A new project that could help your ESG efforts

We all know that climate change is a critical topic for all of us. COP27 couldn’t be clearer on this. But organizations are having to learn how to report and manage their impact and influence on the planet, and this can be a complex process to manage.

A key part of reporting and managing climate change is to have a shared taxonomy so that you, your regulators, your suppliers, and your customers all understand your impact.

Sadly, in the case of climate change, that is not as simple as it would be in an ideal world because across the globe, regulators and governments have implemented a bewildering range of regulations, standards, frameworks and laws.

This means it can be difficult to be confident that everyone is speaking the same language.

To help overcome this, Solidatus is a contributing partner to the Open-Source Sustainable Finance Taxonomy Project.

The aim of this initiative is to create a global, open-source and available-to-all resource that holds global taxonomies that will allow all organizations to improve the understanding of the requirement to help standardize the language used in climate change.

Launched last month in Dublin, this resource is now available on GitHub to any organization wishing to understand a wide range of climate change and sustainable finance taxonomies, including ISSB accounting standards, the SFDR and TCFD frameworks, and a host of other key taxonomies such as NACE and NAICS industry categorizations. This resource will grow over time and includes cross-mappings between the key taxonomies.

Each of these taxonomies are available as downloadable text files and in addition represented as Solidatus models which allow users to visually:

  • Understand the structure in each taxonomy
  • Understand the relationships between different taxonomies
  • Focus in on the similarities, overlaps and differences between key taxonomies

These visualizations are available to view for all users. However, Solidatus clients can also download these models and import them within their Solidatus instance as a reusable resource and a key component in linking the taxonomies with their internal business processes.

This approach will deliver a platform to demonstrate to regulators and auditors how you are meeting climate change reporting requirements.

The links to these taxonomies are below.

Please contact Solidatus at hello@solidatus.com if you want to know how to best use them within your organization.

Organizations that wish to get involved in the open-source Sustainable Finance Taxonomy project can do so via the partner page on the GitHub site (link below). The more partners we have involved, the more valuable this shared resource will be.

Solidatus are proud to be doing its part in the fight against climate change by being a founding member of the First Global Project for Open-Source Sustainable Finance Taxonomy (‘OS-SFT’), and we forward to working with you on this in the future.

Screenshot of the relationship between TCFD, EBA Pillar 3 and ISSB, highlighting the added value of linking topics across these taxonomies within Solidatus

Further reading

Open-Source Sustainable Finance Taxonomy
According to its GitHub page, the “objective of the project is to provide the marketplace with the following open-source, practical tools to advance user implementation of sustainable finance data systems into business operating models for new and evolving taxonomy frameworks, standards, regulations and laws”.

See https://github.com/FD-SustainableFinance/0-OS-SFT-OVERVIEW.

Open-Source Sustainable Finance Taxonomy Partner
See https://github.com/FD-SustainableFinance/06-COLLABORATORS-PARTNERS.

UN Climate Change report
See https://unfccc.int/news/climate-plans-remain-insufficient-more-ambitious-action-needed-now

Although our software was born in London, we now call many of the world’s great cities home. Earlier this year, we set up shop in Houston, Texas to meet the demand for next generation data management solutions throughout North America. Since then, we’ve attended a myriad of events across the continent and have welcomed many new colleagues that share our passion for reimagining data management.

Last week, three of those colleagues – Solidatus’ Global Strategic Account Director, Mary Anne Bullock; Advisory Solutions Engineer, Kevin Shannon; and our Director of Business Development, Glenn Aluce – joined our CEO, Philip Dutton and our Director of Analyst and Industry Relations, Ashlee Dutton at A-Team’s data management summit in New York City.

We listened and learnt from those who attended, absorbing their insights, and suggested solutions to their complex problems. Ashlee Dutton commented on her experience at the summit: “There is a change happening across many industries. When it comes to an organization’s data strategy, they’re now shifting from defense to offense. Data is more than just another thing to report on – it’s influencing how the C-suite are steering the direction of their businesses.”  

The theme of the event was centered on leveraging data to drive business and compliance insight – topics that Solidatus regularly speaks to. Addressing a packed venue, Philip Dutton joined the Chief Data Officer at Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon), Eric Hirschhorn, on stage to deliver a keynote about how our data blueprints are being used for knowledge, context and better decision making. BNY Mellon is the world’s largest custodian bank, managing $43 trillion of client assets. Hirschhorn played a pivotal role in the bank acquiring the Solidatus solution to transform their data management program. 

To summarize Philip’s and Eric’s key points: 

  • Change is inevitable, preparation is paramount. 

“The data world has changed so dramatically, so why hasn’t our approach or tooling? This is why we developed Solidatus – to deliver a solution that provides unique capabilities within data management to enable a fundamental shift in thinking and approach. We’re enabling organizations to create living and dynamic blueprints of their data, allowing the business to simplify the complexity and give context allowing quicker and better data driven decisions,” said Philip. 

  • Everything is connected. Data doesn’t exist in a vacuum.  

At Solidatus, we know that everything is connected, and that there is a global demand for active metadata: the continual visualization of systems, infrastructure, processes and critical data elements. Data interacts and impacts an organization’s entire ecosystem, so it must be modeled as such. Data’s WHY is more important than the WHAT or the HOW. No matter how far along you are on your data journey, you need to know where you are to understand where you want to get to. Solidatus allows you to see the data held across your enterprise architecture. Philip added: “Let’s not continue to boil the ocean, let’s start with the kettle.”

  • Building a strong data foundation unlocks value across your business. 

