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Solidatus Chief Data Officer Lorraine Waters recently chatted virtually with Nasdaq TradeTalks global markets reporter Jill Malandrino about the importance of ESG data and the role that data lineage is playing. Here are a few of her key takeaways:

  • The absence of a universal scoring system has made ESG more challenging for firms globally, having to rely on individual systems that differ in their approaches
  • With businesses worldwide continuing to put greater emphasis on ESG, the role of the CDO has become more important and more central to the organization
  • Data lineage can not only help identify and address problems within an ESG dataset but also uncover opportunities to enhance the overall approach and strategy

Watch the full interview:

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Alongside the rise and rise of ESG and the data challenges every company will face, are the number of sectorial, regional, supra-regional, governmental, rating agency, and investment fund standards, principles and frameworks – each with their own set of criteria and measurements” – Lorraine Waters, Chief Data Officer, Solidatus.

ESG has quickly become a labour of love for many organisations around the world. The motivation to get this right stems from the desire to not only attract ESG-progressive investors, but to be a part of the global solution around environmental and social change – not be a part of the problem.

But the bubble of pressure this is creating for businesses and their CDOs, CTOs and CFOs is close to bursting. With lack of clarity around standards – given that there is no formal or official standardisation – and differing requirements from agency to agency, many are struggling to ascertain exactly what they need to do to become compliant before real and stringent regulations are enforced.

So the question is, how can organisations look at their data in relation to ESG in an effort to demystify its complexities? And what role can technology-based solutions like Solidatus play in enabling organisations to truly focus on making more sustainable steps forward, instead of being blinded by lack of consistency and standardisation?

Our CDO Lorraine Waters shares her insights around a potentially game-changing approach to ESG in her latest article for Finextra – Do we need ‘ESG-as-a-service’?:

Do we need ‘ESG-as-a-service’?

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ESG is not an environmental issue: it’s a data one

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“ESG is not primarily an environmental challenge for businesses. It is instead a data sourcing and governance challenge, requiring transparency and clear links to company objectives to drive it successfully. Dealing with changes in regulations and disclosures is going to be required for a few years to come.”

Our Chief Data Officer, Lorraine Waters, caught up with the team over at The Stack to look at ESG and the real problems causing businesses issues as they try to make a positive impact, comply with under-developed Standards and attract ESG-driven investors.

ESG is all about being environmentally and socially conscious, and for organisations – especially global enterprises – ensuring they are not only perceived to be doing good, but are actually setting about making change for their company, employees and the world is a huge job in itself. Increasingly, companies are sitting down to identify and set out their own ESG goals and trying to make sense of their data, and they are quickly realising that this will be a much bigger beast than once thought.

In this article, Lorraine takes a deep dive into the data management and governance issues that are making ESG strategies even more complex due to lack of standardisation, differing ratings criteria, and lack of understanding around ESG data and what it means for businesses looking to implement change.

But hope is certainly not lost, and solutions like Solidatus will enable organisations to move beyond simple adherence to criteria by taking a proactive course now – before regulations are truly enforced – so that they can realise their ESG business initiatives and aspirations. By doing this, they ensure they are head of the curve not just for an investment or regulatory compliance advantage, but for genuinely making the world a better place for everyone.

To find out more read Lorraine’s article for The Stack:

ESG is not an environmental issue: it’s a data one

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“Over the next few years, it’s going to be critical to get this right. Organisations that have it wrong are going to see share prices hit and investor confidence reduced. This is now so big and involved in every decision – right from the top of the house to the bottom – it’s going to be very expensive for organisations that do this at the last minute and get it wrong.”

Investment in ESG-progressive organisations is moving into the mainstream, requiring businesses to develop strategies that deliver for both themselves and their investors. But in a relatively immature market with complex and conflicting standards, how can we deliver successful data management strategies for ESG requirements?

Solidatus Co-Founder and data lineage expert Philip Miller sat down with industry experts from Bloomberg, UBS, TD Asset Management and Alveo for the latest A-Team Insights webinar to discuss the biggest challenges and best practices around ESG data sourcing and management strategies.

