ESG Investor’s weekly round-up of news on technology and tools in the sustainable investing sector, including Apex Group, Persefoni, diginex, and LevelTen Energy.
Apex Group, a global financial services provider, has added a diversity, equity, equality and inclusion (DEI) solution for private markets investors to its range of ESG ratings and advisory services. The solution helps clients to collect, evaluate and improve on their DEI practices, enabling investors and their portfolio companies to overcome challenges in collecting sensitive data and identifying any gaps in their DEI approach. Data capture is achieved through 20 ‘easy to answer’ questions aligned with key ESG reporting frameworks such as the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulations and the Institutional Limited Partners Association Diversity Metrics with responses submitted via Apex Group’s online platform. Sara Laabid, Apex Group’s ESG Impact Lead, said: “We are excited to launch Apex Group’s DEI solutions which will enable our clients to more efficiently identify, understand and improve DEI performance across their business and portfolios. Crucially, our DEI solution delivers actionable insights, enabling the formulation of action plans and to drive real world impact and positive change.”
Persefoni, a US-based climate reporting solutions provider, has launched the climate management and accounting platform (CMAP) 2.0. With CMAP 2.0, firms will be able to track, automate, and simplify data requests to suppliers directly from the platform to share their emissions information, providing a more holistic view of an organisation’s carbon footprint. This looks to help organisations “overcome common challenges associated with carbon accounting” including data upload and connectivity to existing systems of record streamlining the disclosure complexity for a multi-stakeholder environment, helping to “move through the decarbonisation journey with greater ease”. Kentaro Kawamori, Persefoni’s CEO and Co-founder, said: “Our reimagined onboarding and insight discovery experience guides people through each step in the carbon accounting journey, streamlining the path to decarbonisation.”
The AIM-Progess group, whose members include Coca Cola and Unilever, have partnered with Hong Kong-based software developer diginex to use a supply chain due diligence platform with the aim of improving working conditions in Thailand and Malaysia. diginexLUMEN is a platform designed to increase trust, transparency and accountability across global supply chains. The tool was based an initial partnership with Coca Cola focused on responsible recruitment in Middle Eastern countries, which was then developed and scaled through financial and technical support provided by Coca Cola and Reckitt. The platform is expanding to offer users a suite of modules focused on salient social and environmental risks. The AIM-Progress Responsible Recruitment Capacity Building Project Group will use diginexLUMEN to facilitate the identification of hidden recruitment and forced labour-related risks. This will be achieved by mapping, collecting and triangulating data from key actors including workers, suppliers and labour intermediaries.
Seattle-based renewable transaction infrastructure provider LevelTen Energy has expanded its asset marketplace to Europe. The LevelTen Asset Marketplace is an online platform for buying and selling renewable energy assets, bringing together renewable energy project developers and asset investors, and delivering the software, analytics and expertise to quickly buy and sell projects under development at all stages of maturity. LevelTen Asset Marketplace allows sellers to find the most suitable partner for their assets by instantly reaching the largest renewable energy network in Europe, maximising asset exposure to qualified buyers and investors. It will also help investors increase their M&A pipeline by accessing real, actionable project transactions, and allocating capital to the best deals possible. Carlos Almodóvar Almaraz, LevelTen Asset Marketplace’s Europe Director, said: “LevelTen’s Asset Marketplace will now make transacting on new renewable energy assets in Europe faster and easier for both buyers and sellers. Amid ongoing energy market volatility, it’s more important than ever to make sure projects can find financing and become operational with the least friction possible.”
