No lineage
The auditor asks for the plant-level reading behind a group water figure. The team goes looking through email attachments.
ESG reporting software for mining and multi-site groups
Get ESG reporting out of Excel
Multi-site groups still reconcile sustainability figures by hand. Capstone puts your systems and workbooks into one model. The group report matches what each operation signed off, and your assurer can trace every number back to the site.
On the platform today: Anglo American, African Rainbow Minerals, Valterra Platinum, De Beers, Tharisa.
- 2 months → 2 weeksGroup sustainability sign-off at Anglo American
- 160+ operations3,500 inputs and 1,650 calculations at Anglo American
- 8 mines → 1 model1,153 ESG data points at ARM
- Since 2022In production at Anglo American
Multi-site ESG still assembled by hand?
Each site’s water, energy, emissions and safety figures sit in workbooks next to the systems. Someone copies them into a group worksheet. Nobody can say where the group figure came from, who signed it off, or what changed since the board saw it. A safety rate or a tCO2e total doesn’t live in any one system, so it gets rebuilt in Excel every month. The month closes late and the audit takes longer.
No validation
A site reports zero water withdrawal in a month it processed 10,000 tonnes. Nobody notices until the auditor reconciles it against production.
Wrong aggregation
Averaging five site intensities gives 4.80 kWh/t. Total energy over total tonnes gives 4.40. The group figure is overstated by about 9%.
The calculation layer between your systems and your disclosure
Disclosure tools publish the report. EHS systems run incidents, inspections and permits. The number itself gets calculated somewhere in between, usually in Excel. Capstone replaces that layer.
Sources
SHE and EHS systems such as IsoMetrix, plant systems and historians, databases, financial systems, meters, and controlled Excel workbooks.
One signed-off model
Captured at each operation, validated, calculated at every level, and locked once reported.
Outputs
The annual and sustainability report, JSE and GRI disclosures, the figures for your GHG submission and carbon tax account, lender KPIs, and Power BI or your data warehouse.
You name the report. We put it in one governed model.
Four steps, in order. Then add the next report.
- 01
Start with the report
The ESG or sustainability pack that still takes a week. We find the numbers and where each one comes from, across sites and workbooks.
- 02
Connect
Your plant, SHE and Excel sources stay where they are. Capstone reads them, so nobody copies between them for the group report.
- 03
Validate and lock
Data is validated at the operation by the people who own it. The period locks once it is reported. A change to a locked figure goes through a change request.
- 04
Calculate and report
Site figures roll up and the formulas run again at each level. The group pack, the scorecard and the annual report read the same locked figures.
Connects to Excel workbooks, IsoMetrix and other EHS extracts, APIs, SQL Server, and financial systems like Xero and Sage.
A number you can take to an auditor
Every number can answer three questions. They are the questions an assurance provider asks under ISSA 5000, or ISAE 3000 (Revised) until ISSA 5000 takes effect.
- Where it came from. The source system, the workbook, the reading. Traced back from the figure on the page.
- Who signed it off. Who validated it at the operation, and when. Periods lock once reported.
- What changed since. Every change request against a locked figure, with its reason, on the record.
Each reported value keeps its source, ownership, validations, calculation path, evidence, approval status and reporting-period state. Your assurer gets read-only access to the values in scope. Only model administrators can change a formula, and reference data such as factors and limits can be edited only by the owner you assign. At Anglo American, the model ran in parallel with the previous system for four months before go-live.
Watch it run
Demo data.
Where this is already live
Anglo American
Since 2022
2 months → 2 weeks
Group sustainability sign-off, from two months to two weeks.
3,500 inputs and 1,650 calculations, validated at source, not in a final spreadsheet. The numbers feed the CEO scorecard and the annual report.
“They have been professional and technically strong on the SHE and sustainability system, and the support stays reliable.”
African Rainbow Minerals
Mining, four provinces
8 mines → 1 model
Group ESG across eight operations in four provinces.
1,153 data points out of spreadsheets and into one platform.
“We are very satisfied with NxGN. They have the development, data and technical skills to complete the work.”
Capture once. Report to every framework.
One South African mine’s Scope 1 figure can end up in eight disclosures. During implementation we set up the structure of every framework and obligation you report to, and tag each metric to it. The metric is captured once. When the value changes, every framework view changes with it.