The looked at these key factors in their discussion:

  • How 60% of respondents watching the webinar confirmed they are not currently ready to comply with forthcoming EU and UK ESG and sustainability regulations
  • When it comes to the emerging technologies designed to help organisations make the most of ESG data, it is essential to pick an agile platform that will keep pace with evolving learnings and understandings
  • Organisations who get their ESG data sourcing and management strategies wrong could see a hit to their share prices and reduced investor confidence – getting it right now will save businesses financially and operationally in the long run

Watch the webinar Data management for ESG Requirements to learn more:

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ESG has been around for decades, yet it has only recently exploded on the scene as organisations push to become more environmentally and socially progressive – not least to attract investors looking to expand their portfolios with companies that hold the same values.

But ESG data is complex, messy and relatively immature despite how long it’s been around. Data management teams have needed to think differently and adopt new approaches to their data management strategies, especially since there is a gap in standardisation around ESG that would ensure data continues to be transparent, reliable but also meaningful.

Solidatus Co-Founder Philip Miller is an expert in topics including data lineage and ESG. He caught up with industry experts at the A-Team Insight Virtual Data Management Summit last week to look at specific ESG data and reporting challenges, and how we can drive standardisation efforts.

When looking at approaches financial institutions can take when it comes to managing data uniformity and classifications for reporting, Philip comments: They can learn from the last 10 years of disclosures in different areas. Everything from regulatory reporting to anti-financial crime and anti-money laundering – those sorts of things have all gone down this path. Having a framework and a taxonomy that is believable and transparent is absolutely critical. And being able to then display that in a way that’s credible, but understandable to the people who are the stakeholders.

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With standards set to change and conflict over the coming years, the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation is already working on a proposal to develop ESG standards globally. Whilst this universal standard will help absolve many companies of the burden of picking through unstructured ESG data across multiple standards and ratings agencies, there needs to remain room for innovation. Factors such as climate change, sustainability and social governance will continue to advance and develop, in that the standards need to evolve with them instead of remaining unflinchingly rigid.

When it comes to issues such as climate change, it’s important to leverage the technologies out there to fill data gaps and provide insights. Reflecting on the past year, Philip speaks to this, There’s a climate change problem. If we see it in the same way we view the pandemic, we know that we have done some pretty amazing things in the last year to solve a really big problem for the planet. Now, there’s no reason why we can’t take that heavy lifting approach and take some of that real force of scientific power and link it to the technology that we’ve been learning.

Solutions like Solidatus enable organisations to visualise the data journey behind achieving their ESG goals, ensuring information communicated to investors is accurate and reliable. Through clear visual representation, the Solidatus ESG model will illustrate to organisations how data points are interlinked, the gaps that exist between them, as well as the potential impact of any modifications.

Most importantly, however, implementing a successful and efficient ESG solution will demonstrate a company’s commitment to making a positive impact globally – not only for us but for future generations who will reap the rewards of the changes we are making now. The ultimate aim behind Environmental, Social and Governance and ESG investing is that we are all striving to make the world a better place – a value we should not lose sight of.

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“The coronavirus pandemic has thrown a brighter spotlight on the Social aspect of ESG, with investors and society increasingly focused on how companies treat the entire organisational ecosystem, from employees and suppliers to shareholders alike. However, as the landscape continues to evolve and grow in popularity, it’s important to note that ESG isn’t necessarily as simple as it seems on the surface.”

ESG is here to stay and has rapidly become an important facet in the very fibre of an organisation. Not only is a good ESG programme essential to position a company’s principles and values around the environment and social governance, it is a highly desired criteria for investors. The lack of any ESG initiatives and regulations within a business can reduce its investment value.

But ESG is moving and developing at lightning speed, despite many believing it would fade into the background behind the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as social and political unrest. This has led many to implement their own internal ESG rating systems, as well as seek guidance from an array of different ratings agencies.

When we look at the criteria needed for ratings agencies against what is required for investing, ratings and scoring can vary wildly, creating a deep layer of complexity businesses must navigate through to achieve their desired ESG ideals. So how can organisations clarify these perceived complexities, particularly given the speed of which ESG is evolving?

Solidatus Data Architect and ESG specialist John Tobin caught up with the team at Asset Digest to discuss exactly why ESG can be such a complex landscape to work through, and how the right ESG programme solution and implementation can relieve businesses of this added pressure.

To find out more, read John’s article A global wake-up call: Unpicking the complexities of ESG :

A global wake-up call: Unpicking the complexities of ESG

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