At the Perseus 2025 AGM it was reported that Perseus is:

• evolving from ‘financing green’ to embedded sustainable finance creating a potential addressable market of £5-10 billion
• adding gas, extending energy coverage from Scope 2 (electricity) to Scope 1
• estimated, via its existing members, to have potential reach of over 1 million UK SMEs and cover over 70% of use cases
• continuing to advance ‘Perseus Ready’ implementations with commercial members
• running a live sandbox (equivalent to production) for use by Carbon Accounting Providers (CAPs) and Energy Data Providers (EDPs) to develop solutions
• working with Perseus members to develop go-to-market capabilities to support hundreds of thousands of SMEs
• exploring integration with Open Banking to enable cross-sector interoperability
• producing XBRL outputs to enable integration with financial reporting systems
• pioneering the development of a voluntary, cross-sector Smart Data scheme, aligned with the UK Data Act and supported by an openly-licensed digital public infrastructure (DPI) architecture for secure data sharing 

“Perseus makes it easier for everyone to do their carbon calculations properly, and comfortably moves us years ahead of the most stringent proposed updates to the GHG Protocol. This is exactly why Sage intends to roll out a Perseus enabled product to make reporting easier for hundreds of thousands of UK SMEs.”

George Sandilands, Vice President, Sage Earth

From financing green to embedded sustainable finance

For much of the last decade, ‘green finance’ has focused on funding individual projects: a retrofit here, a solar installation there. Important, but limited. 

Perseus marks a shift to something far more systemic: it moves beyond financing green to embedding sustainable finance by integrating trusted, verifiable emissions data directly into everyday accounting and financial decision-making.

This evolution means Perseus can be applied across the whole SME market, not just specialist green products. Rather than expecting SMEs to seek out solutions themselves – something most lack the time or expertise to do – Perseus brings trusted insights to where they are (e.g. inside their existing accounting, banking and carbon applications). 

Perseus can support lending, credit and debit products, and even savings accounts, allowing sustainability performance to be reflected wherever financial decisions are made. The impact on SMEs is significant: personalised insights, lower reporting costs, easier access to capital for energy-efficiency upgrades, and new space for financial innovation. By making sustainability data usable at scale, Perseus aims to help turn ‘net zero’ from a niche ambition into a normal feature of how the economy works.

“As a leading smart data initiative, Perseus is developing guardrails for assurable data to support finance and supply chain decisions towards a sustainable economy.”

Hannah Gilbert, Director of Sustainability, British Business Bank

with Rohan Graham, Head of Asset Data, National Grid and Jay Chen, Data Process Administrator, IT&D Data Engineering and Process, NGED

Data sharing is key for reaching our net zero targets; this is something IB1’s strategic partner National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) has long recognised. And, as the company looks to cement its position as a digital leader in the energy industry, IB1 remains a key component and catalyst in accelerating its digitalisation journey. 

We caught up with Rohan Graham from National Grid and Jay Chen from NGED, to discuss how interoperability across Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) is fundamental to unlocking the potential of open data in the energy sector.

Building trusted open data

Last year, NGED identified a need to improve how it publishes assured open data. While the DNO had already established an open data portal, it wanted to review both what it was publishing and how it was publishing it. This shift signalled a commitment to providing data that is trusted, consistent and usable across the sector. 

“Our goal is to contribute to the broader movement of publishing interoperable assured open data, explore genuine shared-data use cases, and understand how to make that data available securely through trust frameworks, while considering and aligning to the DSI under development.” Rohan Graham. 

Sector-wide collaboration

NGED sits within a much wider ecosystem of UK DNOs, all of which publish similar datasets. Because these datasets are used across the energy sector, (not just within each DNO’s own business) ensuring their interoperability is essential.

To achieve the level of interoperability required and to build sector-wide collaboration, harmonisation is essential. Once in place, the value of this interoperability is far-reaching: it strengthens trust, encourages the wider use of data across the sector and ultimately accelerates the entire sector’s digital maturity. 

“Over the next 3-5 years, we’ll see the increase of interoperability of data between organisations as well as the increasing use of flexibility services across multiple DNOs.” Jay Chen, NGED. 

Data Action

The Data (Use and Access) Act might also be a catalyst for positive change in the sector. Its focus on the roll-out of smart data schemes is a move in the right direction. But, whether this alone will galvanise the sector toward a more connected, net-zero future remains to be seen.

“It’s definitely a positive move. It’s set up some of the frameworks for how Open Energy can be pushed forward, but really, the Act alone won’t create immediate change. Specific to Open Energy, the real push comes from facilitation by Icebreaker One, a common purpose and active participation from members of the ecosystem.” 

Rohan Graham, National Grid

IB1: The great facilitator 

Through our Open Energy programme, IB1 has helped to establish best practices for publishing open data; focusing on machine readability, standardised metadata and overall consistency; all of which help to facilitate trust across the sector. 

“Working with IB1 has been really valuable in providing awareness, guidance, and direction, mainly from an open data perspective, so far. One of the biggest benefits has been driving the collaboration between the DNOs through steering and working groups. This kind of collaboration is crucial for progressing interoperability and shared best practices”. Rohan Graham.

“Our strategic partnership enables NGED to have a driving seat in shaping the future of decarbonisation through working groups with sector organisations, facilitated by IB1.”

Jay Chen, NGED

What’s next?

Looking ahead, National Grid is set to continue its progress toward a more connected, digital energy system. Central to achieving this vision is the ability to continue identifying datasets that truly move the dial on flexible energy markets and decarbonisation.

“Understanding who needs that data, why they need it, and how to deliver it securely and at scale will be key. The sector needs to  remain focused on publishing what truly drives progress toward net zero – whether that’s open or shared data.” Rohan Graham. 

IB1’s work in Open Energy is creating a connected web of energy data – making it more discoverable, interoperable, and impactful, in the collective mission to reach net zero.

If you’re interested in becoming a Strategic Partner, an Open Energy member, or part of our expert network, you can join us at ib1.org/join or reach out at partners@ib1.org to start a conversation about unlocking data for net zero.

Sara Vaughan, Co-chair of the Open Energy Steering group, framed the start of the session by pointing to a lack of alignment in the sector which might be hindering progress. At the same time, she highlighted what sets Open Energy apart from other initiatives: the involvement from regulators, who are brought into the process to support and provide continued feedback.

This collaborative approach sits at the heart of Open Energy, as it brings the sector together to co-design the rulebook for data sharing and develop Trust Frameworks that unlock the value of energy data.

The data sharing landscape

As we progressed through the webinar, Chris Pointon, Product Manager, Trust Services, reflected on what Open Energy can build upon as it evolves. Themes included wider governance areas such as assurance, common identity services, and shared data infrastructure. Key to exploring these themes are actionable use cases. These give us a tangible grasp on user needs, and allow us to develop solutions that accurately address industry and consumer pain points.

Harmonisation over Standardisation

The focus on workable use cases also made up a large part of discussion in the Q&A segment and helped attendees to understand why harmonisation, not standardisation, is needed to guide the sector forward.

“While data standardisation focuses on uniformity, data harmonisation is about making disparate data sets interoperable”

Michael Glass, Data Governance and Information Manager at SSE posed a critical question:

“DNOs all have different internal definitions and languages that they use. How do they agree on a common language?”

The answer is to pick a use case that is supported by working groups and centre collaboration around it. By starting from real-world use cases, we can reduce cost and friction for everyone.

“That’s how we harmonise. Psychologically and operationally, it’s a much easier approach.” Gavin Starks, CEO, IB1.

The results are in

Towards the end of the webinar we conducted a poll asking our participants questions such as: ‘Which of these barriers affects your confidence’ to better understand whether uncertainty around data licensing, data access, data maturity, legal risk or alignment with the rest of the sector is holding them back.

Uncertainty about alignment with the rest of the sector made up a large portion of the vote, and echoed our previous discussions on the need for harmonisation.

What’s next?

We’re at a critical moment in the UK’s history around data sharing. Government departments now have significant budgets dedicated to designing smart data schemes, signalling real momentum.

But amidst this progress, we need a coordinated effort to ensure we navigate towards the low-cost, low-friction future we’ve all set out to achieve – one where collaboration across the sector shapes the future of trusted energy data sharing in the UK and beyond.

Looking ahead, we’re encouraging continued discussion through upcoming Open Energy Working Groups. The first session will take place on Wednesday 26 November, and will aim to develop a single, DNO-backed approach to align on the language and decisions discussed during the webinar.

