Month: March 2023

The incorporation of technology is taking the corporate world by storm. Let’s find out how it is influencing the ESG scene.

As environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors are becoming increasingly important considerations for investors and companies alike, the intersection of digitalization and ESG has become a hot topic in the business world.

The shifting demands of consumers and investors for greater transparency and accountability has led to a growing number of regulations and frameworks – such as the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) developed by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) – being adopted and mainstreamed over the years. The regulatory push is coming from all angles and levels, including from the international, regional, commercial and industry-specific spheres.

As many of these regulations are or will become mandatory and have penalties for noncompliance, digitalization is a necessary step in automating, accelerating and scaling processes around emissions reductions, data management and auditing to keep up with the ever evolving regulatory requirements.

We are seeing an increased prominence of a technological race between regulations and ESG efforts, where digitalization is becoming an indispensable enabler for companies to be ESG compliant.

Technology can help to boost the efficiency of ESG reporting through aiding organizations in collecting, analyzing and benchmarking complex data on materially relevant ESG metrics. This is particularly pertinent in certain industries, such as agriculture, energy, transportation, buildings and real estate.

The problem faced during the process of generating ESG performance analyses and sustainability reports is often related to data collection, data management and the amount of work that needs to be invested into the process. With recent regulatory developments requiring Scope 3 emissions reporting, which encompasses supply chain emissions and has historically been the most challenging to measure of the three scopes, this task would be immensely time-consuming to accomplish manually on an annual basis, especially for larger companies. Digital tools not only enable tracking and analysis of data on a larger scale, but also helps to combat greenwashing through better accounting and verification.

What does this mean for SMEs?

Currently, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make up 90% of businesses and 50% of the workforce globally, harnessing great potential for positive impact. While it may seem that SMEs are still exempt from many of the regulatory requirements, these changes for multinational corporations (MNCs) have resounding ripple effects. As scope 3 emissions reporting becomes compulsory, companies are pressured to streamline their supply chains, which often comprise SMEs. What we would observe is a trickle-down effect whereby ESG regulations for MNCs would indirectly influence SMEs to adopt better ESG practices.

As digitalization increases the transparency of MNCs’ supply chains, SMEs would be placed under greater scrutiny for their ESG practices. Greenwashing allegations are expected to continue to increase with greater public attention on sustainability and greater pressure to comply with stricter regulations.

Through stakeholder interaction and engagement, MNCs would work with their suppliers to ensure compliance. This could include setting emissions reduction targets, selecting suppliers based on their ESG performance, and implementing sustainable procurement practices.

With available data on companies’ ESG performance, technology also provides predictive capabilities on companies’ performance trends, such as in energy production or consumption. This enables companies to identify risks, opportunities, and areas in which they can improve their operational efficiency.

How can Rimm help?

Rimm offers ESG performance analytics and automated reporting services that provide insight and capacity to help organizations understand and improve their sustainability. Whether big or small, businesses looking to optimize their operational efficiency and financial performance should leverage technology to stay ahead of regulatory requirements and climate risks.

To browse through Rimm’s catalog of sustainability and ESG solutions, click here or contact us for a free demo!

Rimm’s global team from Singapore, UK, Japan and Portugal gathered in Singapore for one week of strategy and team bonding sessions. Read on to find out about the experience!

Recently, our international teams from the UK, Portugal and Japan flew to Singapore for a productive week of bonding and strategizing for 2023. It was our first time bringing everyone together from our global offices, and we also had the chance to celebrate International Women’s Day with all the amazing women on our team.

To kick-off the week, we ran numerous strategy sessions with everyone to align our vision and goals for the year. Each department came together to discuss their goals, refine strategies and approaches, and share their plans with the rest of the team.

“The strategy sessions were a fantastic way to collaborate and share ideas! It was super informative and insightful to understand the goals and agenda for each team for the next year,” says Riya Sharma, Partnerships Manager in Rimm’s London office.

As we are currently in a very important stage in our growth, aligning our strategies is crucial in improving transparency and coordination across teams on our various projects and timelines. With 2023 poised to be a very critical year for us as a company, our time together helped to clarify our goals and how we plan to achieve them.

