The main issue Lips Da Cruz observed when she started her venture, was the lack of reliable data to enable sound decision making, particularly in the ‘S’ and ‘G’ dimensions. The scarcity of ESG measurements was especially striking when confronted with the abundance of metrics available for the analysis of ‘F’. Accounting standards were developed and refined over decades to provide investors with reliable measures of cash and profitability. After the implementation of IFRS, comparability between geographies also became possible.
“I couldn’t stay on the sidelines watching,” says Lips Da Cruz. “During my years in risk management, I looked mainly at the ‘F’, but I wanted to look at the risk in the other dimensions too. What risk do we incur if we don’t reach the targets set by the Paris agreement? We know that a risk exists if we don’t change, but how can we quantify it? I needed to find a scientific method to get there.”