Whilst the form is now closed, you can still join by emailing partners@ib1.org

Perseus will automate access to assurable SME electricity smart meter data and its carbon intensity at the time and place of use. SMEs will be able to receive emissions reports generated from these data and share them, via reporting solutions, with banks or lenders to unlock green finance.

As described in the 2024 Plan, Perseus members have been working throughout the year to uncover and explore the needs of all stakeholders in the data flow and convert these into concrete actions. These have driven detailed work on legal, technical and user experience design, assurability and process development to enable an operational pilot.

Purpose of the pilot

June marked the end of the six-month pilot phase of Perseus, which was launched to gather feedback on the technical, legal and user experience aspects of Perseus. Part of an iterative process, the pilot focused on reducing friction and enhancing the way Perseus works for SMEs, energy data providers (EDPs), carbon accounting providers (CAPs) and financial service providers (FSPs). 

What did we do?

• Tested the technical, legal and contractual elements of the trust framework.
• Explored whether the onboarding documents were sufficient and useful to organisations joining the Perseus scheme. 
• Checked the assured data flow of electricity consumption and derived emissions between participants.
• Tested the user journey flow, design, product integration and legal agreements with a CAP, an EDP and a FSP. 

How did we do it?

The testing was conducted on a one-to-one basis with participants, and feedback was gathered during calls and/or shared via email.

What did we learn?

Several important lessons emerged:

• SME UX: The overall Perseus user journey could be improved through the addition of simple but effective elements, such as a progress bar, providing the user with support and guidance throughout their Perseus journey. 

• Clarity about who hosts what: Greater clarity is required on which stages of the Perseus journey are hosted by the EDP, the CAP and the FSP and to what extent the host can brand and integrate the Perseus journey stages.     

• Engagement: attempts to engage FSPs during the pilot were not as successful as expected. This was mainly due to key stakeholders’ own constraints, needing to focus on other internal projects and not being able to put their own SME clients forward for user testing. To address this, we reached out to other stakeholders in the wider ecosystem to understand their barriers to participation and engagement and how to overcome these.      

• Onboarding support and guidance: During the pilot we discovered that organisations had more questions when onboarding that we had anticipated. We have since updated the supporting documentation and produced clearer step-by-step guidance, with “readiness” checklists.

• Cloud providers: Members whose servers are hosted by cloud providers had difficulty using private server certificates. We have now modified the technical requirements to enable them to use the same public certificate authorities as they would for any website or web service.

• Liability and data retention: Members’ legal and compliance teams were comfortable joining the pilot because both the pilot agreement and associated data retention requirements were limited to the term of the pilot. This will inform timeframe considerations for production.

• Green Lending Market: An observation from testing the pilot is that the green lending market is not as active as we anticipated for SMEs seeking green loans. However, we anticipate this will evolve as the market develops and more incentives are introduced.

• Trust and clarity: The clarity of definition that the scheme provided proved vital in helping different actors understand their roles and responsibilities.

• Case studies: A lack of engagement equaled a lack of real-life Perseus case studies from participants. As a result, IB1 increased its efforts to conduct stakeholder interviews, focusing on how stakeholders perceive their role and value within Perseus, and how IB1 can support them in becoming early adopters that other organisations can learn from.

• Support and discussion channels: Support channels proved to be a challenge with some organisations finding it hard to use Slack. To provide more opportunities for focussed discussion, we introduced more targeted and frequent working group sessions, with shorter advisory group meetings tasked with decision-making rather than detailed discussion.

• Language: Insight from the pilot emphasised that the language used to describe Perseus needs to be kept simple and appeal to different users. There is a responsibility to encourage SMEs to adopt green finance to help the financial sector deliver net zero and to support CAPs in easily calculating assurable emissions data.

Next steps

Perseus has now progressed to the ‘sandbox’ stage of the project; which officially launched on Monday 29th September. The Sandbox provides identical trust services (Registry and Directory) to Perseus in production, and includes a reference EDP that provides synthetic smart meter consumption data. It can safely be used for development and testing. 

Learnings from the pilot phase have been incorporated into the onboarding documentation. Perseus members are receiving one-to-one support and guidance through the sandbox and are encouraged to showcase their case studies.

The 2025 Perseus Report will be launched at the end of this year and will provide more detail on the Pilot, Sandbox and launch phases.

Data has a huge role to play in delivering net zero by 2050.

Reliable data is vital for verifying that organisations are meeting their sustainability commitments. Investors depend on it to shift their investments towards greener companies, while innovation in energy production will hinge on the smart use of data.

But despite generating huge quantities of data every day, we’re not making the most of it. Take data about companies’ emissions. It’s languishing in spreadsheets, carbon calculators, smart meters and other siloes. Even when organisations do share their emissions data, it’s generally seen as an exercise in after-the-fact reporting.

Databases of low quality, out-of-date information are not a foundation for developing new products or technologies, or unlocking new markets.

When it comes to net zero, data is everywhere, just not where we need it.

At IB1, we don’t try to bring ‘all the data into one place’, as others attempt. Nor do we host data or seek to provide analysis services using it.

Instead, we [orchestrate] [schemes] of [data governance] that enable groups of organisations to share continuous flows of well-structured, assurable data with one another.

Governance

Our focus on [data governance] is driven by the view that making data work harder for net zero isn’t a technology challenge.

Rather than a deficit of data or technologies to manage it, it’s a deficit of effective processes for groups of organisations to come together, cooperate on and set the terms of data sharing that’s really holding us back.

“Incentives in our organisations and society prompt us to beaver away on our own. Collaboration is the catalyst of innovation, [but] we often struggle to practice it when it comes to overcoming complex challenges and making efforts towards positive social progress”. – Miranda Dixon, Brink

As with other collective action problems, only good governance can align fragmented interests, enable collaboration and facilitate shared investment.

In our work, governance is an ongoing process. The execution of this process produces decisions that enable data sharing to take place. In practice, this involves establishing principles, defining clear roles and responsibilities, and agreeing priorities and tasks. It also involves collaborating to create artefacts to express and enforce these decisions, such as legal agreements and technical standards.

We have a particular approach to organising data governance at IB1. We use a tiered system of Steering, Advisory and Working Groups to bring organisations together. These groups work together to agree and adopt:

• User needs & impact: commercial priorities, business cases, and prospective new products and services.
• Technical infrastructure: shared ontologies, APIs, schemas and standards to support data exchange. 
• Licensing & legal: data sharing agreements, modes of redress and liability frameworks.
• Engagement & communications: common language, stakeholder engagement and recruitment.
• Policy: alignment with corporate policy and industry regulations.

Participation in this process can be either voluntary (initiated by the market), or mandatory (demanded by regulators). 

Our approach is inspired by the UK’s Open Banking ecosystem, which enabled data to be shared in new ways across banks and other financial services. It now has 10 million users and is projected to sustain a $12bn market of data-driven products and services. This change has been achieved not by building a big, centralised database of customer banking data, but by governing who should access it and how it should flow. 

Schemes

As well as neglecting governance, attempts to build databases of net zero data fail because they try to be all things to all people.

In a 2024 talk, Building scalable public data sets for scientific innovation, John Wilbanks described how effective data systems generally begin life by addressing a small set of very specific primary uses, before evolving to enable more over time:

“No one has ever built a complex data system by setting out to build a complex data system [from day one]. You build one by answering five questions at a time, using a standards based approach… And then when you’re able to answer twenty, you’ll have a functioning complex data system”.

We agree that specificity is a necessary condition for effective data sharing. We enable groups of organisations to come together around tightly-focused challenges or use cases related to net zero, which we refer to as [schemes].

Our flagship scheme, Perseus, enables small-and-medium sized businesses to share granular emissions data from their smart meter systems with banks and other lenders. By providing lenders with the accurate and assurable data they need, the scheme enables participating businesses to access loans and other finance to help reduce their emissions.

Perseus isn’t trying to cast a net around all sustainability data, or work for every company. It demonstrates how good governance—anchored around a very specific goal —can unlock data from the real economy and put it to use for net zero.

Orchestration

We don’t have a monopoly on this view of data governance. But we think groups of organisations can go further, more quickly with our [orchestration].

