SINGAPORE, AUSTRALIA, 7 March 2024 –
ESGpedia and FootprintLab have been selected to be part of the first batch of participants in the Singapore-Australia Go-Green Co-Innovation Programme to empower companies on climate disclosure and sustainable supply chain management, to respond to stricter ESG regulations and reporting requirements.
The $20 million Go-Green Co-Innovation Programme first announced in June 2023 will facilitate co-innovation between the two countries and support the development of sustainable products and services by bringing together the best-in-class technologies from both countries.
The Go-Green Co-Innovation Programme is Singapore’s first sustainability-focused bilateral co-innovation programme and is part of the landmark Singapore-Australia Green Economy Agreement. Jointly administered by Enterprise Singapore and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the programme aims to incentivise co-innovation between Australia and Singapore enterprises, fostering the establishment or expansion in business and commercial activities that boost bilateral trade in goods and services across green growth sectors.
Australia and Singapore share a common niche in terms of having extensive supply chains in the Asia Pacific region. With increasing ESG regulations led by the European Union and parallel initiatives in Asia, there is an urgent need for businesses to embark on ESG reporting and implement a sustainable supply chain management framework to ensure business resilience. Both countries are introducing mandatory climate reporting during the project timeframe.
Yet, 75% of firms are not ready for new ESG rules, according to a recent KPMG report[1], signalling the need for digital enablement and better data.
STACS, company behind Asia’s leading ESG data and technology platform, ESGpedia, will be combining its flagship artificial intelligence (AI)-powered ESG technology expertise with Australia-headquartered carbon footprint data company, FootprintLab.
The co-innovation scope involves ESGpedia digitally streamlining businesses’ end-to-end ESG reporting and corporate sustainability journey, by delivering a full layer of productivity and automation. This includes Corppass integration for seamless signups by companies, enhanced self-service digital guide to ESG for companies new to sustainability, with curated sector-specific tools and digital user journeys to help them pave their sustainability pathways. AI technology will be implemented for companies to easily upload and convert documents into greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions data. To further simplify the ingesting of key E, S, and G metrics data without the need for manual inputs, companies will also be allowed to easily connect their existing accounting and HR systems.
FootprintLab will provide its capabilities in carbon footprint and other ESG data to enhance existing data sets and emission factors in the market. With over 3 trillion data points produced with the Industrial Ecology Virtual Laboratory run by University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney, FootprintLab’s extensive database covers 164 countries, a wide portfolio of ESG indicators, and high sectoral resolution, with traceability back to country data, and is today used by the Australian government for carbon neutral certification, and by the United Nations for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) monitoring. Its capabilities can expand to Impact categories such as gender and nature.
Common challenges faced by companies trying to embark on sustainability include massive resources, budget, and long project timelines. FootprintLab’s ability to integrate with ESGpedia creates a SaaS-based solution that helps lower the barriers to entry for companies with limited resources and prerequisite knowledge to leverage digital solutions to achieve corporate sustainability.
Benjamin Soh, Founder and Managing Director at STACS, said: “STACS is deeply honoured to be selected to be part of the first batch of participants in the prestigious Singapore-Australia Go-Green Co-Innovation Programme that brings together leading technologies in both countries to create the best ESG solutions and services. By combining ESGpedia’s technology capabilities in digitally bridging corporate sustainability workflows with FootprintLab’s proprietary advantage of expanded ESG data sets, we are excited to empower companies and SMEs across Asia Pacific with sector-specific transition pathways and well-defined efficient workflows towards succeeding in today’s evolving global green economy and maintaining supply chain resilience.”
Janet Salem, Co-Founder at FootprintLab, said: “As governments around the world introduce much needed policies to make net zero goals a reality, companies are feeling the pressure of ESG disclosure. Our goal with this project is to make ESG monitoring as easy and detailed as possible, so that companies can not only fulfil their regulatory obligations, but also start to decarbonise the carbon emissions of their operations, and that of their supply chains. Early movers will be able to capitalise on this trend by differentiating themselves in markets that look for lower carbon products and services, and reducing their risk exposure to current and future trade barriers, as well as carbon pricing mechanisms.”
Amidst the rise in sustainable procurement globally, the enhanced solution by ESGpedia and FootprintLab will enable companies to create, calculate, and produce their ESG profiles in a simple and guided manner, aligned with international reporting and regulatory standards. Companies can then amplify their ESG profiles across their supply chains and various market regions to obtain more business opportunities and maintain competitiveness in the global market.
[1] https://www.straitstimes.com/business/three-quarters-of-firms-globally-are-not-ready-for-new-esg-rules-kpmg-finds
For further information, please contact:
STACS (www.stacs.io)
Grace Lim, Senior Marketing Manager
Email: [email protected]
FootprintLab (https://www.footprintlab.io/)
Janet Salem, Co-Founder
Email: [email protected]
About STACS
STACS (Hashstacs Pte Ltd) is Asia’s leading ESG data and technology company, headquartered in Singapore. Its ESGpedia platform powers the ESCAP Sustainable Business Network (ESBN) Asia-Pacific Green Deal digital platform, the ASEAN Single Accesspoint for ESG Data (SAFE) pilot initiative, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) Greenprint ESG Registry. With more than 5 million sustainability data points, ESGpedia serves as the Nexus of ESG, digitally empowering corporates, SMEs, and the financial sector to ensure compliance towards ESG regulations and attain their ESG goals. ESGpedia is GRI-licensed. For more information, please visit www.stacs.io.
About FootprintLab
FootprintLab partners with the University of New South Wales and other credible data sources to provide current, credible and commercially ready ESG data to integrate with fintech. We produce credible emission factors for any sector, in any country in the world. For more information, please visit www.footprintlab.io. FootprintLab is proud to partner with the Industrial Ecology Virtual Laboratory, hosted by the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney.