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Riah Wilkinson
Feb 21, 2022
In Final Submissions
Organizations are becoming more aware of the importance of participating in sustainable practices. They may have a basic understanding for how their products and projects impact the environment and society; and they may even report those numbers to non-profits like the Carbon Disclosure Project. Companies in all industry segments report on their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics. The problem lies in how they go about collecting the necessary information to create these reports. Unfortunately, the data collection process is often managed in multiple internal and external systems. Some companies use Excel spreadsheets (even billion-dollar companies). Many use some type of existing enterprise environmental, health, and safety (EHS) platform with a cobbled together/bolt-on ESG module. These are typically an afterthought, lacking the necessary integrations with the software systems that actually have the data (energy providers, utilities, etc.). They also lack the robust reporting capabilities required to track and analyze the data. This leads to third-party add-ons like Tableau and PowerBI. The systems do not talk to each other, leading to significant manual effort and data inconsistency. This leads to important data being estimated. Companies can’t reduce their impact based on estimations. Our solution is a comprehensive, web-based, software platform where ESG metrics can be measured and evaluated. The system will measure against the newest standards from S&P, MSCI, and GRESB and take into consideration human rights policies and international agreements (i.e., The Paris Agreement). The software will highlight areas where further development and alternative measures can and should be implemented, such as wastewater management, carbon offsetting, etc. It will allow companies to account for details including board diversity, employee training, community involvement, and STEM volunteering. It will showcase sustainable information that is comparable, accessible, and free. The system must be able to not only capture emissions (quantitative) data but also qualitative information as well. One way this could be captured is in a "Programs Module". This component of the application is where a company can create all the initiatives along with target dates for their sustainability reports. These could be emission targets that pull data in from the calculation portion of the application, goals and targets for Diversity and Inclusion could be pulled from the HR system or the org chart, Safety related data from the EHS system, certifications, supply chain, etc. If this data is not currently in another system, it can be manually entered in this ESG application creating a one stop shop for all reporting related to sustainability. There are currently many platforms in existence that support collecting ESG related data; however, the majority focus on only one aspect – environmental emissions. They fail to collect information related to the social and governance criteria. They also fail to collect data focused on the full lifecycle of a project; instead, simply looking at only the data required for reporting. Our solution will seek to collect all ESG data (emissions, safety, corporate governance, quality management, ethics, risk management, and philanthropy) related to a project and map both the near-term and long-term impacts to create a full picture.
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Riah Wilkinson

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