Perseus: Media Pack
Perseus Media Pack 2026
Talking points:
- Perseus has the potential to unlock a £5–10bn opportunity in embedded sustainable finance.
- Perseus, led by Icebreaker One, is a market-led, cross-sector Smart Data Scheme enabling trusted, permissioned flows of SME energy and emissions data between the energy and finance sectors.
- Perseus removes the cost, risk, and fragmentation that currently limits sustainable finance by providing the shared rules, governance, and trust infrastructure needed for secure, permissioned emissions data sharing across the market.
- Perseus is infrastructure not a product, rather than building another platform or siloed dataset, Perseus enables energy, accounting, and finance providers to exchange reliable, interoperable sustainability data at scale, helping move sustainable finance from niche “green” products toward embedded finance integrated into the wider economy.
- Perseus has expanded to include gas data, extending energy coverage from Scope 2 (electricity) to Scope 1
- Now estimated, via its existing members, to have potential reach of over 1 million UK SMEs and cover over 70% of use cases
Perseus and the UK Smart Data Strategy
Perseus is referenced in the UK Government’s Smart Data Strategy, published by the Department for Business and Trade, which sets out ambitions for:
- Twenty interoperable Smart Data schemes by 2035
- £36m of Industrial Strategy investment
- Cross-sector Trust Frameworks and interoperable data sharing infrastructure
Perseus is highlighted in the Strategy as a flagship voluntary, industry-led initiative:
“Project Perseus is a voluntary industry-led smart data initiative that enables the use case of leveraging SMEs’ smart meter data to inform lending decisions by banks.”
Full interview with Siobhan Dennehy, DBT here: https://ib1.org/2026/04/21/connect-dont-collect-the-uk-smart-data-strategy-perseus/
Available Visual Assets
Perseus 2025 slide pack
These slides are for you to use inside your organisation to communicate Perseus, helping you to secure internal understanding, excitement and buy-in.
They cover:
- Goals and ultimate vision
- Value of Perseus for different actors
- The case for being involved early
- Who else is involved
- How the value chain works
- Pilot progress
Feel free to use them as they are, make a copy and adapt/delete slides for your audience, or put the content into your own template:
Link to download PPT. file:
Talking points
“Imagine a small logistics business that wants to install solar panels.
Today, it’s likely to find it surprisingly hard to access green finance to help – and it’s already drowning in requests for information and compliance.
With Perseus, the business’s bank will have access to assurable data about the day-to-day energy the business uses. It feeds into the bank’s due diligence process to make sure the SME qualifies for a green loan – and lowers the risk of granting it.
In the short-term, it just takes one click for the SME to share data with a carbon accounting application and their bank – meaning a faster, easier loan process so it can install the solar panels sooner.
In the long-term, this will give lenders the confidence to lend more – meaning that small logistics business will have a bigger, better range of green finance to choose from for their next upgrade.”
- Perseus enables automated sustainability reporting for every small business in the UK, so that we can reduce emissions faster. We’re making it easy to share accurate, assurable data that sits behind emissions calculations.
- Small businesses are responsible for about half of UK business emissions
- Perseus creates the rules and processes that make automated reporting possible, making it easier to implement reporting standards.
- In turn, these rules will enable a host of other products and services, like emissions calculators, databases and reporting software. It will improve the quality and durability of the data they need and use
- For small and medium-sized businesses, this eases the challenge of finding and sharing the reliable data they need to calculate their own emissions and comply with complex reporting requirements.
- 69% of SMEs don’t know how to report carbon emissions
- That’s why in its first phase, Perseus will automate access to assurable energy data for business customers. They’ll be able to see the emissions from their energy use and share it with their bank, via reporting solutions, to unlock green finance. This is more accurate than analysing emissions based on spend
- We need to make it easy for SMEs, who don’t have the resources, time or budgets to engage in this kind of complexity, and are sceptical of how their data might be used. Perseus addresses automating the process & bringing protections to the use of data.
- Electricity is the first step. The next stage of Perseus development will cover gas – meaning Perseus will cover the material part of Scope 1 emissions as well as Scope 2. Future phases will include water and beyond as determined by and for its commercial members
- It will unlock more green finance by helping banks accurately understand the emissions of their customers and on their lending books.
- Our collective ambition is to help make all lending green: where all loans are measurable, have a carbon value, and have personalised recommendations for interventions
- Because these rules will be used across the banking sector, carbon accounting applications and small businesses, a wide range of organisations are working together to create them.
- Perseus is a non-profit project that brings together trade associations, regulators, government, standards bodies, small businesses, corporates and banks
- They are working together on a pre-competitive basis – working side-by-side to solve a shared problem, and unlocking long-term advantage for their organisation
- Perseus has been endorsed by the (2023) Minister for Energy Security and Net Zero and is included in the UK’s Green Finance Strategy.
6. Being part of Perseus now unlocks real advantage through collaboration
- Organisations are either at the table as Perseus is designed – or they are inheriting decisions. Perseus develops use cases to design data-sharing architecture – so sharing your needs now means it can be designed around them, rather than your competitors.
- Collaborating now helps organisations prepare to adapt to business models that engage in cross-sectoral data – so they can deliver better lending or carbon accounting products to SMEs
- It also makes sure your people are confident and comfortable with Perseus as it’s developed, so you prepare the ground and can be earlier to market
Perseus 2024 report
The Perseus 2024 report has been published. It summarises the progress made on Perseus this year, the key enabling innovations we have developed together, and next steps. How you can help:
- Share the report link on LinkedIn or email
- Share graphics on LinkedIn (see below)
- Share accompanying copy focusing on:
- Celebrating Perseus progress over the last two years
- Highlighting your individual/your organisation’s role in Perseus
- Encouraging your network to read the report
