STACS, the Singapore-headquartered ESG data and solutions company, has launched upgrades to its ESGpedia platform to help financial institutions comply with ESG regulatory requirements across Europe and Asia.
Upcoming mandatory ESG rules in Europe will require financial institutions to report on their value chains, which include SMEs and private companies based in Asia.
To comply, financial institutions will need access to ESG data of the SMEs in their supply chains, of which there is a lack of data in the Asia-Pacific region.
To help plug the gap in Asian ESG data, STACS has unveiled upgrades to its artificial intelligence powered platform with the introduction of ESGpedia ‘nexus’ and ‘intelligence’.
The company said its ESGpedia ‘nexus’ platform allows companies to create a free ESG profile with simplified ESG metrics scalable to support international assessments and standards reporting.
It offers digital tools that automatically convert data such as fuel, refrigerant and electricity consumption to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under the standard GHG Protocol localised to all Apac countries.
It also provides a marketplace where companies can promote their ESG profile, and sell or procure ESG services.
This upgrade was announced at the same time as its ESGpedia ‘intelligence’, product which provides aggregated ESG data across countries and sectors via AI-powered harmonisation of unstructured ESG data.
The platform now includes more than 300,000 companies’ sustainability data, of which more than 115,000 company profiles have full corporate data overlaid and standardised.
It also now offers taxonomy regulatory mapping, which provides digital automation to transform portfolio data to regulatory needs like the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), environmental risk questionnaire in Singapore, climate change and principle-based taxonomy due diligence in Malaysia, Philippines SEC sustainability reporting form, and more.
ESBN green deal
The upgrades come after ESGpedia launched the ESCAP (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) Sustainable Business Network (ESBN) Asia-Pacific green deal for businesses digital programme in May of this year that allowed companies to self-assess their ESG data on the platform in exchange for an ESBN green deal badge.
Since launch, there have been more than 100 companies across the Apac region that have achieved an ESBN green deal badge, STACS said.
In one use case, Singaporean bank OCBC used ESGpedia’s new platforms to extend a sustainability-linked loan (SLL) to a global textile and apparel manufacturer, Ghim Li.
STACS said that using the operational data input by Ghim Li, the calculation of emissions and verification of the data were automated on ESGpedia. Data for the agreed sustainability performance targets of the SLL were then recorded in the platform for monitoring.
“Banks will be able to extend SLLs to businesses more efficiently with this simplified process, and more businesses will find it easier to determine their emissions and kickstart their sustainability journey,” the company said.
Other reporting standards
Starting in 2024, more than 50,000 EU companies and 10,000 non-EU companies will fall directly under the scope of the ESRS.
STACS said that other Asian markets have also implemented mandatory regulatory reporting to enhance the adoption of global sustainability and ESG standards such as the International Financial Reporting Standards’ inaugural ISSB standards.
Many of these disclosure requirements extend to large non-listed companies and SMEs, meaning Asean companies will soon face increasing mandatory ESG requirements.
Benjamin Soh, founder and managing director at STACS said: “This is where understanding your current ESG profile and leveraging technologies like artificial intelligence come in place to help companies ensure compliance towards the evolving ESG regulations landscape across Europe and Asia.”
“We are thrilled that ESGpedia’s latest platform updates – with the introduction of ESGpedia nexus and intelligence – has helped financial institutions and companies across Asean achieve their ESG goals regardless of their ESG maturities, and fill the ESG data gaps in Asia Pacific today.”
Dr Tientip Subhanji, chief of sustainable business network at ESCAP, said: “The private sector, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, is expected to play a critical role by leading the region’s green transformation.”
He added that the ESBN Asia-Pacific green deal digital programme on ESGpedia will encourage companies in the region, especially SMEs, to “start their sustainability journey through providing a digital self-directed platform for them to assess their ESG efforts”.
