Perseus: unlocking sustainable finance with assurable smart data

2025 report

Read about the progress of Perseus in 2025 and the plans for 2026.

“The Net Zero Council welcomes innovative programmes such as Perseus that help simplify and automate emissions reporting and unlock access to finance for SMEs” 

UK Net Zero Council (gov.uk/government/groups/net-zero-council)

2024 reports

Read reports and supporting documentation to learn about the foundations of the programme.

“We are participating in the pilot to demonstrate use cases of Perseus in Green investment, using Perseus derived emissions data in our due diligence for green business loans. We think that Perseus is a feasible market solution to scale assurable SME carbon accounting and disclosures. It can help to reduce business burden and drive down costs for SMEs, while providing assurance of data sources for lenders, thereby supporting SMEs to access the finance they need to help deliver Net Zero.” 
Matthew Kelly, Sustainability Manager, Development Bank of Wales

Vision
Perseus will help unlock access to finance that reduces emissions faster by automating sustainability reporting for every SME business in the UK. Perseus will make it easy to share accurate, assurable data that sits behind emissions calculations to enable better analysis, action and impact.

The challenge

There are more than 5.5 million Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the UK, accounting for around half of the country’s business greenhouse gas emissions. However, there is no common process to follow when reporting emissions, and many reports are based on inaccurate estimates. SMEs’ stakeholders like banks and corporate customers are therefore receiving low-quality data that is not comparable or actionable. Emissions reporting is currently a burdensome process for SMEs that prevents them from focusing on their core business.

The solution

Perseus enables automated emissions reporting for every SME in the UK, so that we can get to Net Zero faster. It creates the rules and processes that make automated reporting possible. These rules will enable products and services such as accounting platforms, emissions calculators, and reporting software to deliver higher-quality emissions data at scale. This will inform investment decisions, enable targeted decarbonisation interventions, reduce reporting burdens and unlock green finance. Bankers for Net Zero (B4NZ) and Icebreaker One are convening a cross-sector coalition to collaboratively shape the future of emissions reporting, ensuring that a wide range of stakeholder needs are met.

Leadership & governance

Perseus has convened an outstanding constellation of stakeholders to co-design and implement the solution (more detail at https://ib1.org/perseus/governance).

Steering Group (government, national and supranational non-profits)

Commercial Members (lead Advisory and Working Groups to shape implementation)

Next steps

Please contact perseus@ib1.org to discuss anything.

2025 links

Archive links

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