A growing number of industry leaders are identifying sustainability as a top priority for their businesses. A 2022 survey by Gartner showcased that social responsibility and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) features are finding a place on the corporate agenda for about one in five organizations.

1. Sustainability Data Strategy: Top Key
Components for a Positive Impact
A growing number of industry leaders are identifying sustainability
as a top priority for their businesses. A 2022 survey by Gartner
showcased that social responsibility and environmental, social,
and governance (ESG) features are finding a place on the
corporate agenda for about one in five organizations. The survey
also demonstrated that organizations are expected to deal with
sustainability basis the shifting customer issue.
Gartner insights exhibited that executives that are involved with
sustainability strategy and initiatives are striving towards
developing a framework within their organization that promotes
sustainable practices at different stages in their sustainable
business strategies. However, many reported that investment in
sustainable practices is increasing and will continue to rise in the
next few years.
At the heart of sustainable business strategy lies decisions that are
aimed at facilitating growth opportunities, technology, and
leadership. When planning strategic ambitions and the level of
engagement within an enterprise, executives are moving to
integrate viable, sustainable business options. This includes doing
the minimum through compliance, pursuing new growth
opportunities, and differentiating through sustainability. However,
this is a fast-paced area. Irrespective of the approach chosen, it is
imperative for businesses to sense and respond to the
expectations of stakeholders and consumers, put regulatory
interventions in place and adjust to market shifts.

2. Read more: Aligning ESG with Corporate Strategy to Gain a
Competitive Advantage
Sustainability Data Challenges
The main challenge in sustainable sourcing data is the lack of
disclosure and standardization. While reporting this data is not a
mandatory norm, businesses do not have a common framework
for disclosing their ESG data. This has led to a requirement for
resources to be spent on standardizing as well as interpreting
unstructured data, making the process time-consuming and
costly.
However, the challenges surrounding ESG data do not end here.
Stakeholders or the client side also face a lack of quality data, thus
creating dilemmas in integrating ESG into their technology stack,
conceding to new regulatory requirements, and utilizing strong
benchmarks. Similarly, different data points are reported by
organizations from one year to the next. This lack of consistent,
sustainable data reporting standards presents a major barrier to
the advanced adoption of sustainable investing, making it

3. challenging for clients as well as organizations to meet evolving
ESG regulatory reporting requirements.
The Sustainability Data Shift
Organizations employ well-defined processes to assemble
financial data that is carefully tracked and validated. It has a
limited risk of being incorrect. On the contrary, sustainability data
has always been handcrafted. With the data often scattered
across spreadsheets, it becomes difficult to understand and
identify the unknown risks.
The responsibility of sustainability data has shifted over the past
few years. Sustainability teams within organizations were
previously responsible for identifying the key data series and then
rearranging them to produce them every year. However, the
situation is changing today. With sustainability data becoming a
critical part of public disclosures, the finance team within the
organization is taking over. These finance teams are experiencing
shock at the state of sustainability data.

4. Read more: How is Multi-stakeholder Assessment Helping to
Create Long-Term Sustainable Value?
What are the Components of a
Sustainability Data Strategy?
With organizational teams confronting the challenges of preparing
sustainability data, the common elements of modern data
strategy involve a centrally stored, well-structured data repository
to eliminate duplicate data sets and a well-documented plan to
reliably and easily provision the data for multiple use cases,
despite the distinct pitfalls of sustainability data that should be top
when formulating a strategic plan.
Here are the top key components of a data strategy for
sustainability data.
1. Factual data, Not Estimates
While this seems to be a bit obvious, the state of sustainability
data is such that many vendors funnel in industry and sector
averages to enable summary results for their emissions data. The
problem, however, is two-fold-
The emission data estimates are quite coarse and are not even
mildly accurate. A recent study presented by FTSE Russell
indicated that the noise in the data is huge.
Investor expectations are not solely about the data this is being
reported, but it also regards the data that portrays emissions and
water reductions for the next few years. But industry averages do
not work for these goals.

5. 2. Audit-Ready and Proficient Data
Regulatory requirements and investors both mandate credible
and transparent data. The audit function in
the regulatory processes plays a fundamental role in building
confidence in sustainability data. Audit-ready and structured data
enables the audit team to sample records from a data set and
take a deep dive into the samples to track how the data was
assembled and formulated at every step.
Reduced audit time and expense can be considered as the payoff
for paying for a higher quality of sustainability data. With
sustainability data becoming more standardized, the audits are
also integrating these standardizations. Gone are the days of
audits that are done in the nine months on annually reported data.
Organizations are now functioning in a world of quarterly reporting
of sustainability data with the normal audit process.
3. Transparency in Net Zero Motives
Organizations are disclosing their net zero plans but are refraining
from disclosing the underlying components: actual emissions and
offsets purchased. The price of carbon offsets is portraying a

6. fearsome trajectory: Carbon offsets prices are expected to see a
10x increase by 2030. Net zero is predicted to get expensive.
Read more: The Rise of a Data-Driven Work Environment: What
Do Enterprises Need to Know
With sustainability data being scrutinized, analysts are building
models to link the pace of emissions reductions and offsets to
financial data. To guarantee that carbon emission numbers line
up, the finance team is taking a step forward to present their net
zero stories through reported data and statements. Being
transparent in net zero reports empowers institutions to stay away
from significant disclosure problems.
4. A Well-formulated Strategy for Climate
Finance
Emissions and water reductions mandate changes. While the
change was expected to be behavioral in the initial days,
businesses are now facing the underlying wrath of the
consequences. Carbon reductions can come from building

7. improvements, upgrades in equipment, and replacement of
current fuels with clean energy. However, the incorporation of
these changes comes with up-front costs. In our uncertain world,
monetary assets must be preserved as a buffer against
uncertainty.
With new service providers emerging for this process, businesses
are integrating data and models to reliably estimate the size and
cost of reductions. Verified financing partners are playing a
significant role in effectively providing organizations with a steep
discount on the up-front costs of change.
The data required depends on the financing source. However, it
must be actual, audit-ready, and trackable. In addition, the
sustainability data must be at the same granular level in case an
equipment change-out is required. Finance teams are now
creating the option for climate finance by drafting the right data
from the start.

8. 5. Operational Improvements and Long-Term
Value Creation
The initial four components of the sustainability data strategy are
related to work and expenses concerning the finance team. But
these elements help benefit the enterprise in the fifth component.
The phrase "carbon emissions" signifies the use of carbon-
intensive fuels in an organization. With the rapid drop in wind, solar
and battery prices, businesses are switching to clean fuels to save
money. Upgrading the building equipment also helps reduce
operating costs. By employing high-quality sustainability data,
businesses can reduce back-office expenses over current
processes.
Read more: Data & Analytics Strategy: Must-Have Crucial
Elements for Decision Making
To Sum Up
Today the actions of businesses are being monitored closely by
stakeholders as well as consumers. This has compelled them to
not only enhance their operational efficiency but also to lay the
foundation for decoupling their revenue growth and emissions.
The modern, sustainable corporation is now growing to serve its
customers insulated from energy price volatility and climate
change risk and support higher future cost of emissions
reductions.
With investors searching for climate change winners, employees
are also in search of employers who are integrating sustainability
into their actions. Customers are choosing vendors and partners
who portray a future-forward attitude. There is indeed a
heightened upside to the effort being taken behind emissions and
water reductions. And all these actions commence with data.
With a presence in New York, San Francisco, Austin, Seattle,
Toronto, London, Zurich, Pune, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad, SG

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