We provide and maintain the following Trust Services to enable schemes like Perseus to function:

1. A machine-readable rulebook that codifies how data can be shared within the scheme.
2. An approach for verifying which organisations can take part in the scheme.
3. An open directory of the organisations that have been verified to take part in the scheme.
4. An approach for monitoring and assuring that access to data within the scheme adheres to the agreed rulebook.
5. An open catalogue of the data that is made available within the scheme.

None of the services we provide rely on particular software or a singular technology vendor. What we deploy depends on the needs of the scheme. Data access can be enabled by API, more advanced privacy enhancing technologies… even fax machine. (Although we wouldn’t recommend the latter.) What’s important is that the solution meets our NOVA principles: a Networked, Open, Verifiable Architecture. 

Our non-profit status is another key element of this work. There’s a risk that the direction of data use will be dictated by commercial actors, if schemes are left to the market alone. Our approach at IB1 ensures that no individual or entity can take disproportionate control of net zero data, and that end user needs rather than organisational agendas drive progress.

We’re glad the importance of this orchestrating role is now being recognised. A recent analysis of ‘data spaces’ being built across the European Union found that successful efforts have an independent organisation at the centre:

“It is crucial to have a neutral orchestrator facilitating the exchanges between participants before the operations and governance of a data ecosystem solidifies.

The orchestrator should prioritise use cases, map business value creation, test business models, and set up governance models. During the operation phase, the focus will shift toward onboarding, enforcing the rules, ensuring the governance works as it should, and scaling up”.

Infrastructure for real progress

Making data work harder for net zero ultimately depends on trust, coordination, and infrastructure that works across organisations. 

Ever-bigger, centralised databases won’t get us there. What we urgently need are well-orchestrated schemes of data governance that enable decision grade data to flow.

But making this shift requires resources—and partners.

If you’re working along the same lines, or if you’re looking to fund the infrastructure that underpins real progress on net zero, join us.

Reach out via:  icebreaking@ib1.org

We spoke with Pierre Tabet, Founder and CEO of Voltview, about how the company began, the growing role of smart data schemes like Perseus, and Voltview’s contribution as part of the Perseus technical advisory group. We also explored how banks, eager for more accurate data to strengthen their ESG reporting, are likely to see Perseus as a critical enabler.

Ross: How did Voltview begin? 

Pierre: So, I started Voltview just over two years ago. I’d always been interested in the energy sector, having previously worked as a back-end engineer for an energy management company. When I moved back to the UK, I knew I wanted to stay in that field.

At the time, I began speaking to business owners who were unknowingly in the middle of the energy crisis. Many were still on fixed contracts, but when their renewals came up, their bills more than doubled. Hospitality businesses were hit especially hard because of their high energy consumption. For example, one fish and chip shop I spoke with saw annual bills jump from around £10,000 to £35,000. That kind of increase can threaten the viability of a business.

We saw huge pressure on SMEs, and I realised that’s where Voltview should focus. Early on, I had conversations with Smart DCC, who pointed me towards a government grant for smart tariff comparison in the non-domestic sector. Now, we just missed out on getting that grant, but we were still interested in the space. And from there we pivoted slightly.

Rather than just offering comparisons, we wanted to combine switching with retrofits, so businesses could save on tariffs and reduce consumption. Think of it like Booking.com: when you book a flight, they also suggest hotels, car hire, or insurance. But in energy switching, businesses never get offered solutions like heat pumps, EVs, or electrification measures, even though the data used for switching could easily support those recommendations. With reforms like market-wide half-hourly settlement, that data is more valuable than ever. It felt wasteful for switching to end with just a new tariff, when it could instead trigger bigger energy and cost-saving changes.

Ross: This makes a lot of sense to me. Especially now, what with rising energy costs. It reminds me of Open banking and how it opened up consumer choice. How do you ensure the data accuracy and transparency when you’ve got these tariff comparisons? 

Pierre: Open banking is a great comparison as it allows you to share financial data with authorised third parties, who then provide tailored services. As I’m sure you know, the government now wants to replicate that model in energy, having passed the Data Use and Access Act. 

This is especially relevant in the commercial sector- currently about 80% of UK commercial buildings aren’t compliant with the EPC B rating required by 2030. Non-compliance could mean fines. To address this, businesses need access not just to energy data but also building data, credit scores, financial history, everything required to prioritise and fund retrofits.

What’s really cool now is, a lot of the administrative work which took up a lot of energy consultants’ time, can now be done with AI, so that they’re only working on sort of the high value work.

Ross: That’s really interesting. How exactly can EPC data be linked to financial impact? Is there a link to green mortgages here, in a similar vein to SME emissions data being linked to green finance with Perseus? 

Pierre: Absolutely. Perseus is a great example and we’ve been lucky to contribute on the technical side. It provides a trusted way to share Scope 2 emissions data with banks, who in turn reward businesses with lower interest rates.

The bigger picture here is increasing electrification. In the UK, only about a quarter of energy use is electricity, compared to roughly half in Norway. To close that gap, we need incentives  like cheaper capital for retrofits, particularly for SMEs. Many owners are busy running their businesses, so making retrofits easy is critical to driving uptake.

Ross: And so you’ve got EPC data, half-hourly meter data, and financial data – how hard is it to bring all that together on one platform?

Pierre: It is challenging. Only about 60% of UK business meters are smart compared with roughly 95%+ in some European countries, so many firms are effectively flying blind. The first hurdle is getting half-hourly data; the second is aligning it with building and financial data. We start with specific use cases and design the simplest possible customer journey around them.

Ross: Very cool. And as you mentioned, the Data Use and Access Act should hopefully accelerate this work and smart data schemes like Perseus. I also saw on your website that your clients save 17% on energy bills. Can you share an example of this?

Pierre: Sure. Savings usually come from two areas: matching clients with tariffs that suit their load profiles, and cutting waste. One example was a restaurant kitchen where the ventilation system was switching on at night. The owners had no idea until we flagged it with half-hourly data alerts. Fixing that single issue accounted for about a third of their total savings. So really the savings are already in the data- you just need the right tools to uncover them.

Ross: Let’s dig into Perseus a bit more. How have you found being involved in its development?

Pierre: It’s been a great experience. We’re part of the technical advisory group, which has focused on making Perseus trustworthy, scalable, and incredibly easy for users. Ultimately, it’ll be as simple as ticking one box. In December, when Perseus trialled the process manually, it gave us confidence in how it can work at scale. We’re now about six months away from real-world rollout, and we’re excited to integrate it into our ecosystem.

Ross: And what would that integration look like for Voltview?

Pierre: It might not sit directly on our platform. We may simply guide clients to enable it through their accounting software. The point is that all our customers gain access to cheaper capital for retrofits, regardless of where they switch it on.

Ross: Do you think financial institutions are ready to adopt Perseus and scale up green finance for SMEs?

Pierre: Increasingly yes, the real bottleneck is data quality not intent. Almost half of FTSE 100 companies have had to restate climate metrics every year, mostly due to emissions in their suppliers. Banks and lenders want more reliable data to strengthen their own ESG reporting and sustainability-linked products. Perseus helps by providing verifiable upstream data so there is less estimation, fewer restatements and more confidence to deploy capital.

Ross: Great. To wrap up, what’s next for Voltview?

Pierre: We are nearing the end of the Smart Data Challenge funded by the Department for Business and Trade. The challenge has been to incorporate more cross-sector data into our platform. Our next step is to launch use cases that almost any SME can tap into by sharing their energy, building and financial data. We will announce these later this October as we complete the Smart Data Challenge.

Will Goodhart, started his new role as Executive Director of the Future of Sustainable Data Alliance (FoSDA) towards the end of April this year, following 18 years as Chief Executive at the CFA Society of the UK.

We caught up with Will to hear his perspective on the next phase of sustainable finance – where sustainability is set to become embedded in every financial decision – and to discuss the role of data, the evolving regulatory landscape and what the recent Data Act means for businesses and consumers.  

Ross: Will, you spent nearly two decades at the CFA, much of it focusing on sustainability. What brought you to FoSDA?

Will: For the last 5 to 10 of those years at the CFA, we had a focus on sustainable investing and educating people on how to invest sustainably. So we developed the CFA certificate in ESG investing, now called the CFA Certificate Sustainable Investing. Following this, we developed a certificate in climate and investing and the certificate for impact investing at the beginning of 2024. 

