform to fit ISS’s needs
• Strong partnership mentality—co-developing solutions rather than forcing ISS into a rigid framework
• Commitment to transparency and data-driven climate action

“One of the biggest reasons we chose Watershed was that they offered us a partnership over being just another supplier.”

Hazel Weatherup,
Global Head of Sustainability Tech

For ISS, this partnership has been key. Rather than trying to force their business into a pre-built system, they found a platform that could adapt, evolve, and scale—helping them turn emissions data into real climate action.

Results

From estimates to actionable insights

With Watershed, ISS has transformed its emissions data from broad estimates into granular, actionable insights. The company can now see its carbon footprint at a country level, enabling regional management teams to be performance-managed on carbon metrics—just like any other key business outcome.

This level of visibility has also enhanced ISS’s ability to track progress against its climate goals, ensuring that sustainability remains a central part of its operations.

Empowering customers with data

For its top customers, the ability to track ISS’s emissions at a granular level has been a game-changer. By leveraging Watershed, ISS can now generate customer-specific reports, providing transparency into the emissions associated with their services.

“This is where the game changes for us—because now, we can invite our customers to performance manage us against our own data,” explains van Zuydam.

Beyond reporting, this data unlocks new opportunities for collaboration. With customer-specific insights, ISS can move beyond surface-level discussions and engage in multi-faceted conversations about what will actually reduce emissions.

By identifying real opportunities for carbon reduction, ISS is working with customers to drive more targeted, effective sustainability initiatives—aligning environmental impact with business success. For example, the ISS team identified a hotspot of food offerings for a client and are working with them on campaigns to drive lower carbon food options. They are also using reporting to anticipate the carbon impact of long term real estate and workplace strategies.

The bottom line: Taking responsibility and supporting customers

At its core, ISS is committed to being a responsible business. This ethos extends to the workplaces ISS creates, the services it delivers, and the relationships it builds with customers. Sustainability isn’t a separate initiative—it’s embedded into every level of the organization.

With Watershed, ISS has empowered its entire team to integrate climate data into daily operations, ensuring that every decision is informed by both business and environmental impact.

“We are aware of the role we play in our customers’ emissions and we are committed to delivering a deeper understanding of our emissions, working to reduce them, and supporting our customers on their climate journeys as well,” van Zuydam explains. “We will face many challenges and changes along the way, but harnessing our data and embedding sustainability at every level brings this work into our daily approach and makes it a shared responsibility.”

With reliable, consistent data in Watershed, ISS has strengthened both its internal sustainability strategy and its ability to support customers—creating workplaces that are not just efficient, but built for the future.