2023 Is the Right Time for Investors to Upgrade Their ESG Information Systems
2023 is the right time for investors to upgrade their ESG information systems so that when ESG returns to the fore they are in a stronger position than the competition.
There is no denying that the world economy is going through a hard
patch. Many investors have eased their efforts on ESG, preferring to
focus on positioning themselves financially to take advantage of the
inevitable recovery. An aspect that many investors overlook, however,
is that they can also position themselves technologically to take
advantage of the inevitable re-emphasis of ESG in investment:
2023 is the right
time for investors to upgrade their ESG information systems so that
when ESG returns to the fore they are in a stronger position than the
competition.
Some investors may
ask, ‘Why should I spend on something that I’ll only need in the
future?’ The reason is twofold: One, an ESG information system best
suited for tomorrow’s complex, intense, and ever-evolving needs
takes time to develop and deploy. This involves not only a
conventional database and user consoles but also real-time big data
collection, processing, analysis, and representation; AI plays an
important role in governing and adapting these steps for your
evolving needs, while Web3 and Blockchain may be leveraged for data
verification and much more. At the same time, each investor has their
own logic, and the ESG information system adapted to their needs
should reflect that. Tuning all these is both science and art, and
sufficient time is needed for the system to evolve into an effective
one.
Two, to be able to
take full advantage of this type of ESG information systems takes
time for a user. It is a new skill set that must be grown over time.
Crucially, investors can feed back into the engineers of ESG
information systems so that the system, as mentioned before, adapt to
their logic.
For these reasons,
we believe that now is the best time to start investing in a scalable
ESG information system. We emphasize scalability because the
foundations of such system must reserve interfaces for future
features and needs that will arise, even if many remain unforeseen.
Precisely as many
investors shelf their ESG efforts and overlook investment in ESG
capabilities for the future, those who do invest sufficiently will
reap disproportionate benefits in the next economic cycle.