I wanted to apply my experience more directly – helping people use their skills and knowledge to advance sustainable finance. So, joining FoSDA felt like a natural fit because of my understanding of the market, the connections I had and the potential FoSDA has as an organisation. It has an important role to play in empowering financial markets to tackle environmental and social challenges through the provision of high-quality, comprehensive data.

Ross: So, what are the barriers to making the market for sustainable data work?

Will: I think improving the consistency, comprehensiveness, and interoperability of data are key. As well as highlighting the value of data and demonstrating the importance of a competitive market in the provision of sustainable data and sustainable analytics.

Of course, FoSDA is not here to solve everything ourselves, but also to convene stakeholders and support the ecosystem. 

There are still data gaps out there to work on. For example, real estate data can be fragmented across markets. And even with nature and biodiversity data, which has grown significantly thanks to geospatial analysis and AI, we need to ensure the methodologies are transparent and robust.

Ross: That point on nature data is interesting – it feels like a fast-growing but complex space?

Will: Yes, someone recently called nature data a “jungle” and I think that’s a bit extreme but still apt. There’s tremendous innovation and growth in biodiversity and nature-related indicators, but understanding how that data is derived and making sure the market for nature data functions properly is crucial. 

Ross: I think it’s also finding that link to impact as well. 

Will: Yes, one of the problems with that nature and impact is knowing your baseline. Getting a baseline for nature is quite challenging. To know that you’re creating impact, you have to know what the situation was beforehand and then be able to measure it in the same way after to see if there has been any positive impact. 

Ross: Do you think, as sustainability becomes more embedded in finance, that FoSDA’s work will become easier?

Will: We’re entering a new phase where sustainability is becoming part of every financial decision and that naturally creates pushback from those invested in the old ways. But the integration of sustainability indicators into policy, regulation and standard-setting will intensify, because the challenges are no longer in the distance, they are here, now. That makes it critical to ensure regulations are targeted, proportional, and effective. 

Ross: I wanted to get your thoughts on the Data (Use and Access) Act and how this might influence FoSDA’s work?

One positive is that it may change how people think about data – not just as an asset for producers but as something that should benefit consumers more directly. Like with Open Banking, it could open up markets, give consumers more choice, and spark a wider conversation about governance and value sharing.

I think the more that it happens, now that there’s a common framework for it, the more people expect that they should be able to share their data with others in situations where it’s going to be beneficial to them. 

Ross: The Data Act also touches on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how this is being used to analyse data and automate decision making. What are your thoughts on this?

Will: We see a lot of claims of AI-powered models analysing unstructured data to deliver sustainability insights. And while the technology is exciting, it needs to be used appropriately. Consumers of AI-generated data should question its provenance and understand the processes behind it.

Ross: And finally Will, what’s next for FoSDA?

Will: A key priority is making standardisation and machine-readability fundamental to financial reporting and systems, so data can flow seamlessly and effectively. We’re looking forward to working with others to frame that problem and drive progress.

So what is a smart meter?

A smart meter is a device that records and transmits your utility usage directly to your supplier, while also giving you insights into your own consumption. Most people are familiar with these household energy smart meters but much less so with water smart meters, which differ significantly in their design, purpose, and implementation. 

Not all smart meters are created equal

Smart water meters record a household’s water use and automatically send this information to the water company. According to Anglian Water, they can help customers detect leaks early, monitor their consumption, and receive alerts if their bill is unusually high. And, by encouraging more efficient water use, smart water meters play a valuable role in helping the UK move toward its net zero goals.

However, compared to energy smart meters, water smart meters typically offer less granular data and limited historical records – factors that can reduce their overall impact. You can explore the key differences between the two systems in the table at the bottom of this page.

Why does the Water Sector matter for net zero?

The water sector is an energy intensive one. In fact, the movement and treatment of water is said to create around 3 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year. This is because every time someone uses water, whether it’s turning on a tap, flushing a toilet, or doing laundry, energy is used to pump and treat drinking water, distribute it through the network, collect and treat wastewater. 

The more water we use, the more energy is needed, which leads to higher carbon emissions. And, we’re seeing a rising demand and consumption of water in the UK, with seven regions in England on track to become severely water stressed by 2030. If we are to reach our net zero targets, curbing our water consumption and preventing water wastage, should be top of the agenda. 

What can we learn from energy smart meters? 

While the water sector faces its own unique challenges, it can draw valuable lessons from the energy sector’s experience with smart meters. The rollout of energy smart meters is further advanced but has not been without difficulties – ranging from incomplete deployment to inconsistent functionality. Both the successes and the setbacks in this journey could provide the water sector with a useful blueprint to follow.

These lessons also hint at a larger problem that the technology itself isn’t enough. To fully unlock their benefits (whether in energy or water) we need a way to make smart meter data more accessible, usable, and secure.

That’s where smart data schemes come in. And, propelled by the recent passing of the Data (Use and Access) Act, smart data schemes could unlock the value of smart meters, paving the way for a much smarter energy system. 

But what exactly is a smart data scheme?

A smart data scheme is a framework that enables secure, customer-authorised data sharing between organisations. It supports Smart Data, which is “the process of sharing customer data, upon a customer’s request, with authorised third parties in a secure way. The term ‘Smart Data’ is often used interchangeably with ‘open X’, where X is banking, finance or any other sector”. (Department for Energy Security & Net Zero)

A prime example of a smart data scheme, already in action, is Open Energy. You can think of Open Energy as a smart data scheme, like Open Banking, but for the energy sector. It allows consumers and innovators to securely access and share energy data – unlocking better services, smarter tariffs, and encouraging more sustainable behaviour. 

To learn more about our work in Open Energy follow this link: https://ib1.org/energy/uk/ 

What’s the connection between smart meters and smart data schemes?

To put it simply: smart meters are the source of the data but smart data schemes are the key to creating meaningful impact with this data. 

“These meters create datasets that could accelerate energy efficiency and help encourage sustainable behaviours, but the data is currently challenging to access. With the ability to see exactly how much energy they use and when, consumers can optimise their habits and take advantage of smart tariffs that incentivise energy use during off-peak periods. This creates immediate financial benefits for households and drives the adoption of “smart” energy systems across the country. 

A Smart Data framework leveraging Smart Meter data could amplify these benefits by accelerating the use of flexible energy tariffs and technologies. Empowering consumers with real-time energy insights ensures that the transition to clean power is not just a policy objective but a grassroots movement supported by informed citizens.” Startup Coalition and TBI project – Smart Data Report.

Smart Data in action

A live example of a cross-sector smart data scheme is our Perseus project, which connects half-hourly smart meter data – with permission from SMEs – to the financial sector. This helps to unlock green financing from banks to accelerate SME decarbonisation efforts. In other words, it links real economy data to the financial economy through a smart data scheme. 

“Our work in Open Energy has led, directly, to initiatives like Perseus which is taking smart meter data, with permission from SMEs into the financial sector. It is Data Act ‘ready’ and I believe is the first national cross-sector Smart Data Scheme in the country” Gavin Starks, CEO, IB1. 

If you’re interested in being part of a smart data scheme, whether its Open Energy and Perseus, then please get in touch via: icebreaking@ib1.org 

Similarities and differences between household energy and water smart meter systems 

Perseus is supporting UK SME decarbonisation efforts by unlocking green finance from banks and lenders. It does this by automating access to assurable data to support lending decisions and related sustainability reporting.

In this episode, we speak with Tony Greenham, Managing Director of Sustainability at the British Business Bank to hear his insights on the role of finance in accelerating SME decarbonisation.

00:00 – Intro to British Business Bank – Role, funding impact, focus on businesses outside London.

03:00 – Small Businesses & Net Zero – Why SMEs are essential for meeting climate goals and the challenges they face.

05:00 – Carbon Reporting & Costs – Viewing carbon as a business cost, importance of measuring, and not letting reporting block action.

07:45 – UK Industrial Strategy – £4bn Industrial Strategy Fund and priority sectors, including clean energy and agritech.

10:10 – Project Perseus – Making emissions measurement simple (starting with electricity) and potential expansion to other inputs.

14:55 – Demand for Sustainability Data – Banks, investors, and corporate supply chains using data for financing and contracts.

17:43 – Political Climate & Long-term Investment – Navigating net zero backlash, focusing on commercial benefits, and future-proof investing.

The goal is to arrive at an integrated, robust and detailed set of recommendations and principles for nature data that will meet the future assessment and reporting needs of market participants.