Eric talked about the immeasurable value that will result from implementing Solidatus. With Solidatus, he and his colleagues can understand the flow of their data for regulatory filings; ensure their risk picture is correct; trace the journey of their market data; and comply with jurisdictional concerns around where data is stored. Having a unified view of their data landscape is vital for building new products and services, and to ensure their data is timely, complete, accurate and consistent. These are just a few of the ways in which Solidatus can be used. Departments across BNY Mellon are planning on using our software for multiple different use cases. The goal is to move from a siloed to an enterprise data management governed view.

Soon after Philip’s and Eric’s keynote, Solidatus took the stage again. Mary Anne joined leading data practitioners and innovators on a panel titled, “Shifting to agile data management practices to ensure enterprize-wide data access, analytics and visualization.”

Mary Anne made several key observations:

  • The main benefits of data democratization are timely and equitable access to data. 

When users across your business have access to data that is held in context, numerous other benefits span from it. These include:

– Accelerating transformation programs and product innovation. 

– Delivering rapid insights with confidence and trust.

– Reducing expenses associated with manual efforts and subject matter expertise.

– Building a sustainable knowledge base – once connections are built, they are retained throughout the life of the project.

  • Traditional data management development approaches fail because of rigidity.  

An agile approach to data management stops organizations churning through multiple system implementations which lead to uncoordinated reporting and analytics because of tight coupling with the systems that are being deployed. Most existing data functions are governance- driven, which has put a burden on data producers to maintain various catalogs and data asset inventories, along with various sets of complex business rules.

  • To create value from data you need an active data culture. 

To get businesses to think of data as an asset, any policies, procedures, and governance structures must be supported by a culture that encourages open communication and a common understanding between those that prepare and process data sets, and those who consume that data for analysis, insights and reporting. Adopting a commercial mindset is fundamental to setting up successful data functions.

We believe that Solidatus holds the keys to a new frontier of data management, so we were delighted to be recognized as such by our peers by being awarded A-Team’s Best Data Discovery and Catalog Solution at the summit.

Get in touch to find out how we can help you usher in a new era of data decision-making

Find out how you can create a living blueprint that can provide you with the knowledge and context for better-quality decision-making, robust impact analysis and reduced program time, risks and costs.  

Organisations around the world know that the significance of ESG is rising every day – and where once the E, the S and the G were initially separate, they are now being seen as collective initiative to achieve data standards.

Data is the key to being able to track all the way back to the recommendations and principles, through all the movement in organisations. To achieve this, there needs to be a collective effort within a business – from multiple teams, across multiple functions and jurisdictions.

If organisations don’t get the data right, the impact of ESG will be felt far and wide, with practical challenges manifesting themselves in the development and implementations of effective ESG strategies.

In our first ever ESG whitepaper, we explore best practices when it comes to the development of an internal framework for identifying people and teams responsible for meeting ESG obligations; interpretation of rules and regulations to define the obligation; and defining the deliverables to meet the obligation.

This whitepaper also takes a deep dive into the following;

  • The ESG investing landscape and how best to respond to its major challenges
  • Contextualising ESG initiatives and establishing organisational-wide understanding
  • Building a successful ESG program and refining a data strategy
  • The benefits of the Solidatus ‘lineage-first’ compliance solution

Financial institutions and FinTechs have unique strengths that when brought together can be very powerful. Financial institutions possess market share and well-established relationships with their customers, often developed over many years. Meanwhile, FinTechs offer specialist technical knowledge and an agile approach to innovation, enabling them to improve inefficient processes and build powerful digital solutions.

One of the most important things businesses can do is put themselves in the shoes of the client. Spending time on the other side of the fence and experiencing their problems first-hand gives them perspective in understanding their pain-points – this then feeds into innovation.

Innovation lies at the heart of all FinTechs and having a product that suits the ever-evolving needs of the client is crucial. By having a vision of your product that stretches into the future you can continue to build and strengthen relationships throughout your client’s organisations.

Sometimes, the best way to innovate is to co-create. This is where partnerships within our industry become so important to both FinTechs and the shared clients they serve. With the help of partners, you can get a view of more meaningful information; you are able to understand their biggest challenges in context and with precision. Start-ups and scale-ups do not always possess the capability to handle an enterprise client, so having a trusted partner gives additional firepower when it comes to supporting clients and augmenting your product within their organisation.

Joined by industry specialists Quantexa and Barclays, Solidatus’ Co-CEO Philip Dutton sat down with our partner EY to look at building successful partnerships within FinTech, and why these partnerships need to be treated as extensions of a company’s own business mode.

Watch ‘Enterprise Engagement Workshop: Building successful FinTech partnerships with financial institutions‘, brought to you by Rise (by Barclays) on demand now: 

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“Respondents to the FIMA 2021 report would be expected to ensure that the data for which they are responsible is fit for purpose. Answers to some of the questions, however, suggest that there may still be shortcomings…” 

Containing answers and insights from 100 Chief Data Officers from buy-side and sell-side firms globally, find out the challenges faced in 2021 and the solutions being put in place to help organisations unlock the value of their data.

  • How are financial services organisations using their data to predict potential risk?
  • How is compliance being ensured across diverse, disconnected, and siloed internal regulatory systems?
  • What level of trust do these CDOs have in the accuracy, traceability, and usability of their data

Also learn from Solidatus’ Co-CEO and Co-Founder, Philip Dutton, why what you don’t know can hurt you when it comes to automation.

Some key findings from the report:

91% of respondents do not have a ‘high level of trust’ in the accuracy, traceability, and usability of their data across their enterprise.

51% of respondents answered that they use automation to identify data risks, but only 14% of answers included any knowledge of the processes involved.

Built by practitioners with a deep understanding of modern data challenges, Solidatus enables organisations to achieve automation with unprecedented levels of reliability, because it is built upon a solid foundation of organisation-wide understanding. If you want to discuss your data requirements, please get it touch with us today.