GreenOps - BlackLine: Why GreenOps needs finance-grade control to deliver value
This is a guest post for the Computer Weekly Developer Network written by Philippe Omer-Decugis, general manager & SVP of sales at BlackLine.
BlackLine is known for its cloud-based software services that automate and streamline accounting processes, such as financial close and reconciliations, helping companies improve efficiency, accuracy and compliance.
Omer-Decugis writes in full as follows…
GreenOps is rapidly becoming a core requirement of modern IT operations. As cloud usage grows and sustainability commitments harden into formal ESG obligations, organisations are under increasing pressure to reduce waste, not just for environmental reasons, but because inefficiency now directly impacts margins, risk and regulatory exposure.
This is why GreenOps and FinOps are converging.
In the cloud, cost and carbon are deeply intertwined. While idle environments and inefficient architectures can inflate both spend and emissions. As a result, optimisation delivers a double dividend.
However, many GreenOps initiatives struggle to move beyond surface-level insights. The issue is not a lack of metrics, but a lack of finance-grade discipline. Without strong financial controls, ownership and reconciliation, GreenOps remains an operational exercise rather than a business capability.
From cloud metrics to financial accountability
Most organisations can now see their cloud consumption in considerable detail. Tagging, labelling and monitoring tools provide visibility into how resources are being used across teams and applications – but visibility alone does not create accountability. Finance leaders are ultimately responsible for explaining where money is spent, why variances occur and whether reported figures can be trusted. Increasingly, they are being asked the same questions about sustainability metrics.
This is a familiar challenge for finance teams. Fragmented data, inconsistent definitions and manual processes make it difficult to close the books with confidence. Finance companies were built to address exactly this problem, automating reconciliations, enforcing controls and ensuring financial data is complete, accurate and auditable at period end.
As GreenOps data begins to inform financial decisions and ESG disclosures, it must be subject to the same standards. Cost and carbon data that cannot be reconciled or explained introduce risk rather than insight.
Cloud efficiency is a financial control issue
Inefficient cloud consumption often persists not because organisations lack data, but because ownership is unclear and review processes are inconsistent. Spend and usage can fall between cost centres, escape regular scrutiny or be treated as “too technical” to challenge.
From a finance perspective, this mirrors what happens when accounts are not clearly owned or regularly reviewed. Variances accumulate, inefficiencies persist and risk increases quietly over time.
Applying financial close discipline to cloud spend and adopting clear ownership structures, regular review cycles and variance analysis, brings these issues into focus. This approach supports both FinOps and GreenOps objectives, enabling organisations to reduce unnecessary cost while also lowering their environmental footprint.
ESG raises the bar for financial rigour
As sustainability metrics increasingly feed into statutory and voluntary ESG reporting, the expectations placed on finance teams are rising sharply. Carbon and energy data are no longer just operational indicators; they are becoming reportable, reviewable and challengeable. Boards, auditors and regulators will expect consistency, traceability and explanation, the same standards applied to financial results. Estimates and assumptions may still play a role, but they must be governed, documented and defensible.
Omer-Decugis: The future of GreenOps will not be defined by more metrics alone.
The role of finance automation providers in helping organisations deliver accurate, auditable financial close processes highlights a critical lesson for GreenOps: sustainability data must be able to withstand scrutiny, not just populate dashboards. Without strong financial governance, GreenOps risks creating exposure rather than resilience.
Finance as an enabler of better decisions
There is a perception that increased financial control slows innovation. In practice, strong controls enable better, faster decision-making. When data is trusted, teams can focus on action rather than debate. Engineers gain a clearer understanding of how architectural choices affect both cost and emissions, sustainability teams gain metrics they can confidently stand behind – while finance teams can connect operational activity to financial outcomes and ESG commitments.
This is where modern finance platforms increasingly act as enablers, providing a single, trusted foundation that allows IT, finance and sustainability teams to work from the same numbers, at the same time.
Making GreenOps stick
GreenOps is maturing.
As it joins security, resilience and scalability as a core operational concern, organisations must move from experimentation to embedded practice. That transition depends on financial discipline. It requires ownership, controls and the ability to close the loop between activity, cost and impact. Most importantly, it requires treating sustainability data with the same seriousness as financial data.
The future of GreenOps will not be defined by more metrics alone. It will be defined by whether organisations can apply finance-grade control to cost and carbon, turning sustainability ambition into measurable, defensible business outcomes. In that future, finance will not simply support GreenOps, it will underpin it.
