How we’re improving our company target dashboard

Update: The SBTi's updated dashboard launched as a Beta version for testing on May 5th 2023. You can view and share feedback on the new dashboard here.

The SBTi’s open-source data on commitments and targets – updated every week on our website Target Dashboard – is a unique source of insight into the direction of corporate decarbonization. The dashboard (also referred to as our ‘Companies taking action’ table, or CTA) lists companies that have had new targets approved and existing ones updated, as well as those which have publicly committed to developing a target within 24 months. In this way, it provides an important mechanism for both holding companies accountable regarding their decarbonization plans, and showcasing the positive steps companies are taking towards a net-zero economy.

However, despite its value, we recognize that the dashboard’s current design presents challenges to understanding and analyzing our target data effectively. In response to our survey aimed at improving the dashboard in September 2022, 85% of respondents said the data was important or extremely important to their work. But regular users told us the data download is difficult to analyze, as it is not in a machine-readable format. Others found the dashboard’s design confusing.

Improving the dashboard

We want our dashboard and data to be as useful and usable as possible. It gives those who can enable and influence businesses to stay on track – such as investors, shareholders, academics, campaigners, media and companies’ supply chain and sector peers – the data they need to do this.

The changes include a simplified dashboard design, new machine-readable data download listing each of a company’s active and historical targets and commitments, and more granular data about each target or commitment. It will also be possible link to individual company entries in the dashboard. Our hope is that the changes will give you a clearer picture of an organization’s target-setting journey, including previous commitments made, and when each commitment or target was published.

You can view a sample of the data, data legends, and updated designs, below. Please note - the dashboard designs are drafts with placeholder data, which may not represent the final version.

More improvements to come

These updates are not the end of the story, however. Our current focus has been on resolving some of the main challenges in understanding and using the dashboard and data download, and making the data we’re already publishing easier to access and analyze. There are further additions to the data structure that we would like to make, which we will explore in subsequent phases of development. These include indicating which version of the SBTi criteria each target was validated against. In due course, further updates will also be scoped to align with the Net Zero Data Public Utility, expected in the second half of 2023.

A phased approach to development

Our intention is to roll out updates in phases, enabling us to bring them to users more quickly and gather feedback to inform further improvements.

We will continue to work closely with stakeholders, including companies setting targets and other regular users of our data, to explore and develop future improvements. We welcome your feedback on the current changes, and encourage you to share it here.

We’re committed to providing clear communications about improvements to our dashboard, including giving at least one month’s notice of planned updates to allow you to adapt your processes accordingly. To stay up to date, sign up to our newsletter or join our discussion forum.