Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ) announced its Capital Access Platforms division has launched two new offerings designed to help corporates and investors better streamline their sustainability and impact investing journeys. Nasdaq Metrio™ is a SaaS-based, end-to-end platform that will help corporates to better collect, measure and report sustainability data. Nasdaq eVestment^® ESG Analytics will unlock greater transparency for the global institutional market so investors can make better data-driven impact investment decisions. In addition, the Nasdaq ESG Advisory team released its “2023 Global Net Zero Pulse” report to help corporates inform their carbon credit purchase decision and sustainability initiatives.

“We are committed to meeting current and future corporate and investor needs to help clients unlock return on investment for their sustainability initiatives and impact investing strategies,” said Nelson Griggs, President of Capital Access Platforms, Nasdaq. “Our clients look to us to help inform the development of market-based, demand-driven solutions to better navigate the rapidly evolving and impact investing ecosystem. It’s an exciting time for our Capital Access Platforms division, just nine months into Nasdaq’s enhanced corporate structure, and these offerings showcase our unique position as a bridge between corporates and investors.”

Accelerating the Ability to Address Client Needs with Nasdaq Metrio
Since the Metrio acquisition announcement last year, Nasdaq quickly integrated Nasdaq OneReport^® and Metrio legacy technologies to create a new SaaS-based, end-to-end sustainability platform. The new platform combines the power of two market-proven solutions with over 30 years of combined product history and will enable corporates to collect, measure, disclose and communicate investor-grade, audited environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) data efficiently across dozens of raters, rankers and framework organizations to drive strategic outcomes and attract investors. The platform also features a new Carbon Accounting and Management product for companies looking to focus on their scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.

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Nasdaq eVestment ESG Analytics Delivers Transparency and Efficiency
Nasdaq eVestment ESG Analytics was created to help asset managers better quantify and showcase the ESG impact of a portfolio’s position to the market. In addition, asset owners can now better validate how asset managers’ ESG investment theses translate to outcomes. The offering provides qualitative and quantitative information for the institutional investment community to understand risks and exposures. It leverages algorithms and data sourced from ESG data providers including Matter, a Nasdaq Ventures portfolio company, that aggregates company-level quantitative data. This collaboration builds upon Nasdaq’s long-standing collaboration with Matter to provide ESG portfolio analytics to asset managers and retail investors.

Emerging Trends Helping to Inform Corporate Sustainability Initiatives
To help corporates inform their carbon credit purchase decisions and sustainability initiatives, Nasdaq’s ESG Advisory team released its “2023 Global Net Zero Pulse” report that found there is tremendous opportunity for corporates to affect change with only 25 percent of respondents reporting net zero commitments at this time. Further, a majority of companies surveyed cite a variety of stakeholders, led by investors, customers and employees, as key influencing factors to set net zero pledges. The inaugural report is based on results from 248 sustainability professionals about how they are thinking about carbon credit purchase strategies, corporate net zero alignment and carbon market dynamics. Select key findings include:

• 25% of companies have set a net zero target and another 25% expect to within two years.
• Carbon removal strategies, like those on Puro.earth, are most popular among corporates.
• 78% of companies surveyed said they have implemented some type of credit purchase strategy.
• 88% of companies feel pressure to set a net zero target as a part of their climate change efforts.
• Education is one of the biggest hurdles companies face in developing a carbon credit strategy.