SINGAPORE - Singapore’s efforts to build a green ecosystem underpinned by clean and clear data has moved along further with a new integrated digital platform.

The new platform, Gprnt.ai, aims to unify and synergise the existing pilots under Project Greenprint to support Singapore’s sustainability reporting and data needs.

Launched in December 2020 by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Project Greenprint is meant to be a baseline for how companies report environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) data.

Driven by a new entity called Greenprint Technologies, the platform will go live in the first quarter of 2024 and scale up progressively.

Greenprint Technologies will be supported by the MAS, together with HSBC, KPMG, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Microsoft.

“Data collection processes are manual and tedious, verification is costly, and the ESG reporting landscape is fragmented,” said MAS chief Ravi Menon at the Singapore Fintech Festival conference on Thursday. “Project Greenprint sought to bridge these gaps by piloting digital utilities to streamline the collection, access and use of ESG data.”

Mr Menon said that under the new platform, a simplified ESG reporting tool that focuses on the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises has been created.

The tool will automate the ESG reporting process, making it easier for large and small firms to do so.

Those which report their ESG data can choose if they want to release the information from digital systems they use daily. These include utility meters, business accounting and payroll solutions, and building and waste management systems.

For Singapore users, Mr Menon said trusted data maintained by government agencies is also retrievable through the MyInfo business platform.

Project Greenprint will organise all the data and then return it to the reporting entities.

Where source data is unavailable, Mr Menon said they will try to use artificial intelligence tools to allow users to upload documents and extract key data.

For example, a Microsoft GPT4-powered chatbot will help bridge data gaps and craft appropriate sustainability narratives based on the data.

“Beyond Singapore, Greenprint will also look to partner and collect data from countries and sectors where our financial institutions have pressing needs, to better support their climate risk management and net-zero transition efforts,” Mr Menon said.

He added that the project will onboard more partners shortly and grow the platform regionally and globally.