RS Metrics announces its collaboration with the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool to launch asset-level biodiversity metrics for ESGSignals® platform.
As the general public finds out how poorly environmental metrics are currently measured [...], public scrutiny will only intensify.— Maneesh Sagar, CEO of RS Metrics
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, USA, January 20, 2022 /
EINPresswire.com/ -- RS Metrics collaborates with the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT) to launch asset-level biodiversity metrics to enhance RS Metrics’ leading
ESGSignals® platform. IBAT, described by its users as “a must for any project on biodiversity conservation”, provides authoritative geographic information about global biodiversity. It is underpinned by three of the world’s most authoritative global biodiversity datasets and, when integrated into ESGSignals
®, will enable users to make biodiversity-informed capital allocation decisions using the most granular biodiversity metrics currently available.
Asset managers and corporate clients will be able to use ESGSignals
® to baseline and benchmark securities level exposure to over 265,000 protected areas, 142,000 IUCN Red List species, and over 16,000 Key Biodiversity Areas. Integration of asset-level biodiversity metrics will further help rating agencies incorporate quantitative assessments of a company’s biodiversity-related risks and opportunities, while index providers can create biodiversity screened indices based on objective datasets. Investors and other stakeholders will be able to answer previously inscrutable questions such as:
“How exposed is a portfolio company’s oil pipeline capacity to physical risk, and in the event of a spill, what will be the impact on Red List species?”
“What are the outlier assets in a portfolio in terms of exposure to key biodiversity areas?”
The collaboration comes at a time when the recently launched TNFD (TaskForce on Nature Related Financial Disclosure) framework is expected to be adopted by major governments, corporations, and asset managers, which will further bolster the need for objective biodiversity datasets. The TaskForce is planned to deliver a disclosure framework supporting a shift in financial flows away from nature-negative outcomes.
“In our conversations with Wall Street analysts, we have noticed an increasing level of sophistication on climate, environmental, and physical risks,” says Maneesh Sagar, CEO of RS Metrics. “There is growing awareness of how all the different elements of corporate environmental performance tie together. What this means is that the same beleaguered executives, who are just getting off their heels in responding to emissions, are increasingly having to answer a litany of questions on biodiversity, water stress, physical risk, etc. This pressure will of course only intensify due to what we at RS Metrics call “involuntary transparency”, namely the ability to use geospatial to peer directly into corporate environmental performance. As the general public finds out how poorly environmental metrics are currently measured (very rough estimates for emissions, not at all for measures like biodiversity), public scrutiny will only intensify.”
ESGSignals
® uses over 100 data sources geospatial datasets and filters them through AssetTracker™, RS Metrics’ market-leading proprietary global asset database containing geolocation, asset type (factory, refinery, etc), production capacity, equity ownership, and other attributes. ESGSignals measures the environmental performance and risk of assets such as factories, refineries, and power plants via over 30 metrics, including emissions, land usage, biodiversity, water stress, acute, and chronic physical risk.
The ESGSignals
® platform leverages RS Metrics’ pioneering work in geospatial analytics and its market-leading AssetTracker™ database to independently collect, quantify, and monitor major ESG metrics. Geospatial is the only data measurement technology that can provide a wide array of environmental and climate physical risk data at scale on a cost-effective basis. RS Metrics plans to continue its geospatial innovation to deliver products that answer the needs of its asset management and corporate clients.
About IBAT
IBAT has been developed and is maintained by the IBAT Alliance, a partnership of leading conservation organizations, including BirdLife International (BirdLife), Conservation International (CI), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). Through IBAT, the Alliance seeks to inform decisions affecting critical biodiversity with the best and most up-to-date scientific information and support the update, generation, and maintenance of global biodiversity data.
About RS Metrics
Founded in 2010, RS Metrics analyzes and derives data from satellite and aerial imagery to provide fundamental insights, trends, and predictive signals for businesses and investors in metals, industrials, retail, commercial real estate, and ESG. RS Metrics’ proprietary, patented technology platform leverages advanced computer vision and machine learning and a scaled QC workflow to generate accurate, predictive, and consumable information.
For more information, visit
http://www.rsmetrics.com or contact Nilosha Pereira at nilosha@rsmetrics.com.
Nilosha Pereira
RS Metrics
+94 77 013 3756
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