Singapore-based fintech firm Hashstacs (STACS) has launched ESGpedia, a registry platform which will power the ESG Registry of the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Project Greenprint.

The blockchain-based platform aims to improve sustainability data quality to support more effective sustainable finance. The MAS’s Greenprint ESG Registry is one of the four digital utility platforms under Project Greenprint.

Darian McBain, MAS chief sustainability officer, says the data housed in the Greenprint ESG Registry will form “a central pillar” that underpins the financial sector’s effective mobilization of capital towards sustainable projects. The MAS hopes the registry will help in the accurate tracking and quantification of emission reductions, abatement levels, and other sustainability KPIs linked to sustainability projects.

McBain says the launch of ESGpedia “establishes a robust base for powering the Greenprint ESG Registry” since financial institutions, corporates, and regulators will be able to access reliable data via a single source in accordance with their needs.

ESGpedia will aggregate, record, and maintain the provenance of holistic and forward-looking ESG certifications and data of companies “across various sectors and global verified sources on a single registry, utilizing blockchain technology to ensure security and ease of access by different users”.

The registry platform has ready modules and application programming interfaces (APIs) for integration, with a free tier to encourage industry adoption. It currently hosts 168,100 certificates, covering 60,552 companies and 110,500 assets.

Benjamin Soh, STACS managing director, says there is a “profound disconnect” between the ESG data that financial institutions and companies need, and what is available to them.

The ESGpedia platform hopes level the playing field, especially for small and medium-scale businesses without a dedicated ESG team, which are often hindered by expensive certifications and the highly manual processes and fragmented information for most certifications.

“ESGpedia aggregates all ESG efforts, bridging the gap in ESG data and finance where there is no other such platform today,” Soh says. It provides “holistic and forward-looking” data on projects as well as ESG certifications on a common, standardized registry.

STACS says it is keen to work with global partners in different industries and sectors to enable effective sustainable finance on an international scale. ESGpedia serves financial institutions, including banks, asset managers, investors, insurers, and exchanges, as well as non-financial institutions like corporates, service providers, and verifiers.