TNFD has identified the need for a strategic, long-term approach that addresses distributed and decentralised data sharing with a Nature Data Public Facility (NDPF) for market participants. Rather than creating a central database, this will focus on the adoption of robust data sharing criteria (Principles) to enable markets to discover, access and use disclosures.

The government-backed initiative has developed a set of disclosure recommendations and guidance that encourage and enable businesses and financial institutions to report and act on their nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities. TNFD’s integrated assessment approach, LEAP, aims to help organisations conduct the due diligence necessary to inform disclosure statements aligned with the TNFD recommendations.

By improving access to decision-useful, nature-related data for markets, TNFD aims to enable the widespread adoption, monitoring and implementation of its recommendations.. IB1 will employ its Icebreaking process, contributing to the delivery of a set of principles that address data sensitivity, verification and assurability. The collaboration will identify nature-related data providers and data layers that are of specific relevance to corporate and financial use cases of corporate reporting, science-based target setting and transition planning.

IB1 will help to establish the foundational principles and practices to support this, which can be adopted as best practice by nature-related data providers to meet the needs of the markets – financial institutions and corporates adopting frameworks such as TNFD’s. These recommendations will help to drive global reporting solutions that are interoperable, scalable, aligned with current data standards, and that enable data providers to retain control and ownership of their data. This will support the broader market-based nature data value chain to develop value-adding data solutions. 

If you (or someone in your network) would like to learn about opportunities  to contribute to this work, we will be conducting interviews and hosting insightful workshops: contact icebreaking@ib1.org  

The Perseus pilot – in which banks allow Perseus monthly emissions information to be used in the decision making process for one or more green loans – represents a huge step towards automating reporting for UK SMEs, bridging the gap between real-world energy data and financial decision making.

We’re speaking to those involved in Perseus – from Banks, Carbon Accounting Providers, non-profits and policymakers – to explore what the pilot means for their business, their customers, and the broader net-zero transition.

In this episode, we sat down with Zarina Banu from Tide, who outlines the company’s role as a digital CFO and business management platform supporting SMEs across the UK, India, and Germany. The conversation reinforced just how vital SMEs are to national and global sustainability targets and why they need continued support to succeed.

Zarina highlights how Perseus is ‘ahead of its time’, noting its potential impact and ability to decode sustainability and net zero practices for SMEs. She also spoke to the importance of cutting through the noise—reminding us that while business priorities may shift, the urgency of tackling climate change remains unchanged.

Timestamps:

00:00 – Introduction to Tide and Zarina’s role

01:00 – Key financial and sustainability challenges for SMEs: Discussion on how energy efficiency and cost-cutting are closely tied to emissions reduction and financial stability.

01:35 – Current product offerings and net zero plans: Zarina explains Tide’s current carbon insights product and outlines ambitions to deepen their net zero solutions for SMEs.

03:00 – The challenge of decoding information for SMEs: Insights on how the abundance of sustainability information causes friction, and the role communications and partnerships play in helping SMEs.

04:15 – Introduction to Perseus and Tide’s involvement: Zarina discusses how Tide got involved with Perseus through B4NZ and why it aligns with their SME-focused mission.

06:15 – Value points of Perseus & the pilot: Positioning SMEs as critical stakeholders, and the expected impact of the pilot program.

08:40 –Potential hurdles: staying committed to net zero and silencing the noise: Emphasis on staying committed to the climate mission despite distractions, and how Tide is doubling down on net zero with a dedicated lead.

10:55 – Integration of Perseus into Tide’s platform: Exploration of how Perseus might fit into Tide’s offerings depending on pilot outcomes and scalability.

11:45 – Uniqueness of Perseus in the market: Zarina reflects on how Perseus stands out due to its reach, potential impact, and early-adopter hurdles.

13:05 – Final thoughts on business case advocacy: A call to keep making the business case for Perseus repeatedly to keep it front of mind for decision-makers.

Transcript: 

Ross: So yeah, I think, can we just start really by you giving a brief overview of Tide and your and your role at tide?

Zarina: Yeah, sure. So Tide is a business management platform. We’re live in the UK, India and Germany, and we’re on a very proactive international expansion plan. We currently have over 1 million members. Those are customers in those three markets. And what we do is, we are their CFO. So we manage and receive payments. We manage business expenses in the app, create invoices. We do accounting. And this is all served by a number of services. So small businesses are very time poor. So tide acts as their fundamentally their finance function. And we are expanding into business management as well very actively.

Ross: Yeah, that’s great to hear. So the small businesses there, what do you see? You know, is their main challenge when it comes to their targets for sustainability and, you know, broader challenges, financially.

Zarina: Essentially, the reduction of emissions goes hand in hand with energy efficiency. So cutting waste, optimizing supply chains and lowering electricity and fuel costs, many of tides business owners are energy dependent. So that’s very key for them. And in the long run, of course, sustainability efforts can drive financial savings. So there’s a huge upside there.

Ross: Yeah that’s great. And with that knowledge what kind of products do you offer SMEs?

Zarina: At present we offer only carbon insights. But you know we’re very much in sort of deep dive mode at the moment. So what we’re doing is we’re looking at net zero for members. Tide is a net zero business itself via carbon removals. And as this year rolls out, we are looking at a much deeper product offering for our members because we do know that, you know, net zero. For example, in the UK it’s written into law that the UK is going to get to net zero by 2050 and there is no path to net zero in the UK and dare I say it, in other markets that Tide exists in, without this path to net zero cannot exist without SMEs. So the path to net zero is entirely dependent on the success of SMEs to get to this themselves. I think one of the challenges for SMEs is to really to decode this huge amount of information out there. For example, this is causing friction for SMEs. So we know from our insights, we know from our data that SMEs want to get to net zero. And they really do want to do this. The motivation is there, the desire is there, but this huge amount of information and how to decode it for them is currently a huge friction point for them. So I think one of the solutions, well, from a comms point of view is, you know, what are the steps it takes to get SMEs on the path to net zero? So people on my side of the fence in the comms industry, we can offer practical tips, advice, insights, one stop shops for SMEs to get to net zero, which is of course, you know, updated all the time because it’s an ever changing landscape, you know, which throws up different challenges all the time. And fundamentally, SMEs are very, very time poor. They’re busy. They’re focused on running their business. So, you know, let’s not forget that many of them are in sort of survival mode, or those that are in growth mode are still super, super busy. And so sustainability for them is a sort of an add on that they just don’t have the brain space all the time to, look into deeply. And so this is where Perseus can come in and where Tide, you know. And partnerships like this can play a key role in simplifying the journey for SMEs. 

Ross: That’s great. I’m glad you brought Perseus there. So I dont need to segue myself. 

Zarina: I’d be a bad PR person if I didn’t. Right?

Ross: Yeah. Can you talk about mainly how you started to get involved with Perseus? I know you’ve been on board for a while.

Zarina: So this goes back a couple of years when we were involved with Bankers for net zero, which is now B4NZ, and Perseus is obviously an offshoot of B4NZ, and, you know, it is entirely aligned with our business. Tide is entirely focused on small businesses. We serve small businesses with no finance function and about 0 to 9 employees. So we’re entirely aligned and fundamentally on the same mission right here to support SMEs to get to net zero. So from about two years ago we got involved with the Icebreaker team. They presented the proposition, it was very, very exciting. And, you know, if Perseus can scale this nationally, you know, who knows where this can go. And certainly I think the potential is huge. And also to get it on the map at the top table because currently the net zero and SME sort of alignment is not really being discussed at the top table of government. So I think it’s really important that you know, we jointly keep pushing this in front of the right stakeholders, both on the business side, you know, amongst Perseus’s various members and also at the governmental side, you know, this is kind of mission critical.

Ross: Yeah. No, that’s that’s really good that you brought that up the the government’s role because I know, there can be a lot of emphasis on bigger businesses, and I wonder whether they, not that they ignore it, but they don’t see the impact that smaller businesses can have given that they’re, you know, they make up the larger businesses, supply chains. Yeah, I think can we move mainly into obviously the Perseus pilots coming up, but I wanted to just get your overview on the key, you know, value points of Perseus.

