How Umicore Gained Clarity Over ESG Data Management

To support its sustainability goals, Umicore has invested in modern ESG data management to improve the quality, accessibility, and transparency of environmental reporting across its global operations. The company maintains a dedicated community of about 270 environmental and sustainability professionals who contribute to these initiatives and drive continuous improvement.

Outcome

Since implementing Intelex, Umicore has seen noticeable improvements in data handling—particularly in the speed and clarity of ESG data management and analysis, which now benefits from structured workflows and status tracking. The data collection process is more fluent, saving users time and effort.

Data quality has also improved, with easier identification of issues and a more consistent approach to calculations between local sites and the global team. Looking ahead, Umicore plans to integrate Intelex with its enterprise data lake to enable deeper ESG analysis and more strategic reporting.

While it’s early to measure long-term business performance impact, consolidating ESG and EHS data into a single platform is expected to significantly shorten reporting cycles and increase visibility across teams. Intelex’s user-friendliness, robustness, and time-saving capabilities have proven to be high-value assets for the organization.

The Challenge for Umicore

As Umicore prepared to meet growing demands around sustainability and ESG transparency, it became clear that their existing data management system was no longer fit for purpose. Originally designed to collect financial—not ESG—data, the system lacked the capabilities needed to support new sustainability goals and evolving compliance requirements.

The tipping point came with the introduction of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). The new regulation raised the bar for ESG disclosure, and Umicore realized their outdated system would not support the accuracy, speed, or flexibility required.

The platform also offered limited functionality: users could input data but couldn’t easily access or analyze it afterward. This “black box” approach left individual sites with little visibility into their own performance and made it difficult to extract meaningful insights. Frontline teams were spending excessive time processing data manually, and the system’s user-unfriendly interface only added to the inefficiencies.

Meanwhile, leadership began questioning the heavy resource investment required to collect, transform, and report data. Without change, Umicore faced a serious risk: falling behind on CSRD readiness and compromising the credibility of their sustainability reporting.

How Intelex Helped Umicore

Umicore needed a solution that could consolidate ESG and EHS data, improve reporting accuracy, and support a more proactive and transparent approach to sustainability. Key requirements included user-friendliness, flexibility, better reporting functionality, and a platform that could scale with future needs.

The company shortlisted vendors using the Gartner Matrix and conducted a competitive tendering process. Intelex stood out for its depth in ESG capabilities, modular platform approach, and cultural fit with Umicore’s team. The ability to integrate other modules—such as incident management and safety—into one system further supported their vision for a unified EHSQ platform.

To ensure a smooth rollout, Umicore assembled a cross-functional team of internal environmental experts and partnered closely with Intelex to co-develop a detailed implementation plan. Roles and responsibilities were clearly defined across teams, and users were involved early in design, testing, and training to ensure adoption.

A key success factor was the collaborative implementation experience, which included on-site working sessions in Brussels that helped build trust between the teams. Together, they navigated the change management process and created a supportive environment where user needs were prioritized.