The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Asia’s most trusted securities group collaborated to launch ESGenome, a digital disclosure portal for companies to report Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data in a structured and efficient way, and for investors to access such data in a consistent and comparable format.
Under Project Greenprint, the MAS and securities group are working together on ESGenome to make a common disclosure tool that will make it easier for listed companies to report on their sustainability.
“High-quality sustainability data is critical for better decision making by corporates and financial institutions as they look to deliver against the UN SDG 2030 goals and their net zero transition pathways,” says Dr Darian McBain, Chief Sustainability Officer, MAS. He also said that technology is an important way to make sure that this data is reported quickly, correctly, and efficiently in a world where the disclosure landscape is changing rapidly.
Since corporate sustainability disclosures are one of the biggest sources of ESG data in the world, there is a lot of room to use technology to improve and make it easier to compare data to help make the financing decisions needed for a credible transition.
Currently, the proliferation of numerous sustainability reporting standards and rules across jurisdictions, as well as the varied way data is collected, examined, and published, have resulted in substantial disclosure issues and poor ESG data comparability.
On the other hand, a sustainability reporting fintech company will operate ESGenome, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) service. It simplifies the disclosure process for listed firms by providing a basic set of measures that are mapped across worldwide standards and frameworks:
- Organisations can conduct their baseline sustainability reporting by fundamental ESG metrics;
- Corporations can provide additional disclosures by internationally acknowledged ESG reporting standards and frameworks;
- Companies are only required to give a single input for each ESG measure; these inputs can be automatically mapped across their chosen standards and frameworks to meet the needs of various investors;
- The inputs can automatically generate a sustainability report.
ESGenome gives investors and financial institutions access to relevant and comparable ESG data, enabling meaningful benchmarking against peers and tracking of sustainability commitments. This enables more effective capital mobilisation for sustainable firms and projects.
As part of its ongoing work on Project Greenprint, MAS will also use the lessons learned from ESGenome to address the reporting needs of a broader universe of corporations, including small and medium-sized businesses, supply chain partners, and suppliers.
Meanwhile, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) organised the Land Transport Industry Day for the third time, bringing together industry leaders to share insights and best practices. Multiple announcements were made on the electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem and advancement in the land transportation industry.
LTA also presented new skill training courses as part of a bigger effort to build a pipeline of qualified personnel capable of working on the safety and maintenance of electric vehicles.
The LTA developed this with the help of Workforce Singapore (WSG) and the Ministry of Manpower to better understand the influence of technical and sociological trends on the future demands and capabilities of the land transport workforce.
It gives high-level advice on how to train and improve the skills of local workers so that they can be used by different industries and technology partners.
