The Upright Project

Big news! Upright opens its net impact database fully for the public to increase understanding of the real-world impact of companies. The gradual opening starts today with the first batch of 10,000+ company profiles. This marks the largest global open dataset published on company impact, including full EU taxonomy and SDG alignment datasets, along with Upright’s science-based net impact data. Regulations on sustainability for both investors and companies are tightening. Sustainability reports are getting longer and more detailed. However, actual common-sense understanding of the impact of businesses and industries is not growing quite as quickly. What is needed then? Science-based facts on the most significant negative and positive impacts of companies’ core business. Taking into account the whole value chain, not just what happens in the company’s own backyard. The inconvenient truth is that not all companies can become sustainable by incrementally tweaking what they do today. Entire industries will face huge transformations in the coming years, and not everyone will come out as winners. Now is the time to set aside the ESG reports, and raise big picture facts on the table.   Why are we as a group of Finnish nerds sharing this data for anyone to see for free? Because we are worried that the current sustainability discussion is not enough. Things need to be accelerated. This is our attempt to challenge the sustainability discussion to actually help humanity save itself. You are welcome to join the ride and help us spread the data!

How can LLMs be used to measure climate impact and build competitive advantage? Upright’s Founder & CEO Annu Nieminen joined Maggie Wong, SVP Climate Tech & Sustainability at Silicon Valley Bank (a division of First Citizens Bank), on the Products That Count podcast to talk about: 💡 How Upright uses AI and LLMs to quantify the impacts of all the world’s products and services, powering decision-making for corporations and institutional investors 💡 Why impact data must be structured for *competitive advantage*, not just compliance 💡 Why Upright chose the "product-first approach" to company building – and how that has enabled impactful, resilient solutions Listen to the episode: 🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/g7RMQSuG 🎧 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gtMyvyhr Many thanks to Maggie Wong for a sharp, no-nonsense conversation! 

Omnibus aftermath. 👀  With the EU’s new proposal slashing CSRD requirements, what should companies do next? From our talks with investors and corporate customers, one thing is clear: Double materiality remains a central concept for sustainability strategy, also beyond compliance. With or without Omnibus, customers, investors, and talent will demand robust data on sustainability impacts, risks, and opportunities – preferably translated into concrete $$$ values. We gathered our post-Omnibus recommendations for different-sized companies, both inside and outside of CSRD scope – click through below.   Want more actionable insights? You can still sign up for our webinar this Thursday, 20 March at 13–14:00 CET, about concrete Omnibus implications for companies. Register through the link in comments!

Today’s top headline in ESG Today, the leading European sustainability media: Upright launching a CSRD double materiality database of 50,000+ companies! Especially with the EU's Omnibus proposal slashing sustainability reporting requirements, we are witnessing an urgent need for objective sustainability data that is NOT reliant on companies' own reporting capabilities. Exciting to see how our new double materiality database can support companies, investors, and perhaps even market authorities in understanding companies' real-world sustainability impacts, risks, and opportunities. A big thank you for the coverage, Mark (Moshe) Segal. Onwards! Link to full article in comments.

AMWatch featured Upright's new database of CSRD double materiality profiles for 50,000+ companies – and why leading investors like Pictet and the European Investment Fund are already leveraging it. As our founder Annu Nieminen shared: "There’s a genuine hunger for structured, comparable data – we’ve seen sustainability directors and ESG researchers enthusiastically sharing Excel spreadsheets comparing less than 20 published European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) reports they’ve managed to find online. That’s why we believe our database of 50,000 data-driven double materiality assessments will be transformative for investors." Many thanks to Reeta Paakkinen for covering the story. 💡 Curious to explore the data? Link to a live example in the comments.

"The holy grail of ESG-driven financial analysis" – a pretty thrilling milestone to see Upright described this way on the World Economic Forum platform. For seven years, we've been building a model for a task many deemed impossible: quantifying the impact of all economic activities on the environment, health, society, and knowledge. Now, with our new financial effects product, we also translate companies’ sustainability-related risks and opportunities into tangible dollar values, already covering 50,000+ companies. Sustainability isn't dead – it’s becoming a financial imperative. Not vague commitments, but science-based data. Thank you, Rodrigo Tavares, for the feature. Onward!

CSRD double materiality was meant to bring clarity. Instead, it has brought a lot of confusion. The problem is not the vision of CSRD – producing information on companies’ double materiality. Execution is the challenge: Companies and investors are stuck second-guessing materiality thresholds and manually reviewing ESRS PDFs instead of getting actionable insights. This week, 800+ sustainability and investment professionals joined us to explore Upright’s new double materiality database with science-based, comparable assessments for 50,000+ companies. A huge thank you to everyone who attended, and to our guest speakers Professor Maximilian Müller (University of Cologne) for providing an academic’s view on CSRD reporting and Markus Lindqvist (Aktia) for discussing how a large asset manager can use double materiality data at scale. Want to see Upright’s double materiality data in action? Check out a live example of Inditex, the world’s largest fast fashion company. Link in comments! Missed the webinar? Leave a comment below, and we’ll gladly share a recording!

JUST LAUNCHED: Upright introduces comparable double materiality assessments for 50,000+ companies. CSRD is the sustainability framework everyone is talking about, especially after Omnibus. Despite all the noise, companies and investors are struggling to turn double materiality data into meaningful insights. At Upright, we keep hearing the same questions: ❓ Can the data be trusted and compared across companies’ reports? ❓ How should a company set materiality thresholds? ❓ Omnibus just dropped – should we pivot or panic? The problem is not CSRD itself – companies, their investors, and buyers do need information on double materiality. But right now, they’re stuck second-guessing thresholds and manually reviewing PDFs instead of getting actionable insights. Based on Upright’s 8 years of innovation in science-based impact quantification, we have built the first-ever data engine to assess double materiality at scale, already used by Euro Stoxx 50 companies, unlisted SMEs, and the world’s largest financial institutions. Now, the Upright Platform features off-the-shelf double materiality assessments for 50,000+ companies. 📌 For companies: Get a robust, data-driven DMA update or conduct your first one efficiently. 📌 For investors: Forget opinionated ESG scores and use the world’s most comprehensive sustainability framework to identify risks and opportunities in your portfolio – before they hit you financially. Is this the final word on double materiality? No. But we sure believe it is better than every company and investor reinventing the wheel. Get to know Upright’s double materiality engine: https://lnkd.in/d_inVdYk Explore a live data example of Inditex, the world’s largest fast fashion group: https://lnkd.in/dg-FkVCc

Upcoming sustainability reporting webinar! Hosted by the great people at Persefoni on Thursday, March 13th, you'll get advice directly from four experts on navigating the currents of European regulation. Our VP, Corporates Markus is on the panel to talk about a data-driven approach to double materiality assessments – expect relevant insights for developing your business strategy. Tune in for broad, practical advice on what sustainability reporting needs in the new regulatory environment!

We analysed recently published ESRS reports from airlines – and found surprising differences in what impacts they deemed material. 👀 Despite operating in the same industry, the three airlines analysed reported their material impacts quite differently. On the other hand, Upright’s science-based double materiality assessment flagged the same four key environmental impacts for all, highlighting missed impacts like aviation fuel pollution and biodiversity loss. Did the companies simply not recognise these impacts? Or was it just tricky to define thresholds for materiality? Either way, this shows why independent, science-based data providers like Upright are critical in uncovering companies' hidden impacts. Swipe through below for full insights! 👇 Want more? There’s still time to register for Upright’s launch webinar of double materiality assessments for 50,000+ companies on Tuesday 11 March, 14:00 CET. Sign up through the link in comments!