Putting the ‘E’ in ESG: Companies Who are Making an Impact

On Earth Day and every day, organizations around the world are advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.”  These goals—which include taking urgent climate action and racing to net zero emissions—are informing Georgian’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investment strategy as well as the sustainability and social impact programs across our community. 

In honor of Earth Day on April 22, here’s a look at how companies in the Georgian family are aligning with the SDGs and putting the ‘E’ in ESG—by reducing energy use, promoting natural resource conservation, and strengthening the green energy industry. 

Cority

Looking for an environmental leader? Look no further than Cority. Cority provides software to help companies mitigate their Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) impact.

The company’s SaaS platform provides clients with a 360° view of their sustainability programs. From creating and tracking sustainability objectives and targets to collecting data from across the entire organization, Cority makes it easy for sustainability managers and their teams to break down silos and work collaboratively with colleagues across their organization. And with ESG reporting increasing in importance, Cority’s unified solution helps organizations ensure their data is accurate, auditable, and telling the same story in every sustainability report, regulatory report, and ESG disclosure. 

For the fourth consecutive year, Cority has been named a Leader in the 2021 Green Quadrant for EHS Software by independent research firm Verdantix. In its report, Vendantix noted Cority’s strengths in environmental management solutions with “robust capabilities for firms seeking to build a solid foundation for environmental compliance information management.” Cority achieved among the highest scores for its robust functionality in air emissions compliance management, greenhouse gas emissions management, waste management, and chemicals management.

“Earth Day is an important day for us at Cority,” said Stephen Molen, Chief Revenue Officer, Cority. “It’s a reminder that we must all work together to minimize our environmental impacts; make profound, positive change; and empower better outcomes for people, their livelihood, and the world we all share.” 

Fiix

“There is no silver bullet to solving climate change,” says Katie Allen, Fiix’s Sustainability and Social Impact Manager. “It is going to take innovation and optimization at every level and component of the business.” 

As a certified B Corp, Fiix focuses on creating a more sustainable world and reports on a triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit. The company has aligned its sustainability and social impact program to the SDGs, as outlined in its Sustainability and Social Impact Report, all with the goal of making the planet a better place for future generations. 

As Katie explains, “We used a five-step approach to refine our initiatives and measures, as outlined by Green Economy Canada.” In brief, they are:

1. Understand what the SDGs are and what the targets entail
2. Prioritize the goals that fit to the business 
3. Set KPIs
4. Set targets and integrate initiatives 
5. Publicize and report

As a result of its efforts, Fiix has: 

• Saved customers over 100 tons of paper by digitizing their work orders
• Diverted 71% of waste generated from landfill
• Collected additional waste streams at head office, including organics, foil packaging, e-waste, batteries, and ink cartridges
• Offset 490 tons of CO2e through carbon sequestration projects
• Conserved 25,000 sq meters of land through rare Charitable Research Reserve 
• Contributed $50,000 to rare Charitable Research Reserve for land conservation

Bidgely

Hundreds of US and Canadian cities, states and provinces have already adopted 100% renewable energy goals, and utilities are uniquely positioned to take a leadership role in realizing these ambitious targets and making zero carbon the new standard. That’s where Bidgely comes in. 

“Our mission is to accelerate a clean energy future,” says Abhay Gupta, Bidgely’s CEO. “Every day, Bidgely is partnering with future-ready utilities and energy retailers to leverage data-driven customer intelligence to guide smarter energy decisions; harness business intelligence to yield maximum returns from efficiency, electrification and renewable energy programs; and put grid intelligence to work to build the smart infrastructure we need to move us closer to a resilient, carbon-neutral world by 2050.”

According to its website, Bidgely’s flagship product is a residential energy load disaggregation solution that enables utilities and consumers to make data-driven energy decisions. The Bidgely solution extracts energy signatures that are unique to the major appliances in every household and tracks the energy used by each, which can be further analyzed to identify and eliminate inefficiencies. 

With its solutions, Bidgely is helping utilities and consumers achieve their cleaner and greener energy goals in six important ways:

1. Deploying renewables at a faster pace: By enabling utilities to quickly target and connect with customers who have the greatest interest in generating, storing and using their own renewable energy.
2. Electrifying transport: By identifying customers with the higher propensity to use electric vehicles and providing them with relevant energy insights and return on investment information. 
3. Improving energy efficiency: By offering practical, simple and personally relevant steps consumers can take to lower their carbon footprint and energy costs.
4. Promoting demand side management: By predicting load patterns and tailoring responses to increase consumer peak demand savings.
5. Encouraging smart homes:  By identifying homes that are not currently using smart devices and offering clean energy products and services.
6. Adopting digital-first strategies: By ending deforestation and paper waste with personalized, digital customer engagement reports. 

Sentient Science

Sentient Science is also accelerating the global principles of sustainable development and green energy. As a Quality, Health, Safety, and Environment (QHSE) leader, the company has showcased its ability to extend the life of wind turbines as a way to lower the cost of wind energy. It does this by creating digital clones of each wind turbine model—enabling it to predict the risk of current and future failure of the main components and their expected working life, based on operational data provided by the wind power operator.

Over the last five years, through partnerships with several of the top 10 wind operators around the world, Sentient has discovered a substantial difference between physical testing qualification results and the actual life of field components. This discrepancy in failure rates has resulted in costly repairs and unplanned downtime in the field that impact the profitability of wind farms.

“The company’s entire corporate mission is to lower the cost to operate industrial equipment through a digitalization platform that improves sustainability and reliability,” explains CEO Stéphane Attal. “By extending the useful life of wind turbines, we’re doing our part to deliver clean and more efficient energy and reduce the world’s dependence on fossil fuels.” 

This article first appeared on The Growth Network, a private community, designed to give Georgian companies the insight, information and collaborative opportunities they need to accelerate business success.

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