The data complexities in sustainability analyses have traditionally poised significant challenges; the underlying information is often dispersed, locked within silos, and notoriously difficult to obtain, collate and interpret.

The industry has therefore faced a dilemma. Invest resource into building internal processes and systems to obtain and analyse data; or spend money with external data providers, where often that data does not seamlessly fit with existing processes and where the underlying methodologies can be proprietary (and therefore difficult to interpret and use to form decisions).

At Canbury, we believe that the application of latest technologies offers a third solution together the best of both of the existing approaches – one that: i) provides comprehensive, transparent data; together with ii) streamlined and efficient operational and disclosure processes that free up the teams’ bandwidfth to focus on implementation and engagement.

First, the data itself – these technologies can scour vast quantities of data deeply and quickly; getting the data you need directly from the companies and NGOs that created it and enabling users to go deeper on themes and topics.

Secondly, there are numerous operational benefits – creating streamlined data collection, validation and integration processes. This not only reduces time spent, but also minimises the errors that can arise from manual data wrangling.

And with disclosure, latest technologies offer novel solutions for data presentation and reporting – modern visualisation tools enable users to present data in interactive, and impactful ways to communicate with stakeholders.