The overall consensus at COP28 is clear – the transition towards sustainability and emission reduction needs to be undertaken rapidly and deeply at all levels, across all businesses.
Read on for our 2023 Year in Review on how we have scaled sustainability and ESG compliance across Asia through digital empowerment.
Expanding our scope across Asia & other sectors
2023 saw us scaling ESGpedia and our suite of ESG solutions across various countries across Asia.
Asia is pivotal to reducing global emissions. Aligned with this, we have partnered with the ESCAP Sustainable Business Network (ESBN) to power the ESBN Asia-Pacific Green Deal digital assessment to empower businesses and SMEs to kickstart their ESG reporting journey in a simplified, free, and digitalised manner.
ESGpedia is also now powering the ASEAN Single AccessPoint for ESG Data (SAFE) pilot initiative by Sustainable Finance Institute Asia (SFIA), which aims to address ESG data and disclosure gaps in ASEAN markets.
To lower barriers to sustainability especially for SMEs across Asia, we worked on localising ESGpedia platform, whether it be languages available or the emission factor of our embedded carbon calculator, which is in accordance with GHG protocol and ISO14064 methodologies.
Our efforts this year allow ASEAN businesses to leverage digital tools on ESGpedia to automatically convert operational data like fuel, refrigerant, and electricity consumption to GHG emissions under the standard GHG protocol, allowing companies to gain insights into their carbon footprint.
Read some of our partnerships across Asia below:
Vietnam: Enhancing transparency of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) with Bamboo Capital Group
Philippines: Streamlining Corporate Sustainability and ESG reporting with Philippine Financial Market Infrastructure PDS Group
Successes at our flagship sustainability events & workshops
This year, we also partnered with association bodies such as Association of Trade and Commerce Singapore (ATC), Singapore Business Federation, and more, to hold workshops for SMEs with the aim of accelerating business growth in a green economy.
All our efforts climaxed at the Singapore FinTech Festival 2023, where we were extremely heartened by the huge turnout and continuous stream of visitors from around the globe at our booth.
From speaking on various stages including the Gprnt Pavilion and ESG Stage to participating in a book launch, the Singapore FinTech Festival 2023 was overall an immense success for us.
Watch the full playback of the 3rd and 4th edition of ESGpedia Showcase
Launch of ESBN Asia-Pacific Green Deal digital assessment
In May 2023, we officially unveiled the ESCAP Sustainable Business Network (ESBN) Asia-Pacific Green Deal digital assessment for Businesses at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok at the 79th session of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
The event was joined by leaders from businesses, financial institutions, and NGOs, including United Nations Global Compact Thailand, Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), City Developments Limited, Thailand Eastern Group Holdings, KASIKORNBANK, Krungsri, Bangkok Bank, UOB Thailand, Asian Development Bank (ADB), and more to accelerate climate action talks in the region.
More than 300 ESBN Green Deal sign-ups – Attain your free ESBN Green Deal Badge
The ESBN Green Deal digital assessment is a simplified self-assessment tool that is designed to lower the barriers to entry for corporates and SMEs to kickstart their sustainability journey and report metrics that are aligned with stakeholders’ needs for consistent, comparable, and shareable data. At the Asia-Pacific Business Forum (APBF) 2023 event in November, the United Nations ESCAP presented our latest progress with more than 300 sign ups in less than 6 months. Watch the full session here from 3:29:15.
Learn how you can create a free ESG profile and watch the Gold and Silver ESBN Green Deal badge achievers share their thoughts on how it has helped their ESG reporting journey.
Introduction of ESGpedia Nexus and Intelligence – One-stop platform to empower sustainability in Asia
To help to plug the ESG data gaps in Asia Pacific and provide a complete ESG database, we have enhanced ESGpedia’s Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered engine to provide a dual approach – Nexus and Intelligence.
To enable Corporates and SMEs regardless of their ESG maturity, ESGpedia Nexus enables businesses from Day 1 to full readiness with a full suite of end-to-end solutions. Businesses can now focus on building their core business and leave ESG to us with our 3-step approach: Measure and Report, Management and Insights, and Take Actions.
Corporates and SMEs that have yet to kickstart their journey in sustainability can create a free ESG profile and calculate their GHG emissions with our in-built Carbon Calculator that is in accordance with GHG protocol and ISO14064 methodologies. Businesses can also create their ESG profile with simplified ESG metrics scalable to support international and country-specific frameworks such as the ISSB, GRI, PCAF, SEDG, and more.
Create a free ESG profile | Learn more about ESGpedia Nexus
Powered by AI, ESGpedia Intelligence aggregates over 5 million sustainability data points to overcome data fragmentation, with aggregated ESG data over various sectors and countries. Covering over 128,000 company profiles, ESGpedia Intelligence enables financial institutions and corporates to conduct taxonomy regulatory mapping, gain access to companies’ ESG data with product and asset level data, and effectively monitor portfolio companies including SMEs, for sustainable financing and supply chain tracking.
ESGpedia Use Cases with Banks and Corporates across ASEAN
From empowering a S$16 million Sustainability Linked Loan (SLL) through a fully digitalised and streamlined process on the ESGpedia platform, to empowering companies and SMEs across Asia, including Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines to kickstart their sustainability journey, to bringing greater transparency to the RECs and carbon market in Vietnam and Thailand respectively, see a compilation of some of our key live use cases below.
1 of 5 Global Finalists at COP28
The COP28 UAE TechSprint aims to scale up climate action by recognising best-in-class innovative technology solutions for sustainable finance. We are thrilled to be selected and awarded as 1 of 5 Global Finalists for the Artificial Intelligence for ESG category out of 126 strong global submissions.
Notably, we were also the only ESG data company shortlisted amongst 600 regional applicants for the Emerging Enterprise Sustainability Award.
The multiple award recognition is a strong testament to our platform’s ability to accelerate climate action across Asia. There is a critical role for digital platforms like ESGpedia to play, to scale up ESG in the magnitude that the race against time requires us to perform.