Location Powers Event – An interactive conversation about ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance)
Key findings from the event
The 2022 Location Powers event, in partnership with and hosted by Ordnance Survey, was held over two days in London. This event brought together key government, industry, and third-sector stakeholders to discuss Environmental, Social, and Governance reporting. These talks also demonstrated how Geospatial technologies could help combat ethical and sustainable ESG reporting challenges.
The event saw a diverse range of presentations.
Geovation, discussed the importance of understanding financial and climate impacts and a deeper explanation across the supply chain to understand uncertainty and risk better.
A fascinating presentation from the Financial Conduct Authority talked about the ‘greening’ of finance. They highlighted the need for a better understanding of how to help consumers navigate ‘green washing’. Seeing new categories for funds and financial products recognising ‘Sustainable Improvers’ was excellent. These products and funds support the transition to sustainability and using ‘Sustainable Impact’ to make a real-world difference.
The challenges in understanding biodiversity impacts and ecosystem conditions are best shown through asset and supply chain data. WWF sparked further discussion on the need to share data to innovate. In the search for data, they have had to focus on 1:1 sharing due to concerns about sharing sensitive data publicly.
The same theme ran through all presentations, the need for cooperation is essential. Recently at COP27, UN chief António Guterres warned that humanity must “cooperate or perish”.
Despite the importance of collecting information for ESG, reporting is still time-consuming and difficult to achieve.
IOTICS own Ali Nicholl delivered a presentation which explained “How can we share and manage big ESG data?” addressing the need for “digital cooperation” and that being the key to innovation.
Using a data ecosystem powered by digital cooperation, selective data sharing enables the choice of the “right data” at the right time for the right person. This data sharing allows you to compile reports identifying which sustainability activities or initiatives are impacting your bottom line.
With this in mind, trust will only come through impact measurement, insight sharing and supply chain cooperation.
An effective ESG strategy uses shared access to data, allowing stakeholders to work together and build trust to use relevant data confidently. The result of this strategy drives innovation and reduces risk whilst achieving net zero targets.
The use of digital cooperation enables enterprises to share insights and innovations, so the impact of issues that concern them most can be measured across partners and supply chains.