Mission

Our mission is to make data work harder to deliver our Net Zero Future.

Our vision is to empower decision-makers to mandate, measure and act upon data flows that deliver net-zero.

Our target is to influence net zero investment decisions of $3.6T/year by 2030.

“Icebreaker One is one of the top 20 agents of change in the path towards a digital ecosystem for sustainability” – David Jensen, UN Digital Ecosystem for the Planet, United Nations Environment Programme

Imagine a decision-maker could mandate net zero, continuously measure progress and act to adapt incentives in a timely, credible manner.

We are creating a web of net-zero data – connecting assurable financial economy, real economy and environmental data to help inform net-zero decisions. As much of this data is restricted, we are enabling that web by creating policies and rails that ensure data is comparable, machine-readable and trusted. We connect rather than collect data. We focus on collaboration, culture and data governance implementation.

Unlock assurable data discovery, access and use through robust, collaborative governance:
1. Icebreaking: continuous design of the pre-competitive rules of the game
2. Trust Frameworks: continuous implementation of those rules to support markets

We work across the private and public sectors. To learn more see https://ib1.org/what-we-do

Who are we?

Icebreaker One is an independent, non-partisan non-profit with global reach. It aims to influence investment decisions of $3.6T/year to deliver demonstrable net-zero by 2030. It convenes organisations to understand how best to use data as a continuous flow of evidence that informs action. It helps instrument net-zero by connecting policy, strategy, risk management and investment in the financial economy to real economy data. This enables climate-ready financial instruments, climate-aware risk management and climate-credible deployment of robust, long-term solutions

According to the UN, “sector-specific data from companies in the real economy remains insufficient, unreliable, incomparable, or non-existent. As a result, investors are not able to fully steer investment portfolios in line with sector decarbonisation pathways or to set science-based targets at the sector level.”. This is the tip of the data iceberg.

Our Theory of Change (UK-focus in the image above) illustrates how we develop our work.

Our central hypotheses include:

Improving access to data helps businesses and the public sector innovate.
Working with industry and government to develop Open Standards will unlock open access to shared data.
Improved access to data is essential to country-level transitions and to deliver a green industrial revolution.
This is a proven blueprint: with Treasury backing, Open Banking opened up secure access to shared financial data. It has since transformed the fintech sector, creating tens of billions of pounds in value.
The public sector and regulators can work together with industry to deliver the funding, regulatory change, and convening needed to improve access to data.

Benefits & Outcomes

Address the business models, legal and policy of data sharing
(e.g. rights, licensing, security, liability, regulation)
Improve the provision, reliability and trust of data publishing and usage
Develop & share the required expertise and change in knowledge, practice and culture
Develop policy frameworks that address climate-specific interventions across the financial ecosystem
Unlock the data ecosystem across global sensors, satellites, internet of things (IoT), geospatial, asset registries, risk reporting, trading schemes and financial instruments
Enable data discovery (e.g. data search) at web-scale: lay the foundations for the web of net-zero data

Outputs & activities — how do we help instrument net-zero

We convene multi-disciplinary experts, teams and organisations across the public, private and scientific communities to develop:

Open standards
Frameworks for robust and secure data sharing across environmental & financial data: principles and practice, Code(s) of Practice, voluntary standards, regulated Standards.
Solutions for trusted net-zero data sharing
Open services for net-zero data discovery, access and usage: OpenNetZero.org and Trust Frameworks.
Research and evidence
Use cases, reports, business models, economic modelling, policies and guidance.
Communication
Reporting on the evidence of innovation and the impact of activities. In public, trade and expert forums.
Events
Connecting expertise across siloes
Collaborative practices
Working groups (large and small; in-person and online)