Zarina: Well, I think, you know, number one is the decoding of international best practice and UK best practice. You know, what do SMEs, what do businesses adhere to and really how to decode the noise and make the path simple to net zero. So that’s one thing. The second thing is really to understand that SMEs are part of the solution, and it is how we get them on the journey, how we get external stakeholders on the journey. Business as well as government as well as, you know, public private to understand that, you know, in the UK, for example, SMEs form about 6 million businesses and they employ multiple amounts of people. So really it is really about how to push this conversation front and centre for SMEs and to understand that we need more representatives from this sector early on the discussion points. And then lastly, the impact of the pilot. I think the pilot is going to be a huge milestone for Icebreaker, for Perseus and also for this conversation, because once business fundamentally and SMEs – both time poor, really want to get to the end point very quickly – can see how it’s actually working. And to understand that this is a thing that is going to be real and especially for big business, if you like, internally how to scale this across our customer base. So I think there’s those three points there that I’ve outlined.

Ross: No. I definitely agree. Yeah. It will be a huge milestone. I’ve started to see some of the demos of what the pilot will actually look like. And I think that actually solidifies in your mind that, you know, it’s happening and it’s, you know, going to be quite easy for SMEs and banks to use. Where do you see the main challenges with Perseus coming? As we want to expand, as we want to get in front of people? What are the hurdles, really, that we could think about now and avoid in the future?

Zarina: I think it’s important to remain focused on the long term. You know, climate change is not going anywhere despite the noise out there. And it’s really, really important to focus on that. So you know the UK has got its 2050 target. But the fact is that there is a huge amount of noise distracting, for a lot of people. For others, perhaps it’s an excuse to take a detour. But at present, you know, unless the science proves otherwise, net zero is not going anywhere. I mean, for Tide, we will continue to be a net zero business, we’re working on offering net zero solutions to our small businesses across our markets. And so I think that is the challenge. You know, stay true to the mission. Stay true to the need to reduce climate change. And in amongst all the noise, do what people feel is principled and right.

Every business has its own imperative and its own challenges and its own strategy and its own stakeholder base. But definitely at Tide, you know, we are actually, funnily enough, doubling down on this. We’ve hired a net zero lead who’s come in and is doing a deep dive on net zero, not just for Tide as a business but also for our members, our customer base. So, yes. No, absolutely. For the long term, you know, we’re committed. And there’s no change there. What it will look like might be slightly different. But, yes you know, we’re a  committed business. And I think it’s really important to understand as well, as a finishing point, that many other businesses remain committed to net zero. It’s just if you look at it from a PR perspective, the news that creates the noise is the news that’s likely to be picked up. So those people who are just getting on and just getting on with the business aren’t likely to make the headlines.

Ross: I was thinking there, once the pilot is operational and we move forward. Will Perseus make up, you know, part of what you offer SMEs like on your site, they’ll be able to go to the site and use Perseus as a tool. I was going to ask how it fits in with Tide’s offerings?

Zarina: I think that’s a great question. It’s definitely something that we can bring back into the business and really at the moment, and I think what we’ve done really well with Perseus, Tide as a business, is to continue to keep the conversation open and to really fundamentally, we are here for our members and we’re here to make life easier for them. And, you know, if the Perseus pilot and the impact of that is going to be able to be scalable even if we start small, then that’s definitely something that Tide would certainly be interested in having a conversation. And, you know, Perseus is best placed to do this at at present. I can’t see anyone else doing it, so we absolutely have to keep the conversation open.

Ross: Yeah. No. Amazing. Are you part of any of the projects like Perseus or is it quite unique?

Zarina: I actually don’t know what’s out there, to be honest Ross, call me ignorant, but I can’t see anything else out there that has the reach, the scalability and the involvement from the right people. Personally, I think it’s way ahead of its time, which is potentially sometimes what’s the challenge with adoption of both of the membership and potentially of the pilot? Because it is way ahead of its time, people are potentially finding it a challenge to understand its potential impact right? So its early adopter phase, people don’t quite know what it is. They don’t know how it’s going to affect them. They don’t know how it’s going to drive up or drive up in the right places and drive down in the right places, revenue, both on the business side and on the member side.So, you know, I think it’s genuinely a trailblazing product.

Ross: Yeah, that’s great to hear. That’s actually that’s actually most of my questions. But if you wanted to there’s anything more you wanted to add then feel free. 

Zarina: I think I’ve said this before. I think it’s really important that, you know, the business case is made continually and strongly. Just because the business case was made, say, 18 months ago, doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be made again repetitively. So at the end of the day, people who are making the decisions on the membership side are very, very busy executives. So I think it’s always of value to continue to put that forward, to make the case, to provide clarity and to always, always demonstrate the business case.

Ross: Yeah, absolutely. That’s hopefully where work like this comes in as well.

Zarina: Yeah, absolutely. If you don’t put it down, how are people going to know about it?

Summary:

• An update on the political landscape was given and it was noted that:
  • There are currently many open consultations to respond to across government, with high levels of overlap and consistent mentions of AI
  • The Department for Business and Trade is drawing up a small business strategy inclusive of 5 pillars, one of which is ‘access to finance’, due to come out in March
    • Feeding into this strategy is important to ensure the inclusion of carbon emissions and ESG thinking into all consultations
  • Smart Data has been identified as an underpinning enabler in the growth plan, leaving the door open to push it as part of the industrial strategy and net-zero transition
  • The B5 (BCC, CBI, FSB, IoD, Make UK) meet regularly with the Government and are engaging on the Industrial Strategy, using their monthly survey to bring data and research to support discussions
  • CBI report just published underlines 10% growth of the net zero economy in 2024, and is helpful proof point on the importance of unlocking further SME green finance
  • As the US scales back net zero commitments, the UK can lean into a leadership role for businesses who want to invest in and grow a low carbon economy. There is the opportunity to position Perseus as a leader in this space.
• The Delivery Oversight Committee provided an update to members. It was noted that:
  • it has agreed that the role of chair will rotate
  • there has been a robust conversation around governance and that this is fit for purpose for the project
  • it is looking for financial commitments to be firmed up, but is reassured that delivery will continue with adjustments with a clear operational risk register in place
• The plan and funding were presented to members for endorsement, including a high-level roadmap for the year. It was discussed and noted that:
  • there has been a material drop from the expected budget projections, with the original scope of 2m/year now at 900K for this year
  • the go-to-market delivery has been scaled-back accordingly
  • Advisory Groups will be less effort, focussed on approval and adoption of Working Group outputs. 
  • there is confidence that delivery is achievable and that momentum will be maintained, on a different scale of ambition for the year

• In the members and pipeline update it was noted that there is high interest and desire to be involved in the project, however, gaps continue between desire to be involved and budgets
• It was noted that for Perseus to bring help to the whole market, and create trust with SMEs, a top-down communications approach from the SG and Members will be required, and this will need senior management buy-in from Members
• The Advisory Group updates noted that:
  • The high-level plan for 2025 is online https://ib1.org/perseus/2025-plan and https://ib1.org/perseus/2025-ags 
  • Not all AGs have yet kicked off. Sequencing and timing of activities, and time needed to convene the groups are all planned.
  • AG1’s initial focus will be to gather insights from pilot participants on implementation and make recommendations on the user needs to be addressed. 
  • AG2 met at the start of February and is pending feedback and approval of the 2025 plan, with two new WGs to kick off this quarter 
  • AG3 will incorporate pilot feedback and provide legal guidance to facilitate the integration of EDPs, CAPs and FSPs into sandbox and production systems 
  • AG4 met to prioritise comms for the year. The aim is to have a clear, positive and value-based story about Perseus, and to lay the foundation for SME engagement with the launch of a new SME WG
  • AG5 will collaborate closely with AG3 to ensure the Scheme’s policies and guidance is aligned with internal policies for EDPs, CAPs and FSPs 
• It was noted that Perseus has the potential to act as a UK-focused case study for other countries to work from.

Principal:

Heather Buchanan, Bankers for Net Zero

Co-chairs:

Tony Greenham, British Business Bank

Gavin Starks, Icebreaker One 

Secretariat: Icebreaker One

The next meeting will take place on the 2nd June.

On February 7, 2025, Gavin presented both Perseus and Open Energy at the Green Powered Future Mission’s (GPFM) webinar. GPFM is one of several key missions established under MI, which serves as the leading intergovernmental platform for driving clean energy advancements. What’s more, MI’s broad impact – comprising 23 countries and the European Commission (on behalf of the EU) – highlights the potential reach that Perseus and Open Energy could have.

