ConsciESG was created by two dynamic founders, Briseida & Adeliada as a result of their common background and vision for sustainability. Briseida & Adeliada both studied at the American University in Bulgaria and after a decade studying and working in different countries and continents remet in the Western Balkans to address one of the most pressing issues that of brain drainage. After applying an innovative approach to sustainable development they won the UNDP Central Asia & Europe innovators award which helped in shaping and testing their innovation with an international community and leading to ConsciESG’s creation. See what Briseida Gjoza told ESGnews.bg:
How does the platform define and prioritize ESG criteria?
The selection of ESG criteria, both at the portfolio and investment company-level, is completely science-based and data-driven. The platform uses our proprietary algorithm that allows asset managers to determine the most financially material ESG themes from their respective correlation with key financial performance indicators. This process allows asset managers to target and focus on the ESG criteria that will have the greatest impact on their investment returns.
What specific ESG data and metrics does consciesg.com focus on?
The ConsciESG platform allows asset managers to track the progress performance of their investments on all double-material environmental, social and governance topics. The data that we provide for competition benchmarking is purely quantitative and verifiable. The same is true for our own reporting tool, which restricts companies to report in quantitative units only. Currently our dataset includes 3000 global public companies, across 142 different sectors with 28 ESG quantitative performance metrics and progress scores across 2018-2023. From the SEE region, we provide a dataset of 500 private companies, including banking and insurance, with 8 ESG quantitative performance metrics, in addition to our progress scores. Our reporting tool is GRI licensed and aligned.
How is the data collected, analyzed, and updated on the platform?
The platform allows the user to use a direct approach to ESG data collection, through a simplified ESG reporting tool, that significantly cuts the reporting time and resources. The platform allows the company to report on their present performance, set targets and track their progress to targets.
The platform also uses AI to collect and interpret relevant ESG information for companies from their publicly available sources, which are then verified for accuracy before being updated and added to the platform.
How does consciesg.com support businesses or investors in implementing ESG principles?
The platform is holistic in that it allows businesses, their investors, including their supply chain to determine their ESG criteria using a scientific, data-driven approach, then report and track their ESG performance over time, draw reliable and consistent benchmarks to their close competition and download ESG performance and compliance reports. In the end, all the data and analytics for their entire portfolio companies, including their supply chain partners, are available to the asset manager at the portfolio level, which enables better engagement & governance and higher transparency and confidence in their ESG agenda.
How does the platform adapt to evolving ESG standards and regulations?
The double-materiality reporting approach is at the basis of the recent ISSB revisions. The science-based approach to materiality determination, enables a data-driven seamless updating process at the portfolio and company level. Additionally, ConsciESG follows the EU Taxonomy directives and provides compliance reports, to help its clients achieve and demonstrate alignment.
How does the platform track the impact of ESG implementation or improvements in companies?
The platform is built upon a science-based model that can consistently assess, score and rank companies, based on their improvement progress to meeting their ESG targets. The model derives progress scores by tracking performance change components on all material ESG themes over time, necessitating this way a time-balanced ESG dataset as a starting point. The weights used to generate an aggregate score are updated regularly from the endogenous financial materiality matrix at the industry level and upon final monotonic transformations, the final scores place progress performance on a positive 0-25+ scale, with the largest score indicating highest improvement progress to meeting targets.
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