In an increasingly modern and environmentally aware society, the impacts of businesses and individuals on the environment have become of paramount importance. Large enterprises are actively working to reduce their carbon footprints, including Apple and Microsoft, both of which aim to be carbon neutral by 2030, and Amazon, which established its Climate Pledge to reach carbon neutral status by 2040.
With a pledge to re-enter the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement, the U.S. will rejoin 190 countries who have ratified the agreement and have pledged to limit global warming to within two degrees Celsius on average of pre-industrial ranges.
Gary Gensler, the Biden Administration’s pick for Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chief, said in his confirmation hearings that investors are increasingly calling for Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance data (ESG) to disclose risks with climate change even as the acting SEC Chief Allison Herren Lee was drawing up plans to make ESG reporting compulsory.
Human rights and climate change are important issues. Given recent momentum and heightened attention, now is the time that investors can help drive sustainable solutions. We should expect ESG to become even more vital in the future.
The challenges of tracking and reporting ESG data are not minor, as it is human capital, time and financially intensive, and often subject to redundancies and inaccuracies.
These challenges have driven the adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain technology, two of the fastest-growing technologies in the industrial sector, to streamline ESG data collection and automate reporting.
GumboNet™ ESG, an automated sustainability measurement solution for industry provided by Data Gumbo, the Houston-based leader in technology behind an industrial smart contract network powered and secured by blockchain technology, has been innovating in this rapidly growing area of focus.
GumboNet ESG eliminates the expense and resources required to monitor and sustain standalone ESG strategies. It automates reporting into the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) metrics and creates actionable information in real-time based on accurate, auditable sustainability data.
SASB is a non-profit organization founded in 2011 by Jean Rogers to develop sustainability accounting standards.
GumboNet ESG is overarchingly standards agnostic and has plans to utilize other leading global frameworks for reporting as well.
Data Gumbo most recently announced its membership into The Open Group Open Footprint™ Forum where, with other members like Shell, Microsoft Corporation, IBM, Amazon Web Services, Deloitte Consulting, LLP, among others, are creating open standards for environmental footprint-related data, including emissions and consumptions across water, land, and energy for industrial supply chains.
Tailorable to different industry segments, GumboNet ESG measurements include biodiversity impact, operational impact, greenhouse gas emissions, workforce health & safety.
“We set out to create the new industry standard for transparency, accuracy, and speed when it comes to ESG sustainability data,” Bruce said. “Our solution enables a company to measure and monitor their sustainability goals over time across their supply chain and provides trustworthy, auditable reports for the market against the widely-used standards.”
Using 95% of the same data companies used for payments and invoicing via automated smart contracts, GumboNet ESG taps existing operational IoT systems to harvest data that can then be used for reliable ESG reports.
“Data Gumbo’s industrial smart contract network is powered by the immutable nature of blockchain. We generate a real-time record of truth that corroborates events and actions between counterparties that then is used to automate transactions. It’s a value add that this data can be parsed for ESG metrics to provide transparent and accurate sustainability impact,” Bruce explained.
“Data Gumbo is poised to address sustainability measurement growing pains with near real-time environmental data from the field,” said Jeff Cohen, CAIA, Director of Capital Markets Integration for the SASB. “GumboNet ESG stands to enable accurate, automated measurement by industrial sectors as to their carbon emissions while saving time, human capital, and money. This solution supports better reporting into SASB standards in a way that could ultimately scale to all sectors of the economy.”
As the demand for ESG grows due to private pressure and an uptick in governmental regulations, including the step of the U.S. rejoining the Paris Agreement, companies must figure out how to measure progress against carbon reduction goals. Solutions like GumboNet ESG are bound to become even more vital to the future of business as we navigate a more environmentally-friendly world.
On April 13, Bruce will be speaking virtually at The Frontier Conference 2021 on the following panel: Transportation & Logistics: Technologies That Are Leading the Sector. Visit www.thefrontier.co/agenda to learn more and register to attend.
Edited by
Maurice Nagle
