Category: Updates and Resources

Differences that Make a Difference: What distinguishes ESGTree from its competitors. Over the past four years, one of the most common questions we get is: What differentiates ESGTree from its competitors? A stellar product and relentless drive to improve customer experience may sound like cliched answers, so we’ve put together three additional core features that set us apart from our competitors:
1 Purpose built for private market investors: Our entire tech stack and back-end/front-end is purpose built for the private investor use case e.g., our three-tier database structure allows seamless data aggregation and analytics upwards from PortCos to GPs to LPs in real time without any customization required. This platform also provides access, as needed, to ESG teams, deal teams, and partners at the firm level to ensure alignment at all levels. This is just one example of our ‘built for purpose’ approach
2
Seasoned ESG/Impact Founding Team:
Our Founding team collectively has over 20 years of experience working with over two dozen PE firms on ESG/impact strategy and reporting prior to launching ESGTree. We are seasoned ESG professionals who decided to build technology for solutions we had been implementing for many years. Owing to our ESG and impact backgrounds, we are familiar with the developments and nuances of ESG’s evolution since the early 2000s
3
Continuous engagement and innovation to meet industry needs:
As a company that was built organically with a product, customer, and revenue focus, we are already profitable and debt free in our fourth year of operation. We are not under pressure to scale and sell assembly line / off the shelf products. We have the time and interest to customize our solutions in a way so that they provide real solutions for real problems. ESG needs are slowly converging onto major standards, but firms still have unique needs driven by boards, management, LPs and compliance needs, which are particular to their business. We are not only okay with addressing these nuances but are passionate about them as they contribute towards the continuous growth and innovation of our platform

ESGTree is a cloud-based Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) data management and reporting platform for financial institutions. Our Carbon Calculator and automated climate reporting software are just some of the many features of our fully integrated platform. Our customizable technology, paired with industry-leading advisory services, provide our clients with the necessary tools to become leaders in the transition to net zero.THE CHALLENGE FOR FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONSAs ESG legislation tightens globally, financial firms are pushed to go beyond simply reviewing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions they generate. This means measuring, disclosing, and minimizing the emissions generated by portfolio companies, suppliers, properties and investments. Financial institutions will now have to contend with large spreads of data in an ever-evolving regulatory landscape.ESGTREE’S 3600 CARBON FOOTPRINT AND CLIMATE DISCLOSURE SOLUTIONEESGTree is purpose-built to solve these pressing challenges. Our globally recognised technology platform has enabled some of the largest businesses in the world to measure, manage, report, and minimize their environmental footprint across their value chain. Turn theory into practice with our proprietary Carbon Calculator and numerous automated ESG reporting frameworks, including:Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR)ESG Data Convergence Initiative (EDCI)

Case Study: A Private Equity Firm’s journey with ESGTree
to improve Social Factors and Impact
Since 2020, ESGTree has been working with a $10BN+ Private Equity (PE) firm, based in the United
States, to streamline and report on their Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives with
a focus on DE&I and BIPOC best-in-class practices. Key themes across which ESGTree has helped the
PE firm are:
– Impact management
– Diversity, equality, and inclusion
– Additionality and intentionality
– Minority issues, vulnerable groups, Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC)
Impact Management
We helped our client refine their impact goal to having more women in leadership positions. As a
result, active steps were taken to increase the representation of women at the board-level, in executive
management, non-executive management, and among their employees. Today, several of their
portfolio companies are led by women CEOs and in 2021, more than 50% of their new hires were
women. Internally, women and individuals from ethnic backgrounds comprise over 60% of the firm.
Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DE&I)
We took a triangular approach to DE&I with this client using data to monitor various programs for
gender, race, and marginalized groups. Our monitoring and reporting framework helped the client
manage:
– Gender via various activities including the women in leadership program mentioned above
and supporting summer programs for coding for girls in grades 10-12, providing them with the
opportunity to learn computer science
– Racial minority representation and empowerment through a data centric approach looking at
alignment with the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA) Diversity In Action (DIA)
initiative and drawing out percentages to create action plans
– Marginalized groups through tracking philanthropy and working with non-profit organizations
to offer internships for young people coming from historically marginalized communities
Additionality and intentionality
Our work with this PE firm was also centred around being intentional about the change they wanted
to create. Our monitoring framework allows the PE firm to track intention to develop students from
“non-elite” universities as an impactful way to foster social mobility in the country. Today, more than
a quarter of their current employees are first generation college students. And less than 10% of their
employees hold any undergraduate or graduate degree from an “elite” educational institution.
Minority issues, vulnerable groups, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)
Our ESG framework for this client outlined the advancement of social mobility as an important driver
for this firm along with their efforts to value people from every background. To this end, the firm
provides in-kind and monetary support to non-profit organizations combating social inequalities and
injustices. They also partner with a number of organizations with the aim of reducing social inequality.

ESGTree’s ESG DDQ Reporting Solution is purpose-built for private equity investors and other financial institutions. ESGTree offers automated data collection requests with auto-reminder notifications, ready-to-implement framework automations, ESG advisory services, and other customizable features.

How a leading private equity firm partnered with ESGTree to streamline its ESG reporting journey for its portfolio companies, while creating value for them in the process After pressure from investors and regulators to report on ESG, a leading private equity firm chose the ESGTree technology platform to automate its ESG data management and analysis while leveraging ESGTree’s Advisory team for policy creation, annual ESG reporting and capacity-building activities. The firm knew it needed to partner with a leading SaaS company with deep expertise in ESG for private markets, both on the technology and consulting fronts.

Our fully integrated SFDR Reporting Software addresses these challenges by:1)Translating legislation & technical indicators into an intuitive interface that enables portfolio companies to track & improve their performance.2)Automating Principal Adverse Impact Indicators (PAI) reporting3)Tracking alignment with the SFDR on both product & entity levels.4)Preparing for all current & future global ESG regulations through ESGTree’s holistic frameworks automation.
5)Purpose-built for Financial Institutions, the ESGTree Platform enables you to manage data & reporting at the Fund of Funds, Fund and Portfolio company levels:

The rallying cry of the American Revolution – no taxation without representation – is today taken as self-evident but deserves a re-examination in light of the climate crisis and sustainable development and ESG efforts. In fact, it could be argued that the whole field of sustainability is an example of taxation without representation.