The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the central bank and financial regulator of Singapore, and Singapore Exchange (SGX Group) announced today the launch of ESGenome, a new ESG disclosure platform aimed at simplifying the environmental, social and governance reporting process for companies, and providing investors with access to consistent and comparable corporate sustainability data.

The launch follows the announcement by MAS in November 2021 of plans to develop a series of sustainability data-focused platforms under Project Greenprint, its initiative aimed at helping to mobilize capital for green and sustainable finance by harnessing technology and data and create a more transparent, trusted and efficient ESG ecosystem.

According to MAS, the new ESG disclosure platform comes as a proliferation of sustainability reporting frameworks and standards worldwide and inconsistent data collection methods have created significant disclosure challenges for companies and poor ESG data comparability.

Dr Darian McBain, Chief Sustainability Officer, MAS, said:

“High quality sustainability data is critical for better decision making by corporates and financial institutions as they look to deliver against the UN SDG 2030 goals and their net zero transition pathways. Technology is an important enabler for the efficient, timely and accurate reporting of this data against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving global disclosure landscape.”

ESGenome will be operated by UK-based ESG solution provider World Wide Generation (WWG), as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution. The platform will enable SGX-listed companies to carry out sustainability reporting based on a set of 27 SGX core ESG metrics, along with additional disclosures in line with globally recognized ESG reporting standards and frameworks. Companies will need to provide only a one-time input for each metric, with the platform then automatically mapping inputs across selected standards and frameworks, and enabling a sustainability report to be automatically generated from the inputs.

Michael Syn, Senior Managing Director and Head of Equities, SGX Group, said:

“ESGenome is designed to capture corporate sustainability disclosures in a simple and effective manner useful to investors and the broader capital market ecosystem. We are optimistic that by being frontrunners in ESG data disclosure via ESGenome, our listed companies will be in a better position to raise capital and attract international investors who are actively looking for leading ESG firms.”

In addition to the ESG disclosure portal, MAS aims to launch a “Greenprint Data Orchestrator,” to aggregate ESG data from different sectoral platforms and trusted data sources, “Greenprint ESG Registry,” to record and maintain ESG certifications on a distributed ledger, and “Greenprint Marketplace,” to connect green technology providers with investors and corporates.