ESG data for your financing application

When applying for investment finance, refinancing or larger credit facilities, banks increasingly look beyond financial figures alone. Sustainability information is becoming an integral part of credit assessments and the evaluation of business risks.

Yet many organisations do not have a structured ESG dataset. The required information is only collected when a bank or lender requests it. Data is spread across different systems, historical figures are difficult to retrieve and reporting often differs from one year to the next.

The problem is not that organisations lack information.

The problem is that ESG data is not structured in a way that makes it readily available, consistent and easily reproducible.

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Today's reality: ESG data is often only collected when it is requested

For many organisations, a financing application is the first time ESG data becomes truly important.

Suddenly, different departments need to provide information on energy consumption, carbon emissions, employees, governance and other sustainability indicators. This information is often stored in accounting software, HR systems, energy invoices or spreadsheets that were never designed for external reporting.

As a result, organisations face familiar challenges:

• data has to be collected again;
• historical figures are not always available;
• definitions differ between reporting years;
• the reporting scope is not always clearly defined.

Under time pressure, a financing file is prepared to answer today's request, but it does not create a solid foundation for future financing applications.

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Why this is becoming increasingly important

Financing is becoming increasingly risk based. As a result, banks expect more than accurate figures. They also expect transparency about where the data comes from, a clearly defined reporting scope and consistent information that remains comparable over multiple reporting years.

That requires more than a collection of separate documents.

When ESG data has to be searched for and consolidated every time, the administrative burden increases and the risk of inconsistencies grows. At the same time, organisations often lack a historical record that future financing applications can build upon.

As a result, ESG reporting becomes not only a reporting exercise, but also a data management challenge.

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How ESGpro brings structure to ESG data

ESGpro helps organisations manage ESG data centrally and build it consistently year after year.

Instead of collecting information from scratch for every financing application, you work from one structured data source where relevant ESG information is maintained and reused.

In practice, this means:

• ESG data is managed in one central location;
• reporting follows a consistent structure;
• historical data remains available for future reporting cycles;
• information remains reproducible across different reporting years.

This provides a reliable foundation that can easily be used whenever a bank or other lender requests additional ESG information.

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What does this deliver in practice?

A structured ESG dataset makes preparing financing applications simpler and more predictable.

Instead of gathering information under time pressure, you work from a single location where relevant data is already available.

This results in:

• less manual searching;
• transparent and reproducible ESG data;
• consistent reporting across multiple years;
• a more efficient preparation of financing applications.

As a result, ESG data becomes more than a collection of isolated figures. It becomes a reliable source of information your organisation can rely on whenever it is needed.

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From ad hoc data collection to a structured data foundation

A financing application rarely comes as a complete surprise.

Yet in many organisations, the required ESG information is still gathered on an ad hoc basis. This increases workload, consumes valuable time and makes it difficult to provide consistent information year after year.

By building and managing ESG data in a structured way, you are prepared for future financing requests without having to start over every time. You create a reliable data foundation that is valuable not only for banks and lenders, but also for sustainability reporting and other external information requests.

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Who is this relevant for?

• Organisations preparing an investment loan or refinancing application.
• Companies that regularly receive ESG information requests from banks or other lenders.
• Finance and management teams looking to manage ESG data centrally and consistently.
• Organisations that want to prepare financing applications more efficiently.