AI-powered tool set to revolutionise ESG assessments

Female-founder launches tech solution to save millions of hours on ESG research

Each year, environmental and social specialists spend millions of hours on critical research to assess the risks and impacts of development projects around the world. While this work is essential to meet sustainability related financing requirements, the reality is a large proportion of experts’ time is spent gathering huge amounts of historic data, regional statistics, policy documents, local legislation and other information, before they are even able to apply their professional analysis and judgement.

Improving ESG assessments

Now, a new AI-powered solution is set to revolutionise the way E&S experts work, potentially saving thousands of hours, improving accuracy and empowering experts to add value more efficiently.

myESRA™ is the world’s first automated research assistant that puts the industry’s most comprehensive environmental and social specific knowledge base at the fingertips of E&S experts. myESRA™’s knowledge base gathers all historic project documents disclosed by development banks, regional and national statistics, lender policies and local legislation from hundreds of different sources with weekly updates.

A full environmental and social impact assessment for a high-risk project can cost up to US$500,000. The biggest cost item within the project is collection of primary and secondary data – repetitive, manual tasks that typically take hours. myESRA™ can not only find secondary data in seconds, but also provides citation and reference to the original document or source.

myESRA™ is the brainchild of world leading social development specialist Ildiko Almasi Simsic. After spending 15 years working on ESG projects for the likes of the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Environment Programme, she has experienced first-hand the frustrations and inefficiencies that are impeding progress in companies ESG efforts around the world.

Speaking about the launch of myESRA™, Ildiko Almasi Simic said: “Environmental and social risk assessments are crucial, not only for organisations, but also the communities and habitats they impact, so it seems crazy they are still so reliant on manual, time-consuming processes. I realized the industry was ready for a technology-driven transformation, so I set about developing a customized solution that uses AI technologies to free up professionals to add real value through their expert insights and analysis.”

myESRA™ is available now from its parent company, E&S Solutions. For further information go to http://essolutions.ai/

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