A new joint venture formed by three Singapore technology companies has signed up a host of industry players to the development of a platform providing SMEs with carbon tracking tools and green financial services.
Set up by Ascent Solutions, Evercomm and Hashstacs, CO2X is building a platform to help businesses and the financial sector navigate the complex regulatory and costly certification frameworks that hinder the adoption and financing of sustainability practices, especially for SMEs.
The CO2X platform promises to help companies track their carbon footprint to achieve benchmarking and devise data-driven emission reduction strategies that in turn help reduce the fuel and energy costs of doing business. They can also use the data and reports offered by CO2X to undergo green certification against international standards.
CO2X also goes one step further to attract green financial services like sustainability-linked loans and insurance products through the issuance of certified carbon avoidance certificates captured on the blockchain. Major banks OCBC and UOB as well as insurer Aviva Singlife have inked an MoU to explore the plan.
Linus Goh, head, global commercial banking, OCBC, says: “The case for going green today is becoming clearer for businesses across all industries and regions, but for real change to take place, SMEs need to have practical ways to measure and monitor their carbon footprint.
"We at OCBC are happy to partner with CO2X as it sets out to address this gap across a broad range of industries. We believe technology solutions like this will combine well with our green and sustainability-linked loans to help our SME customers across the region to successfully transition their businesses and projects."