Apart from our strategy sessions, we also had the opportunity to visit a local permaculture farm to learn about sustainable farming practices. As we toured the farm, we explored how they set up self-sustaining irrigation systems and closed ecological systems. Towards the end, we got to relax with food and drinks made from natural ingredients found in the farm.

“It was inspiring to see how the volunteer community builds the organic farm using their expertise and trial and error of natural methods,” shares Wei Ti Goh, our data scientist from the Singapore office.

“Overall it was a great experience. I’ve gotten to know how badly we treat the soil, something we depend on to grow the food we need to survive, and how small and simple sustainable practices can be applied to restoring it,” says Fábio Duarte, our Head of Development based in Portugal.

On our third day, Rimm explored the city on an amazing race around Singapore, centered around Singapore’s areas of heritage and culture.

“The amazing race was a fun and exciting way to explore Singapore! Having never visited before, I really enjoyed getting to know the local areas and understand the heritage behind the different sites. Lots of lessons learnt and lots of team bonding!” says Riya.

We rounded off our strategy and bonding week with a delightful dinner at Barbary Coast, where we looked back on an eventful time together and had one last meal before our overseas colleagues had to catch their flights back home.

It was sad to say goodbye, but I think most of us at Rimm will agree that we had a wonderful time walking the talk and living our brand ethos, ‘Real Impact Matters Most’ (Rimm), as a team. We look forward to our next reunion!

We are currently hiring!

As Rimm continues to grow, we are looking to expand our team. If you are interested to join our team or know anyone who might be suitable, please head over to our LinkedIn Jobs Page.

With the rise of ChatGPT and other AI tools, hear our expert speakers on how automation is shaping the sustainability space and providing solutions to challenges.

On March 16, Rimm held our first hybrid event of the year, “The Rise of Automation in Sustainability”. The event centered around a panel discussion, focusing on how automation can be used by companies to promote sustainability and the associated benefits and challenges. We were honored to have Ravi Chidambaram (Rimm, CEO), Vincent Caldeira (Red Hat, CTO), and Steven Newman (Menicon, CTO) on our panel to share their expertise with Dr. Darian McBain (OCSO, CEO) as our distinguished moderator.

With a multitude of regulations and frameworks increasingly mandating sustainability reporting, it may seem daunting for small businesses to embark on their sustainability journey. Automation enables easy access to sustainability for all companies, including those that may lack the necessary resources and manpower to implement more sustainable practices.

“Reporting to us is really just the starting point. You could get green loans, sustainability certifications, and be supply chain compliant… There are so many use cases around sustainability, and the idea is to go way beyond reporting.” – Ravi Chidambaram

Here’s a brief summary of what our panelists had to share.

Key takeaways:

• Automation can aid companies in their necessary transition toward sustainability by demystifying and simplifying adoption, helping them overcome logistical and financial hurdles to beat the rising cost of compliance and stay competitive.
• By starting with sustainability disclosure, companies can get a clearer idea of issues that are material to them, allowing them to identify areas for improvement to implement effective strategies.
• Beyond reporting, automation can be used for data scraping, benchmarking and auditing, all of which contribute to data verification and combating greenwashing.
• Although we are still in the early days of automation and sustainability reporting, automation can help to boost the credibility of self-reported data.
• Some ESG data might be inaccurate due to the lack of verification and lack of standardization between taxonomies.
• Automation and sustainability can also bring together ESG reporting companies to capitalize on each other’s strengths to come up with better and more holistic solutions for all companies.
• Sustainability and automation will continue to grow as a key topic area as businesses continue to realize its importance and as taxonomies become more standardized.

“The idea is if we can have this combination of data management and customization, we can create many positive outcomes for clients around sustainability adoption.” – Ravi Chidambaram

Our team at Rimm Sustainability would like to thank everyone who attended the event. We hope to see you at our next one!

Want to learn more about how you can automate your sustainability analytics and reporting processes?

Watch “The Rise Of Automation In Sustainability” on demand.

Rimm Sustainability and Zeroboard have joined hands to democratize sustainability through tech and automation, read our press release below to find out more.

