Financial data group IHS Markit has launched a reporting platform that will gather environmental, social and governance-based data sets from companies.
The platform will house reports on corporate sustainability, climate impact and carbon offsetting programmes, with a view to making it easier for investors to analyse data and build accurate ESG profiles of corporations, sectors and geographies.
In a media statement, Lance Uggla, chairman and chief executive officer of IHS Markit, said the launch was in response to the market’s recognition of the growing importance of ESG factors in the investment process.
He explained: “Demand is growing for environmental, social and governance information, yet accessing the data needed to incorporate ESG into the investing process can be a struggle.
“Our new platform will provide an efficient, single source for information and data relevant for ESG-focused investors and other stakeholders.”
The company is hoping to further enhance the service by incorporating machine learning, optical character recognition and data mining tools at a later date.
IHS Markit already operates an environmental registry, which the company claims is the largest global registry for carbon, water and biodiversity credits, measured by volume. It is also the group behind the commonly used Purchasing Managers’ Indices, which surveys 26,000 companies in 40 different companies.
The company’s head of the environmental business, Kathy Benini, said she hopes that the company has benefited from its track record in bringing data products to market.
She said: “Creating a solution for ESG disclosure draws on our technology expertise in data and document management and is highly complementary to our current services for environmental markets.”