Sustainability standards
- GRI 14 Mining Sector
- GRI 101, 303, 305, 306 and 403
- GRI 102 Climate Change and GRI 103 Energy (effective 2027)
- IFRS S1 and S2
- SASB Metals & Mining
- GHG Protocol Scope 1, 2 and 3
- CDP
South African obligations
- JSE Sustainability and Climate Disclosure Guidance
- King V
- Carbon tax and national GHG emissions reporting
- Mining Charter, SLP and DMPR reporting
- MHSA and the MHSC milestones
- DWS water use licence conditions
Mining, lenders and other listings
- ICMM Mining Principles
- GISTM tailings disclosure
- IFC Performance Standards
- Sustainability-linked loan KPIs
- Guidance for a second listing, such as the LSE
- Obligations in other countries, such as Zimbabwe
One model can cover operations in more than one country and a listing on more than one exchange. Each operation carries its own legal instruments, and the group reads all of them. The rehabilitation provision is a good example: held per mine, reported to the DMPR, editable only by its owner, and tagged to GRI 14.8 and IAS 37.
What goes in the model: Emissions and energy · Water · Safety and occupational health · Tailings, land and biodiversity · Closure and rehabilitation · Social and procurement · Production and cost.
One tCO2e figure for every place it is reported
The same emissions number goes into the group report, the national GHG submission, the carbon tax account, the lender KPI and the CDP response. The GHG submission and the carbon tax account have to agree. In Capstone the figure is calculated once, from site activity data and a maintained South African emission factor library. Every submission uses that figure.
From activity data
Diesel and petrol for mobile and static plant, grid electricity, explosives such as ANFEX and bulk emulsion, and land cleared of vegetation, captured at each site or read from the systems that already hold them. Scope 3 covers purchased materials such as cement and steel.
South African factors
The DFFE Technical Guidelines used for national GHG reporting, the Eskom grid emission factor, South African fuel and coal net calorific values, and IPCC defaults. DEFRA and other international sets load when a customer or lender asks for them.
Every factor traceable
Each factor carries its source, publication, version, effective period, gas and GWP set. Open a group tCO2e figure and see the site activity data and the exact factor behind it.
Methodology tier per source
Record the tier used for each emission source, from Tier 1 IPCC defaults to Tier 3 plant-specific data, with the reason. Where a site measures its own figure, the measured value takes precedence over the calculated one.
Updates don’t rewrite history
A new factor version applies from its effective date. Reported years keep the factor they were reported with. A correction to a reported year goes through a change request.
Intensity from totals
tCO2e per tonne and energy per tonne are computed from group totals and governed production figures, at every level of the hierarchy.
Monitoring results against your licence limits
Environmental monitoring data usually sits in consultants’ spreadsheets and lab reports, apart from the ESG report it feeds. In Capstone each reading is captured per monitoring point and checked against the limit that applies to it, at each operation.
Every monitoring point
Air quality, dust fallout, groundwater level and quality, surface water, potable water, noise and weather, captured monthly or quarterly per monitoring point.
Limits held in the model
Water use licence conditions, dust fallout limits for residential and non-residential areas, air quality standards, and day and night noise limits, per operation and per standard, with the source recorded.
Exceedances flagged
Every reading above its limit is flagged and counted. Where a national limit and a stricter WHO guideline both apply, the reading is banded against each. Change a licence limit once and every affected station re-colours.
Follow-up on an exceedance, such as an incident or a notification to the authority, stays in your EHS system.
Ask the model a question
Ask a question in plain language. The answer is built from the same validated figures and formulas that produce your sustainability report, with the source shown. The dashboards and AI summaries read the same signed-off figures, so nobody can change a number from a chart.
How much of our March withdrawal came from water-stressed areas?
800 of the 1,095 ML withdrawn in March (73%) came from Sites A and B, which draw from water-stressed catchments. The split is ready for GRI 303-3 and comes from the signed-off site figures.
How does Site B compare with last March?
Site B withdrew 388 ML, up 14% on 341 ML last March. The figure is signed off and locked. Change request 142 is open against it, awaiting approval.