Watch the full video presentation below:

“The value here, for all of us, is to build trust with customers, enhance green finance and help SMEs on the path to decarbonisation, in a way thats compatible with the regulatory codes and standards. It will help accelerate investment impact and make it measurable … this will simplify reporting and is entirely complimentary to existing initiatives. We’re not trying to create a new standard, we’re trying to create something that can be implemented to reduce both risk, and the burden of reporting”.

Gavin Starks on Perseus at the GPFM webinar.

In this episode, we speak with Andrew Myers, Lead Architect, Northumbrian Water Group (NWG). Our conversation covers the water sector’s ambitious net-zero goals, flexible energy allocation, NWG’s work with Icebreaker One on the Stream open data project and the evolving public perception of water companies in the media.

The review also looks at initiatives that are instrumental in our transition to net zero, with project Perseus being one of these. Perseus aims to lead the market down a path of enhanced data access, streamlined reporting and improved compliance with standards. By ensuring that quality data on SME emissions is readily available, Perseus seeks to address a critical gap and remove one of the many obstacles we face on the path to a low-carbon economy.

Financial flows

Spotlighted in the review is the UK’s strength in sustainable finance and its ability to accelerate our path towards a low-carbon economy. Despite this, the trajectory of transition finance towards our net zero future is being held back by high emitting sectors like heavy industry and agriculture, both of which face a significant investment gap.

And, while private capital is seen as a key catalyst for transition, real economic policy and public finance will be required, providing the market with confidence, mitigating risk, and allowing private finance to flow. As the report echoes, “Finance will ultimately flow to where markets believe there is future profitability”.

Data to unlock transition finance

Data – underpinned by assurance and verification – is set to play a central role in our transition plans, particularly when informing financial decisions. The report points out that the past five years have seen an increasing focus on bringing the right data and disclosure to the market. This, for the time being, has been centred around securing information from large companies. In the UK, for example, mandatory TCFD*-aligned disclosures apply primarily to listed companies and large private businesses.

And, while some smaller businesses have started to adopt disclosures voluntarily, a substantial data gap persists for SMEs, who often form the backbone of larger companies’ supply chains. The importance of measuring SME emissions should not be understated, considering they account for around half of the UK’s private sector turnover and business emissions. And yet, the review notes that a coherent, ambitious and forward-looking strategy for addressing issues related to SME data provision and access is currently lacking from the UK Government’s framework: “So far, there has been generally limited focus on how to support and encourage SMEs to develop transition strategies and disclose information in a structured way.”

Project Perseus

Icebreaker One has long recognised the burdensome process of carbon reporting that SMEs face as well as their integral role in our transition to net zero. Through one of our flagship projects, Perseus, we will help unlock access to finance that reduces emissions faster. We aim to do this by automating sustainability reporting for every SME business in the UK.

By automating primary data access we will ease the challenge small businesses face in finding and sharing the data they need to produce sustainability reports. This allows banks, for whom better data means lower risk, to offer SME clients favourable conditions, providing an incentive for SMEs to report their emissions.

“Perseus has the potential to provide personalised net zero recommendations for SMEs and match these recommendations with financial products to increase access to transition finance. SME participation is secured through engagement with existing suppliers (banks and accounting solutions), and data sharing permission is managed in a manner similar to open banking.”

*The Financial Stability Board has announced that the work of the TCFD has been completed, with the ISSB Standards marking the ‘culmination of the work of the TCFD’.

Date: 21st October 2024 10:00-11:30 BST

Location: online

Co-Chairs: 

• Duncan Oswald, Sage
• Gavin Starks, IB1

Secretariat: IB1

Meeting Aims

1. Provide an update on ongoing work 
2. Sign off outputs from the working groups 
3. Update on what’s still to come this year after the meeting

Summary:

• Members were asked to vote on 5 voting items with a view to endorse each to take to membership: 
  • AG1, WG4 Ecosystem map 
  • AG1, WG2 User needs
  • AG1, WG3 Assurance 
  • AG1, WG1 Product opportunities 
  • AG1, WG5, Future innovation cases 
• It was noted that key questions were raised in regards to the ecosystem map: 
  • There are many different actors in the chain here, is this list complete?
  • Are the definitions broadly correct?
  • Is there anything missing? 
  • Any questions for clarification?
    • It was agreed that landlords need to be added to the energy value chain list of actors in the ecosystem map, to capture the asset manager and landlord administering part of the relationship with the SME tenant.

• It was noted that it is essential for AG1 to identify the frequently asked questions regarding user needs, given the complexity of aligning the diverse requirements of all the organisations involved.
• It was noted that Perseus is being discussed with government and a summary proposal is being prepared for them to look at. 
  • Common areas of value are:
    • Risk reduction
    • Unlocking access to green finance
    • Reducing green “hushing”
    • Solidifying the data flow across the entire market, creating a potential corp tax benefit 

• It was noted that the MRV (measurement reporting verification) aspect is important for Carbon Accounting Platforms, enabling tracking of impact once finance has flowed and the ability to demonstrate value in terms of money in, CO2 out.
• It was noted that the goal of the assurability framework is to define how assurance should work, enabling companies to arrange their own assurance in accordance with the framework
• Guaranteeing data accuracy was discussed and it was noted that the assurability framework will provide each Perseus member with confidence that a layer of pre-competitive calculations has been done in the same way. Linked to the work of AG3, the Perseus contract will create a contract of liability around this process. 
• It was noted that a future phase of work will look at a common definition of assurance, for example self-assurance for loans up to a certain size.
• It was noted that, regarding future use cases, members were asked: 
  • What is one thing that everyone needs to create more impact?
  • What are views on use case prioritization?
  • There was a call to banks to connect with their product teams to review and validate WG5s future use cases

Voting outcomes will be updated shortly.

Next meeting: 2025 date TBC

Formal records are maintained by the secretariat. These are confidential to the Advisory Group Members.

Date: 17th October 2024 10:00-11:30 BST

Location: online

Co-Chairs: 

• Chris Martin, Pinsent Masons
• Adam Jackson, Innovate Finance – represented by Emily Judson, IB1

Secretariat: IB1

Meeting Aims

1. Endorse the user facing text
2. Provide updates on ongoing work
3. Sign-off remaining items for 2024
4. Discuss how to refine group moving forwards into 2025

Summary:

• It was agreed that there will be an ad-hoc working group to discuss what the data licence will look like for the pilot
• It was noted that all Perseus Scheme members will be required to:
  • Join the Core Trust Framework prior to Scheme participation
  • Sign the Scheme Definition prior to participation
• It was noted that following the pilot phase, there is a need to diversify the representation across the Advisory Group 
  • It was discussed that there is the option to split the group back into AG3 and 5 with similar attendees but different goals. There is a need to distinguish between policy requests and the legal and licensing work. 
• Following discussions surrounding the transparency and informed consent of the data chain, it was noted that the permissions structure will be centered around a master consent and reconfirmation. 
  • The main consent will be managed by the carbon accounting platform with the text presented to the user at the point of reconnection being identical, the reconfirmation of consent with all the conditions will be shared with the bank. 
  • Where an SME selects multiple banks, at the point the link is confirmed and the bank is named, the transparency is there.

• It was noted that consistency is needed across all forms of communication and there was discussion surrounding how AG4 can work with AG3 to help ensure this consistency across user and customer communications. 
• There was discussion surrounding the proposed data licence text and members were:
  • Introduced to the core content within the data licence text 
  • Familiarized with the legal and binding structures across the Perseus ecosystem
  • Asked to vote on the current version of the user facing text based on the parameters of the pilot
• The encoding of responsibilities for handling data structure queries was discussed and There is an open question as to who takes on the responsibility for directing and handling Data Subject requests and as to what we needs to be considered surrounding SMEs 

Voting outcomes will be updated shortly.

Next meeting: 2025 date TBC

Formal records are maintained by the secretariat. These are confidential to the Advisory Group Members.

