The questions we get asked most frequently include:
Q: What is your mission?
A: Icebreaker One connects organisations to Unlock data flow that delivers net zero impact. Based on the principles that we can’t manage what we don’t measure and we can’t act on what we don’t trust, we help connect assurable real economy data with the financial economy, to enable decision-makers to trust their investments in our Net Zero Future. For more information, please see our Mission page.
Q: Are we building a database or an app?
A: No. This is about creating the processes that enable data sharing that are compliant, legal, and can scale for many users and applications. It is additive to existing calculators and database initiatives and will help them work more efficiently and robustly.
Q: How does IB1’s work relate to initiatives such as the Net Zero Data Public Utility (NZDPU), EU’s ESAP, XBRL, GHG accounting frameworks, and the rest of the ecosystem?
A: Everything we are doing provides additionality to initiatives and does not duplicate work. Our work is already listed in the NZDPU’s White Paper as a potential part of the ecosystem solution. We are also working with XBRL through our ESG work, and others in unlocking verifiable and assurable data flow. We focus on how to implement existing recommendations and emerging standards by providing automated access to trusted/assurable data.
Q: What are lessons learned from Open Banking, national and international data strategies?
A1: We are building on what works. Open Banking is in over 80 countries (including being regulated in the UK). It enables the secure and trusted sharing of information between organisations, with the consent of customers/users. We have copied this model to develop Open Energy and are working to replicate the model across industrial sectors (e.g. water) and net zero finance.
A2: Our work is completely aligned with the public good. For example, we are a member of the UK Government’s Smart Data Council which has specific roles in helping to apply the ‘principles and framework’ of Open Banking across the economy (from finance to energy to retail). We are a core member of the Future of Sustainable Data Alliance and many other initiatives.
Q: How are we funded?
A: We have based our funding model on what works. We have built on the UK ‘Open Banking Implementation Entity’ and the Open Data Institute (our teams helped to create each of those initiatives). Our model combines commercial membership fees, research grants and philanthropic funding.
Q: How are funds used?
A: Funds are used to pay for people, including leadership, development, domain experts, project managers, operations and partner, membership & community managers. Funds are also used for third-party services (e.g. SaaS services such as email, accounting, hosting, etc). We have no physical offices at this time to maximise the use of funds on delivery. A breakdown of a typical year is below:
