The Sustainable Finance Institute Asia (SFIA) has appointed Asia-focused environmental, social and governance (ESG) data and technology solutions firm STACS ESGpedia as its official ESG platform partner for the Single AccessPoint for ESG Data (SAFE) initiative.

The SAFE initiative is a regional approach to tackling the issue of ESG data, bringing together key stakeholders – including governments, regulators, standard setters, financial institutions, corporates, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – towards championing data and disclosures for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) region and beyond.

The appointment of STACS ESGpedia as partner for the initiative, the institute notes, is a key step in providing the necessary tools to support corporates, SMEs and financial institutions in their corporate sustainability and ESG reporting journey.

By understanding the key challenges faced by providers and users of data alike, the partnership between STACS ESGpedia and the SAFE initiative provides a quasi-public utility approach, which focuses on enabling access for all stakeholders.

Through the partnership, SFIA will collaborate with STACS ESGpedia for the utilisation of ESGpedia, initially in Asia-Pacific markets, to facilitate the region’s ESG journey with a set of regular corporate disclosures.

ESGpedia provides a digital platform that simplifies various ESG standards and frameworks, providing a guided sustainability journey. It includes digital tools to automatically calculate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under the standard GHG Protocol and in accordance with the ISO14064 standard, localized to emissions factors of countries within the Asia-Pacific region, allowing companies to gain insights into their carbon footprint.

As well, the platform provides functionality to produce ESG reports according to both international and local regulatory standards and offers data analytics and visualization services for both the reporting corporate, as well as their supply chain or financial services portfolios.

The launch of the STACS ESGpedia platform within the SAFE InItiative is opportune, SFIA points out, amid the Asia-Pacific region’s acceleration towards a green economy, particularly with upcoming mandatory climate disclosures and new policies to enable sustainable practices and reporting, including requirements of Scope 3 GHG emissions reporting.

“This collaboration marks a significant milestone in our journey towards a unified and accessible ESG data disclosure platform for the Asean region,” says Eugene Wong, SFIA’s CEO. “By leveraging ESGpedia’s capabilities, we believe the SAFE platform will provide much-needed support to businesses of all sizes, especially SMEs, to disclose credible ESG data that are crucial for accessing sustainable finance and competing in global supply chains.”