We are Floodlight providing ESG data analytics and insights. This post discusses our three foundational pillars of ESG and why they are essential. First, our focus is on rich data and analytics and a robust approach to ensuring that this is actually indicative of company behavior. This focus is a massive upgrade to the current norms, as 90% of ESG providers base their reporting almost exclusively on corporate sustainability or CSR reports. We take an observational approach that relies on recorded data from satellites, ground sensor networks, and other direct observational equipment to ensure that the behaviors we capture and put in front of you are truly indicative of the ESG themes your stakeholders care about. This approach we believe, will take over the industry. Lately, there have been more raids on key offices where ESG has been promoted as a sales opportunity. Regulators, stakeholders, and shareholders are asking many more accountability-focused questions. Relying on our data sets and having a clear audit trail from the original source data to the score or other information, such as benchmarking, helps you understand the ESG context. You can rest easy knowing you’re making decisions based on hard data rather than greenwashing.
The second key differentiator for us is we bring academic prowess to the industry. Team members have over 100 peer-reviewed publications on this exact science and its application throughout the industry. Our academic credentials help us to stay ahead and inform our models, methodologies, and practices to keep you well ahead of the regulatory environment. Part of our process is using geospatial “big data,” including satellite imagery, to assess materiality risks to your assets. Measuring GHG emissions is a key to defining a path to net zero (to keep the earth’s temperature below 2 degrees centigrade). Geospatial data also enables the assessment of risks arising from natural and man-made hazards such as flooding, heat waves, storms, extreme weather events, and forest fires. Using our scientific approach, we can make predictions of future climate scenarios based on IPCC models.
The third differentiator for us is that we are framework agnostic. There is an alphabet soup of frameworks out there. By being able to understand precisely what framework your customers have adhered to, such as PCAF (Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials), TCFD (Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures), or specific United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), you’re able to really better understand how quickly you can fit that into the regulations required based on the commitment made by the C suite, the Board of Directors or other key decision-makers. The fact we’re agnostic saves a lot of time for your customers and a lot of time for you. You come away with a lot more understanding of what direction the company is actually heading in their sustainability, resilience, and ESG lines as well as getting a better understanding of how the rest of the market performs around them. These factors and others really make up our competitive edge in the industry. Please get in touch with us if you are interested in learning more or for a product demo.