Date: 15th October 2024 10:00-11:30 BST

Location: online

Chair:

• Frank Wales, IB1

Secretariat: IB1

Meeting Aims

1. The endorsement of the Provenance and Exported Energy documents
2. Provide updates on ongoing work
3. Outline future work and what to expect for the remainder of the year
4. A call for interest in the documentation Working Group and a co-chair for 2025

Summary:

• The directory and registry were presented to members and it was noted that both have been deployed ahead of the pilot
• An update to the specification for exported energy data was presented to members, with two changes noted:
  • The JSON API standard for error passing has now been implemented as there was not previously a definition for passing errors#
  • An endpoint data source has been added to account for the fact that exported energy requires two meters for import and export 
• The provenance and assurance principles were proposed to members: 
  • Assurance: is the metadata which enables a member to decide how much trust to place in a dataset with machine-readable assurance signals 
  • Provenance: is a record of where data came from, the members who collected and processed it, and what processing was performed
• It was noted that the provenance record is a container for the assurance signals, it is the use cases which define the assurance metadata with a view to building and adopting standards within the Trust Framework 
• The provenance record is designed to be extensible and it was discussed that a scheme may want to add further checks: 
  • Additional traceability
  • Stronger technical safeguards 
  • Proof of processing

• It was noted that, for the assurance signals, there is the need for a mechanism to flag when some data is missing
• It was noted that there will be one master permission flow to cover an SME through their whole journey
• It was noted that elements of the pilot are real financial products, which can themselves be prototypes or pilots; the banks will be using assurable emissions reports to inform lending decisions, and all participants will be maintaining logs and audit trail information as required by the Perseus Scheme 
• To ensure that the Trust Framework is capturing all of the data during the pilot phase, it was discussed that there should be different scopes for logging, with five scopes proposed to members for feedback:
  • Audit logs
  • Operational logs
  • User activity logs 
  • Account logs
  • Permissions logs

Voting outcomes will be updated shortly.

Next meeting: 2025 date TBC

Formal records are maintained by the secretariat. These are confidential to the Advisory Group Members.

On September 30th we kicked off our first advisory group meeting, bringing together experts spanning the fields of Government, Tech, Environmental NGOs and Research, and Academia.

Connecting Farm Management with Green Financing

Our use-case driven approach serves as a lens to focus our work, with our advisory group meeting offering a collaborative space to refine and test our ideas. The central goal of our use case is to connect Farm Management in the real economy with green financing in the financial economy. Linking the two would mean UK farmers sharing trusted data on their sustainable practices with banks, in return for favourable financing. If successful, the project could bolster the UK’s food security and bring us closer to our net zero targets.

During our advisory group meeting, participants were divided into breakout sessions in which members quickly identified the key stakeholders needed along the value chain. “Retailers and food services have significant influence in shaping sustainable standards in the food industry,” noted one participant. Insurers were also highlighted as key players given their role in de-risking green investments and providing more confidence to financiers.

Practices vs outcomes

As the discussion evolved, members began to draw a distinction between financing sustainable outcomes and financing sustainable practices. Sustainable outcomes focus on achieving measurable environmental goals, such as reducing CO2 emissions. This aligns with frameworks like green bonds and sustainability-linked loans and offers banks a way to meet regulatory requirements and mitigate reputational risks.

One participant from an environmental NGO looked to practice-based financing as the more measurable option of the two, and a potential area of focus. “Practice-based financing might be a better choice as there is seemingly less risk. Banks might be less inclined to lend based on a predicted future outcome such as future CO2 reduction”. What’s more, funding sustainable practices might be more aligned with the value chain transformation aims of this project. If we look elsewhere for comparison, we can see schemes like HSBC’s Sustainable Farming Pathway with LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming) as an example of funding more sustainable practices. The scheme gives farming businesses discounted loan fees for transitioning to more sustainable practices.

Carbon reporting tools

Another piece of this puzzle are the tools that farmers need to collect and manage their sustainability data. Farmers have access to a plethora of carbon accounting tools but these lack a consistent framework, leading the food sector down a path of inconsistent data collection and reporting as one participant points out, “these tools are often not aligned and lack standardisation when it comes to data collection and reporting”.

For farmers to fully leverage green finance, they need better tools to collect and manage their sustainability data, while lenders need reliable, auditable data to assess and verify these practices. But, sharing of sustainable practice data between farm and lender is not well linked up. In some cases the data is shared via email or excel spreadsheets. Therefore, we see a fundamental requirement for a consistent data-sharing infrastructure to ensure traceability and trust in sustainable practices.

“The key challenge is that fragmentation exists between standards, tools and regional governance. Layering standards will only increase complexity, so we must simplify”

Assurance & Provenance

Two key elements in building this trust are assurance and provenance. Assurance refers to the metadata that allows stakeholders to trust a dataset, using machine-readable signals to verify data authenticity. Provenance provides a detailed record of where the data came from, who processed it, and what was done to it. This means that participants cannot deny their involvement in the data’s creation or modification, and it enables full auditability through a Trust Framework. Banks, in particular, are pushing for increased data traceability to establish trust in the supply chain, making this an essential component of our project.

Our next advisory group meeting is set to take place on 25th November. If you, or someone in your network would be a good fit, please sign up here or contact icebreaking@ib1.org for more information.

Trusted data, urgently needed

Data has a huge role to play in delivering net zero by 2050.

Good data is vital for: verifying that organisations are meeting their commitments; enabling investors to shift their investments towards sustainable finance; and driving green energy innovation and production. But despite generating huge quantities of data every day, we’re not making the most of it.

Take data about companies’ emissions. Even when it’s shared, it’s seen as an exercise in after-the-fact reporting in PDFs, rather than continuous flows of well-structured, reliable data. Poor data is making it more difficult to quantify, invest and take action – for example, companies with low emissions struggle to prove their credentials and access green finance.

At Icebreaker One, we make data work harder to deliver net zero.

Building data infrastructure for net zero

Rather than build centralised databases or portals—which are expensive, fragile and struggle to scale—we drive the development of the minimal infrastructure needed to unlock data across organisations and create open markets.

Viewing data as infrastructure means applying the same principles we’ve long valued in physical infrastructure, like roads and bridges. Like an effective road, effective data infrastructure:

• Facilitates the production of value (a road doesn’t directly transport people itself).
• Supports multiple and diverse use cases (a road supports various types of carriage, including cars, bicycles, freight, etc).
• Is persistent and reliable (we can be confident a road will be there in a similar state tomorrow).
• Has interrelated, standardised components (including widths, markings, signage, etc).
• Is itself interrelated with other infrastructure (bridges, airports, parking lots, etc).
• Is governed by clear rules, which can be enforced (and can be varied to meet different the needs of different environments).
• Supports different business models (open, restricted, toll-based).

We believe that data infrastructure must address public and private sector needs, and should be governed openly and independently. Our approach is inspired by the UK’s Open Banking Standard, which has enabled data to flow in new ways across financial systems. It now has 10M UK users, applications in 80+ countries and is projected to sustain a $12B market of products and services.

And we’re making progress in delivering high-quality data infrastructure for net zero. Perseus, for example, will enable businesses to access over $100B of green finance, by automating high-quality sustainability reporting for every SME in the UK. More than 60 organisations have come together to build Perseus, including Visa, Sage and HSBC.

The case for philanthropy

While we’re making progress through projects funded by industry and the public sector, this type of funding isn’t conducive to building infrastructure for the long-term.

Developing effective infrastructure involves building teams with predictable and flexible investment rather than lumpy, unpredictable funding that’s tied to particular projects. Philanthropy is able to provide the former, which is especially important in the short run when firms may not yet be willing to pay to access infrastructure that has yet to reach a critical mass of users or utility.

Philanthropic capital is also vital to ensure that our net-zero data infrastructure prioritises the public interest. While industry must participate in its design, there’s a risk that, if left to the market alone, the direction of data use might be dictated by commercial actors. Our approach at IB1 ensures that no individual or entity can take disproportionate control of net zero data, and that end user needs rather than organisational agendas drive progress.

Like Open Supply Hub, which exists to make supply chain data open, accessible and trusted, our non-profit status “conveys our neutrality to stakeholders and our belief that everyone along the supply chain deserves to have a seat at the table as we try to address deep, systemic issues”. As the neutral, non-profit orchestrator for net-zero data, we engender the trust required among groups of organisations to open up access to data that they would otherwise keep locked away.

Organisations like IB1 have been described as Gazelles—a new breed of organisation for the 21st Century. We are not trying to be a Unicorn pumped with venture capital and optimised only for shareholder return, nor a Show Pony sustained only with grant funding and with limited real-world value. We agree that “it’s time to blaze a middle path in which philanthropic capital funds a variety of data service providers that are accountable to paying customers”.

Download: IB1 Concept Note for philanthropic funders

We’re working to make it easier for philanthropic audiences to engage with our work and are exploring new partnerships. You can read more about our plans in our concept note, or get in contact with us. The time for theory is over.