NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Accenture (NYSE: ACN) is bolstering its sustainability services and analytics capabilities with a strategic investment from Accenture Ventures in Arabesque S-Ray GmbH, a leading global provider of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data and insights.
Research from Accenture Strategy and United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) found that over three-quarters (76%) of global CEOs say citizen trust will be critical to business competitiveness in their industry in the next five years, and two-thirds see technology as the single most critical accelerator of the socio-economic impact of their companies to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. To accomplish this, leaders must be able to confidently look beyond traditional measures or trends, and better understand how non-financial metrics, like ESG criteria, can drive real change and create value for all their stakeholders — from investors and customers to their people and communities they serve.
“Sustainability transformation must be both technology-driven and linked to value to be successful. Creating shareholder value, while also tackling some of the world’s greatest challenges, requires rewiring the global economy with new levels of data, insights and action,” said Peter Lacy, chief responsibility officer and global Sustainability Services lead at Accenture. “We are pleased to expand our relationship with Arabesque S-Ray to help our clients lead with better decision making, more informed investment prioritization, and accelerated realization of overall business value from their sustainability efforts, goals and ambitions.”
Under the agreement, Accenture will have full access to Arabesque S-Ray solutions and analysis of transparent, non-financial and sustainability performance metrics to enhance its existing and highly differentiated sustainability capabilities. Using big data and machine learning models, Arabesque S-Ray capabilities draw on more than four million ESG data points daily from over 30,000 sources to drive key insights for Accenture clients seeking to accelerate their journey to make responsibility and sustainability a competitive advantage.
Accenture has previously leveraged Arabesque S-Ray data and analytics to offer clients insights that help them both serve society and manage environmental impact in their communities, while also achieving better financial performance and growth. As an example, for The Bottom Line on Trust — a first of its kind analysis of more than 7,000 companies around the world operating across 20 industries — Accenture Strategy used S-Ray data to co-develop a proprietary “trust score” to prove that trust is a critical component of competitiveness, as important as growth and profitability.
Through the agreement, Accenture will further enable Arabesque S-Ray by supporting its data and processing capabilities. Together, the companies will also develop new tools and methods for capturing, analyzing and reporting ESG data.
“The demand for access to and analysis of ESG data has only been increasing. We’re excited to expand our working relationship with Accenture, and to offer more companies around the world the ability to gain insights into their sustainability efforts and drive real success together,” said Dr. Daniel Klier, incoming CEO of Arabesque S-Ray.
Arabesque S-Ray is the latest addition to the investment portfolio of Accenture Ventures, which is focused on investing in companies that create or apply disruptive enterprise technologies. This investment reinforces Accenture’s ongoing focus on sustainability and reducing its own environmental impact, including: setting industry-leading net-zero, waste and water goals, signing the UN Global Compact’s Business Ambition for 1.5° Pledge, reducing its emissions in line with its existing science-based target and committing to RE100’s global initiative to use 100% renewable electricity by 2023.
About Accenture
Accenture is a global professional services company with leading capabilities in digital, cloud and security. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries, we offer Strategy and Consulting, Interactive, Technology and Operations services — all powered by the world’s largest network of Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations centers. Our 514,000 people deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity every day, serving clients in more than 120 countries. We embrace the power of change to create value and shared success for our clients, people, shareholders, partners and communities. Visit us at www.accenture.com.
About Arabesque S-Ray GmbH
Arabesque S-Ray is a leading provider of sustainability data, advisory and insights services, with a quantitative algorithmic approach that combines big data and ESG metrics to assess the performance of over 8,000 companies worldwide. S-Ray’s self-learning technology systematically combines over 200 ESG metrics with news signals from over 30,000 sources across 170 countries. It is the first tool of its kind to rate companies on the normative principles of the United Nations Global Compact (GC Score). Additionally, S-Ray provides an industry-specific assessment of companies' performance on financially material sustainability criteria (ESG Score), together with an assessment of how companies report their emissions (Temperature™ Score). These scores are combined with a preferences filter that assesses a company's business involvements. S-Ray daily data products and services are used by some of the world's leading financial institutions, investors, corporations and consultants. www.arabesque.com