Rimm Japan (Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; Chairman & CEO: Masashi Yamashita) and Rimm Sustainability Pte Ltd. (Singapore; CEO: Ravi Chidambaram; hereinafter “Rimm”) announced today that they will collaborate with Zeroboard Inc. (Minato-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Michitaka Toketsugu; hereinafter “Zeroboard”), a solution that supports the calculation, disclosure, and reduction of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions, on February 24, 2023, to consider providing services that contribute to Rimm’s ESG assessment. We aim to integrate the functions of both companies’ solutions by the end of FY2011.

The announcement was made at the MOU signing ceremony of the Asian Zero Emission Community (AZEC) Public-Private Investment Forum hosted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on March 3, 2012.

Rimm Japan Company Profile

Rimm Japan was jointly established by Rimm Sustainability Pte Ltd. of Singapore and SDG Impact Japan K.K. (co-presidents: Mari Ogiso and Bradley Busetto) to develop myCSO, a sustainability management assessment platform in Japan for the purpose of assessment improvement (co-presidents: Mari Ogiso and Bradley Busetto) to develop “myCSO,” a sustainability management assessment platform for the purpose of improving sustainability management in Japan.

About myCSO

Rimm, with its vision of “Sustainability for All”, provides a SaaS-type sustainability management platform based in Singapore that enables companies to conduct ESG assessments.

In recent years, an increasing number of companies have been implementing sustainability initiatives such as SDGs/ESG environmental management. In addition, with the growing interest in ESG investments, financial institutions, investment firms, and other investors in companies are also becoming more active in making investments and loans based around ESG contributions, such as green loans and positive impact financing.

However, these companies are currently forced to rely on costly consulting services by external experts, and rating and research firms to assess their ESG performance. The cost of such evaluations, especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), is a bottleneck that restricts their ability in improving their sustainability performance.

Rimm’s platform enables companies to visualize the progress in which they have achieved their sustainability initiatives and to evaluate and score their sustainability efforts using AI. We aim to improve the sustainability of society as a whole.

Rimm Japan has also been selected as a recipient of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s “Green Finance Foreign Business Start-up Support Program,” which supports foreign financial companies involved in green finance to establish operations in Tokyo.

Quotes from the involved parties:

Zero Board Corporation / Representative Director Michitaka Watakeiji

We are very pleased to have entered into a business partnership with Rimm, a Singapore-based developer of a sustainability management assessment and scoring platform. We are in a position to support companies in their decarbonization management by providing them with solutions specialized in the E (environment) of ESG, and we are in a good complementary relationship with Rimm, which is in a position to evaluate these solutions, both functionally and in terms of the geographic area of operation. We look forward to working with both companies to support decarbonization management aimed at increasing corporate value, as well as to promote initiatives that contribute to the realization of carbon neutrality on a global scale.

Rimm Sustainability Pte Ltd. / CEO Ravi Chidambaram

We are pleased to have signed an MOU with Zeroboard, a leader in decarbonization in Japan, for a business alliance. We are confident that the combination of Rimm’s rating systems in all ESG areas and the Zeroboard’s capabilities will help more companies in their sustainability efforts. We will also support the company’s overseas expansion by providing our accumulated data and knowledge.

Rimm Japan / Chairman of the Board Masashi Yamashita

We welcome the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for business cooperation with Zero Board. ESG initiatives, including decarbonization management, are an urgent issue in Japan. By organically combining the functions of Zero Board with those of myCSO, we believe we can assist companies at all levels in their sustainability management.

Read the Japanese press release here.

About Rimm Sustainability

myCSO is an accessible, end-to-end suite of sustainability solutions to address the sustainability needs of companies, as a Chief Sustainability Officer would. Developed by Rimm (Real Impact Matters Most) it helps small businesses measure, record, implement and assess actions which aid the delivery of greener business operations. The company leverages science, technology and data to make sustainability accessible and actionable for all, providing SMEs with the tools to advance on their sustainability journey.

Founded in 2020, Rimm is a SaaS company offering full sustainability management solutions to SMEs. The team is made up of sustainability, tech, ESG and data science professionals across three offices in London, Singapore and Tokyo.

For further information, please visit https://www.rimm.io/

Join us in celebrating and recognizing the achievements of women and explore how they are leading the charge towards a more sustainable future!

