Launch of sustainability disclosure tool to simplify SMEs’ reporting efforts
Gprnt’s tool automatically converts firms’ Corppass utilities data to reflect amounts of Scope 1 and 2 emissions
[SINGAPORE] Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore may be able to simplify their sustainability reporting efforts, with the launch of a disclosure tool by sustainability reporting and data platform company Gprnt on Thursday (May 22).
After Singapore companies retrieve utilities data using their corporate digital identity known as Corppass, the tool will then automatically convert the data to reflect the amount of emissions arising from their operations (Scope 1), or those from their purchase of electricity (Scope 2).
The platform retrieves four data points – three of which are related to a company’s carbon footprint.
These are their water, town gas and electricity usage, which are sourced from the relevant government agencies, namely, national water agency PUB and the Energy Market Authority.
The fourth data point is revenue.
The tool’s ability to retrieve data from the government comes after Gprnt’s integration with the Government Technology Agency of Singapore’s Myinfo business service, which allows Singapore-registered businesses to share and retrieve their corporate data with participating organisations after consent is given.
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The integration of the disclosure tool with government data comes about six months after Gprnt unveiled its range of decarbonisation solutions.
Addressing lack of credible ESG data
The commercial company was launched in 2023 as a spinoff from Project Greenprint, an initiative by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, to develop solutions that could help address the lack of credible environmental, social and governance data that financiers could use for sustainable financing.
It received S$6 million in seed funding from digital payments company Ant International and Japanese bank MUFG.
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The latest disclosure tool is provided for free to SMEs, but Lionel Wong, executive director of Gprnt, told The Business Times that it is currently engaging with large corporates, financial institutions and government agencies to work out how these entities can access these data on a chargeable basis.
Wong explained: “It is actually beneficial to these large corporates and financial institutions to have more trusted data on their supply and value chain, because otherwise it’s very difficult for them to properly calculate their own emissions footprint and deliver on their own net-zero transition plans if they don’t have good data.”
He added: “(They) pay for the disclosure licence so that they can be an end point on the Gprnt infrastructure, and somebody who is disclosing granular and verifiable information on Gprnt can transmit that information to the paying recipient.”
Speaking at the launch event on the same day, OCBC chief sustainability officer Mike Ng said that the lender can now obtain credible data of companies they finance through Gprnt, without needing to manually obtain copies of their utility bills. The data is used by the bank to determine if a company is eligible for green or sustainability-linked loans (SLLs).
Ng noted: “As you can imagine, it is very laborious, requires a lot of time, a lot of effort. And the critical issue is that it’s very prone to errors, especially if we are dealing with many, many SMEs in our case.”
The emissions data via Gprnt can also be used by OCBC to track how clients are performing against the sustainability performance targets they have set for their SLLs.
Beyond Singapore
While MUFG’s customers outside of Japan are mainly large corporations, its head of ESG finance Colin Chen said that emissions data from SMEs would eventually become part of the Scope 3 emissions of large corporations, which refer to indirect emissions resulting from their supply chain.
He added that a partnership between the private sector and government was needed to develop an ecosystem where credible data is easily generated and accessible, which was part of the reason why MUFG decided to be one of Gprnt’s seed investors.
Given that this disclosure tool is backed by regulators in Singapore, Chen said that the bank was able to go to its partner banks in other Asean markets to discuss expanding the platform beyond the city-state.
To this end, Gprnt’s Wong pointed out that the intention was always for the platform to be cross-deployable to other markets and not constrained to Singapore.
He added that the company is currently pursuing “similar engagements in other markets that we go into, so far as that data exists and the infrastructure exists”, though he declined to reveal the markets.
Further down the road, Gprnt is also looking to incorporate Scope 3 emissions data into its platform.
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