• Under the New Partnership, RepRisk Will Provide K2 Integrity with Access to its Independent ESG Risk Data to Leverage in its New ESG Certification Solution.

RepRisk, a leading ESG data science firm combining machine learning and human intelligence to identify ESG risks, and K2 Integrity, a leading compliance and risk advisory firm, have announced they have entered into a new partnership to bolster K2 Integrity’s ESG advisory offering. Through the new partnership, RepRisk will provide K2 Integrity with access to its independent ESG risk data to incorporate into the process and analysis used in K2 Integrity’s new, first-of-its-kind ESG fund certification solution, which analyzes whether managers and funds are compliant with ESG regulations.

“When we look at our data, one of every five climate-related ESG incidents over the past two years was also linked to misleading communication (greenwashing). This presents a challenge for investors when it comes to separating empty promises from meaningful action, and a challenge for funds in proving their credentials,” said Alexandra Mihailescu Cichon, Executive Vice President at RepRisk. “We are excited to partner with K2 Integrity to help tackle this challenge by making our unique ESG risk data part of their certification process. Together, we can help bring greater transparency and accountability to the market – while also supporting investment firms in their efforts towards more sustainable investment.”

See related article: EU watchdog to define ‘greenwashing’ as sustainable funds rocket

K2 Integrity’s new solution aims to support investment firms and their managers as they encounter increasing ESG regulations, including those from the Securities and Exchange Commission in the U.S. and the recent Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) in Europe. The solution provides managers with independent, rigorous analyses of their products to certify they are compliant with local ESG regulations and deliver on their ESG targets as advertised, to help address the industry-wide issue of greenwashing. RepRisk’s leading ESG risk data will help to further strengthen the analysis process of K2 Integrity’s new offering.

Andrew Rabinowitz, Co-CEO of K2 Integrity added: “About a year ago, I came to K2 Integrity to build an ESG business and partnered with some fantastic people and firms internally and externally, including, but not limited to, Neelam Sharma, Marcel Herbst, and of course, RepRisk. We believe that there is increased demand for transparency from stakeholders, regulators and the investment community to address important issues such as diversity, equity and inclusion, sustainability, and strong governance, and combat accusations of greenwashing. Our partnership with RepRisk will enable us to leverage both of our strengths to provide managers with an unrivalled solution to verify to the marketplace, limited partners and regulators that they do what they say they are doing.”

RepRisk takes an outside-in approach to ESG by looking at a broad range of public, media, and reputable stakeholder sources to identify ESG risks. It intentionally excludes company self-disclosures to provide clear, transparent, and impartial insights on a company’s ESG risks and business conduct across its operations. AI and machine learning empower the speed and size of RepRisk’s dataset, while human intelligence adds depth and relevance.

Source: RepRisk