Happy International Women’s Day! This year, the theme is “Embrace Equity,” highlighting equity as a must-have in today’s society.

Women are taking the traditionally male-dominated tech and sustainability industries by storm, and studies have shown that companies with greater gender diversity at the top perform better financially and are more likely to prioritize sustainability in their operations. We also find many women at the forefront of social impact initiatives, whether it’s through philanthropy, community organizing or social entrepreneurship.

Gender equality and diversity and inclusion (D&I) have become crucial performance indicators in almost all forms of ESG assessments and reports because, after all, ESG is not just about the E. There is a growing consensus among investors, regulators, policymakers and corporations in favor of greater representation of women in leadership, gender-balanced workforces, and equal opportunity and empowerment for women.

By prioritizing gender-inclusive data and reporting, we stand to gain a more comprehensive understanding of sustainability and ESG issues and develop more effective solutions. Through a data-driven approach, organizations can identify risk areas and industry benchmarks for D&I so that they may take appropriate action as quickly as possible.

At Rimm, we commit to having gender-balanced teams and creating an inclusive and supportive work environment where all our employees can thrive. We recognize that gender equality is not just a moral imperative, but also a business imperative, and we strive to promote gender diversity and inclusion in everything we do. Hear from our team, below, as they share what embracing equity in the workplace means to them.

This International Women’s Day, we reaffirm our commitment to promoting gender equality and empowering women in pursuit of sustainability. We recognize that our work is not complete until all women are able to participate fully in creating a more just and sustainable world, and we pledge to continue working towards that vision.

To see how your company compares to its peers when it comes to D&I, you can complete a short assessment on myCSO.

Click here to learn more about myCSO.

Confused about which ESG issues matter the most for your business? Use a materiality map to identify the material issues you should address first.

Carbon emissions, stakeholder engagement, product safety, data security, occupational health and safety, human rights, ethical governance… The list of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues to report on and track your business’s performance is endless. Knowing where to focus is key, and that’s where materiality comes in handy.

What is materiality?

Materiality refers to the relevance or importance of an ESG issue to your company. In simple terms, it means to identify the issues that matter the most to your business and stakeholders. 

According to the Global Reporting Initiative, material topics are “topics that represent the organization’s most significant impacts on the economy, environment, and people, including impacts on their human rights.”

In reality, not all ESG issues carry the same importance across industries, and not all ESG metrics may be relevant for your organization. Understanding materiality will help your organization conduct ESG assessments and reporting in an efficient and effective way. It can guide your ESG reporting processes, help you devise your sustainability strategies on key areas your business needs to prioritize and improve your engagement with stakeholders.

One way to quickly identify the material topics for your business is through a materiality map.

What is a materiality map?

An ESG materiality map is a visual representation of the most significant ESG issues faced by your organization. It is generated through a process that involves analyzing company data, benchmarking against peers and industry best practices, and engaging with stakeholders to understand their perspectives on relevant ESG topics.

By identifying the topics that have the highest potential to impact your financial performance, reputation and long-term sustainability, materiality maps can help your organization strategically plan its business operations. Insights gleaned from a materiality map can better inform decision-making around resource allocation and goal-setting, as well as position you to perform better in ESG.

How do I interpret a materiality map?

Materiality maps come in different shapes and sizes, but each one has two key components in common: a set of material issues and their relative materiality. Determinants of materiality can differ map to map, so keep a lookout for what methodology a map is using to determine the material issues.

Here’s an example below of a materiality map that shows a set of ESG topics ranked from highest to lowest materiality. The vertical axis represents the frequency of topics mentioned in mainstream media, and the horizontal axis indicates the frequency of topics mentioned by industry peers in their publicly disclosed sustainability and annual reports. The size of the bubble indicates the frequency of topics flagged as material across various global sustainability standards, such as GRI, SASB and MSCI. Hence, larger bubbles in the top-right show topics that are highly material based on industry and media data, and come up frequently in global sustainability standards.

Materiality maps are a crucial part of ESG and sustainability reporting. Once you have identified your organization’s material topics, you can focus on directing your resources towards understanding the key ESG risks and opportunities your organization faces and work towards improving your performance.

Want to find out more about the material topics to your organization?

Generate your own materiality map in just a few clicks with myCSO!