Bamboo Capital Group (‘Bamboo Capital’) today announced its partnership with Asia’s leading environmental, social, and governance (‘ESG’) data and technology solutions company, STACS, to utilise STACS’s platform ESGpedia to support corporate sustainability and ESG reporting for businesses in Vietnam. The cross-border partnership was unveiled at Bamboo’s and STACS’s industry event in Ho Chi Minh on 22 August 2023, with the attendance of Vietnam government officials, financial institutions, and corporate leaders. 

Vietnam companies are facing rising pressures from both international and local developments to embark on decarbonisation and sustainability. This comes with heightened regulations from the European Union (‘EU’) around ESG reporting and sustainable procurement, which would require importers to EU to pay a levy that corresponds to the price of emissions allowance under the EU Emissions Trading System.  Locally, the Vietnamese government has also established regulations around governmental green procurement, which has led to an increase in sustainable procurement. 

With an estimated 785,000 SMEs, which make up more than 98% of the total number of businesses  in Vietnam, SMEs in Vietnam play a pivotal role in being key suppliers to global businesses and hence, in the decarbonisation of global supply chains (Scope 3 emissions); SMEs are increasingly expected to decarbonise in order to meet regulations and remain competitive. 

The first step to corporate sustainability is awareness and an understanding of the company’s own carbon footprint. To help companies in Vietnam embark on corporate sustainability and develop plans towards greenhouse gas (‘GHG’) reduction, Bamboo Capital has partnered with ESGpedia on capacity building for companies in the region. 

Covering over 5 million sustainability data points, with leading banks and corporate clients onboard, ESGpedia is a one-stop ESG registry that aims to empower financial institutions and companies to achieve strategic sustainability goals through robust global ESG data, as well as solutions and analytics. ESGpedia is live across Asia, powering the ESCAP Sustainable Business Network (‘ESBN’) Asia-Pacific Green Deal digital assessment, and as a technology platform partner for the ASEAN Single Accesspoint for ESG Data (‘SAFE’) Initiative pilot by the Sustainable Finance Institute Asia.

Through the partnership, Bamboo will integrate with ESGpedia to help companies, especially those new to ESG reporting and sustainability, easily calculate their Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions. This involves the ESBN Asia-Pacific Green Deal digital assessment available for free on ESGpedia.

Companies can fill up the guided self-assessment and simply input details on electricity and water consumption to attain greater insights into their carbon footprint figures, which are automatically calculated and localised to Vietnam.

Andy Tan, Group Strategy Director at Bamboo Capital, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with STACS’s ESGpedia to empower businesses in Vietnam towards corporate sustainability and ESG reporting. There is an increasing trend of ESG awareness and requirements in Vietnam today as Vietnam becomes increasingly important in the global supply chain. Yet, many of the businesses are lacking the expertise and resources to start.

We hope that our partnership with ESGpedia will allow companies to gain an understanding of their carbon footprint and current sustainability standing in a simple and guided manner, and ultimately lower the barrier of entry to kickstart and set the necessary foundation for businesses to embark on decarbonisation and corporate sustainability.”

Renewable energy is another focus of the partnership. Renewable energy certificates (‘RECs’) offer companies in Vietnam the opportunity to reduce their Scope 2 carbon emissions from electricity use. 

While REC is a key instrument in Asia’s transition to a net zero economy, transparency and traceability is a current industry challenge. Through the partnership, Bamboo Capital will utilise ESGpedia to promote greater transparency of the RECs lifecycle, by immutably recording all attributes of RECs, including the transaction and ownership details of each REC, as well as the immediate retirement of RECs upon purchase, to ensure no double-trading. This allows market participants to comprehensively access all attributes and data of RECs via a common registry to facilitate transparency, tracking, and investment decisions. 

Benjamin Soh, Founder and Managing Director at STACS, said: “Corporate Sustainability involves every participant along the entire value chain, from SMEs to large corporates and financial institutions. However, this is often not easy due to the lack of available tools and data for companies embarking on this journey. Through our partnership with Bamboo Capital Group, we aim to provide a seamless and digital end-to-end experience for all companies in Vietnam and across ASEAN to now be able to gain awareness of their sustainability profile and GHG footprint, and take steps to manage their GHG emissions through active decarbonisation strategies and energy transition measures.”

The latest cross-border partnership follows the success of ESGpedia with Thailand state-owned power utility Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (‘EGAT’), in bringing greater transparency to the RECs market in Thailand.