How this compares
Most groups already run an EHS system and have a way of producing the report. The table shows where each one stops.
| Capability | Spreadsheets | EHS system | Disclosure tool | Capstone |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where the number came from | A cell in a combined worksheet | Strong for records inside the EHS system | The value someone loaded | Source, reading and owner, traced from the reported figure |
| Validation | Manual checks at month end | Inside its own forms | Review of the loaded value | Validated at the operation, before it rolls up |
| Group ratios | Often averaged across sites | Varies by product | Usually calculated before loading | Recomputed from totals at every level |
| Locked reported periods | No | Varies by product | Varies by product | Locked once reported |
| Restatement | Overwritten in place | Varies by product | Often a manual process | Change request with a reason and approval |
| Operations and finance data | Separate workbooks | Usually held elsewhere | Usually loaded from elsewhere | Same model as the ESG metrics |
Enterprise fit
Sources
We connect to the systems you run and replace the Excel consolidation behind the group pack. The working systems stay.
Security and hosting
Your private tenant hosted by us on Azure, or in your own environment. Microsoft sign-in, roles, and access by operation and by discipline. POPIA obligations are written into the privacy agreement.
Implementation
You bring the report, source access, and someone who knows the process. We build the group model first, then onboard the sites one by one. A group with 160+ operations is a phased programme of six months to a year.
Two ways to buy
With a team
We build the ESG model with you and stay until the group report comes out of it. Then it is yours to run.
Licence only
You have the people and you want the product. Build the model yourself. Call us when you want a hand.
Seats are priced by role: view, capture, admin. Implementation is scoped per engagement. We will walk you through both on the call.
Frequently asked questions
Do we have to replace IsoMetrix or our other SHE system?
No. Capstone reads the SHE and EHS systems you already run, including IsoMetrix, and adds the group calculation and sign-off layer on top. Incidents, inspections, permits and exceedance follow-up stay where they are.
We already use a disclosure or report-writing tool. Where does Capstone fit?
Upstream of it. Capstone produces the validated, locked figures. Your disclosure tool, designer or annual report team publishes them. Both use the same number.
Do you submit to SAGERS or file the carbon tax account?
No. Capstone produces the governed figures for your GHG submission and your carbon tax account, by source and by operation. The submissions themselves are made in SAGERS and on SARS eFiling, from the same numbers.
Which emission factors do you use?
The factors South African reporters are expected to use: the DFFE Technical Guidelines behind the national GHG emission reporting regulations, the Eskom grid emission factor, South African fuel and coal net calorific values, and IPCC defaults. International sets such as DEFRA load when a customer or lender asks for them. Plant-specific factors can be added where you measure your own.
What happens when an emission factor changes?
A new factor version applies from its effective date. Prior years keep the factor they were reported with, so last year’s disclosed number does not move. If a factor was wrong and a reported year has to be restated, that goes through a change request with a reason and approval.
Can our assurance provider log in?
Yes. Assurers get read-only access to the values in scope, with source, owner, validations, calculation path, approval status and period state for each one.
Who can change a formula, a factor or a limit?
Formulas and framework tags can be changed only by users with the Model Administrator role. Reference data such as emission factors and licence limits can be edited only by the owner you assign. Capturers and validators work with the data. They cannot change how it is calculated.
How do restatements work?
A locked figure changes only through a change request. The request carries the corrected value, the reason and supporting documents, and goes through its own approval chain. The original and the change both stay on the record.
Can Excel remain part of the process?
Yes. A controlled workbook can stay as an input. It gets an owner, it is validated like any other source, and it is in the audit trail.
How long does implementation take?
It depends on the number of operations and how much of the data already sits in systems. We build the group model first, then onboard the sites one by one, about two weeks of our effort per site. Elapsed time depends on site availability and data readiness. A three-entity group with environmental monitoring was in production in nine weeks and closed out, with hypercare, in about three months. A group with 160+ operations is a phased programme of six months to a year.
Where does our data live?
In your private tenant, hosted on our Azure environment, or in your own environment. POPIA obligations are written into the privacy agreement.
What do we keep if we cancel?
The licence lapses. We export all your data to your data warehouse, and the model definition is documented and shared with you.
Where do we start?
With the report that still takes a week. That report goes on the model first. The next one reuses the same model.
Bring us the ESG report you don’t trust.
Twenty minutes with an engineer. Tell us where the numbers come from today. We will show you what one model of that report looks like.
Straight into the calendar. No form, no follow-up sequence.