A platform helps companies track ESG, CSR, and sustainability in one place 
CategoriesSustainable News

A platform helps companies track ESG, CSR, and sustainability in one place 

Spotted: With research showing that corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives are frequently withdrawn during times of economic uncertainty, the full picture of the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic is still developing. Many environmental advocates hoped that the sudden drop in global emissions would become the new norm, but the opposite happened. The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that global emissions rebounded to their highest level in history in 2021. Part of that was a rebound in airline travel and a steep increase in transport by car.  

In light of the corporate struggle to do what is best for the planet, Spanish software company APlanet created a single, customisable dashboard for companies to track their environmental, social and governance (ESG) measures in one place. Whatever a business is doing to protect the global health of the planet, and wherever that occurs in the supply chain, the APlanet platform tracks it.

A company sets up the categories that it wants to track, which can include global standards as well as internal, local, or regional measures. APlanet helps identify data inputs and builds a bespoke dashboard. Companies can assign owners to different data sets and, when needed, easily create holistic performance reports for the entire organisation.

The detailed analysis provided by APlanet helps operational managers track efficiencies and a range of measures across multiple locations, including gender equality, emissions, energy usage, recycling, water usage and more.

CSR and ESG are important to consumers, with much brand loyalty pegged to a company’s ethos. As organisations seek ways to bake sustainability into their very foundations, innovators are rising to the challenge with technologies such as a platform that verifies and tracks impact projects and a social media app that raises funding for sustainable brands and causes.  

Written By: Keely Khoury

Reference

A CSR platform enables companies to choose and track verified impact projects
CategoriesSustainable News

A CSR platform enables companies to choose and track verified impact projects

Spotted:  Investors and corporates alike are increasingly interested in using software as a service (SaaS) models to integrate sustainability-focused infrastructure into corporate platforms. In line with this trend, Singaporean startup Handprint is providing businesses with an easy way to improve their planetary impact. 

The Handprint platform offers companies a choice of pre-verified impact projects grouped into themes such as social justice, clean water, and deforestation. Each company can then choose to support the ones that best align with its brand and values.  

Once a company has chosen the projects it wishes to support, software plugins integrate contributions to those projects into core business functions such as e-commerce. For example, food delivery company Saladstop integrated with Handprint’s technology to allow its customers to order ‘climate positive’ meals. Similarly, media platform Teads worked with Handprint to let its users dedicate part of their advertising spend to the regeneration project of their choice.  

The idea behind Handprint is that the company makes the contribution rather than the end consumer. But by using Handprint’s platform, companies gain benefits such as increased brand loyalty and greater cart conversion, while also linking their impact contributions to their core business. 

Handprint also makes it easy to track the company’s overall contribution – both in terms of monetary investment and impact outcomes. The progress of the company’s chosen projects can be traced with quasi-real-time data and on-the-ground photos – which the company can post on social media. 

A really important benefit of Handprint’s approach is that it significantly reduces intermediary costs on the back-end. By using blockchain technology and satellite imagery Handprint is able to avoid some of the costs normally associated with donation-based systems. As a result, more money flows to projects on the ground and less to third-party administration. In fact, the company claims to have one of the best dollar-to-impact rates in the world, being on average 68% cheaper than its competitors. 

In a crowded marketplace for corporate impact, Handprint’s credibility is boosted by its links with academia, and the financial backing it has recently received through a $2.2 million (around €2.08 million) funding round. 

Other recent software innovations aimed at corporate sustainability include a platform for measuring an organisation’s IT footprint, a SaaS platform that helps real estate investors lower their environmental impact, and a platform that simplifies ESG data. 

Written By: Katrina Lane

Website: handprint.tech

Contact: handprint.tech/contact

Reference