With the consolidation of the global standards IFRS S1 and S2, ESG transparency has become the new standard for the capital markets. Now, imagine the following situation: your company is about to close an investment round, but potential investors are asking for detailed reports on environmental, social and governance practices. Or you need to report data from sustainability to remain competitive in their sector. Scenarios like these are no longer exceptions, as they have become a reality for companies of all sizes.
Investors around the world are prioritizing criteria ESG in their capital allocation decisions, and companies that cannot demonstrate sustainable practices face increasing difficulties in raising funds at competitive costs. For organizations, this means that the management of sustainability is no longer just a question of social responsibility to become a decisive factor in accessing financial resources, reducing operating costs and market competitiveness.
It is in this context that PlurieBR launches the ESG Insights, a module that transforms the way Brazilian organizations manage sustainability. The proposal is to convert a traditionally bureaucratic process into a strategic tool that connects environmental, social and governance data the financial results of the business.
“One of the main advantages is the financial measurement of risks and opportunities. The platform connects environmental socio-economic balance the financial pillar. Can we answer: what are the biggest risks of material topics? How much can they cost? It's a platform that helps companies understand the risks of sustainability for real”, explains Laura Salles, CEO of PlurieBR”.
What is ESG Insights and how does it work?
O ESG Insights is a module integrated into the PlurieBR developed to support companies in optimizing processes and designing sustainability reports. Unlike solutions that work only as data repositories, ESG Insights connects three pillars in an integrated way:
- Measurement: Capturing and organizing relevant ESG data;
- Intelligent analysis: Automated processing via generative artificial intelligence;
- Generating value: Converting insights into measurable strategic actions
The platform works with the most internationally recognized frameworks: GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), SASB (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board), CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) and IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards).
More than guaranteeing technical alignment with these standards and regulations, ESG Insights uses them as a foundation for truly strategic management. The tool is organized into two independent and complementary modules: Sustainability Reports and Risks and Opportunities, allowing companies to go beyond compliance, transforming sustainability into a measurable competitive advantage.
How artificial intelligence accelerates ESG management
Who has already prepared sustainability reports knows the challenge well: gathering data spread across different departments, organizing it according to specific frameworks and identifying material risks. All this can take weeks or even months of intensive work.
In this transformation scenario, many technologies are emerging to support business decisions. The AI market applied to ESG, for example, is expected to jump from US$1.24 billion in 2024 to US$14.87 billion by 2034, growing at an annual rate of 28.2%, according to report from Market.us. This growth reflects the reality that companies are moving away from seeing artificial intelligence as an optional differentiator to recognizing it as an essential infrastructure of the company. modern ESG management.
“The basis of our platform is end-to-end generative AI. There are many AI agents working simultaneously, automating processes that previously required weeks of manual work. ESG Insights adopts a hybrid approach that balances intelligent automation with strategic human control.”, explains Salles.
In practice, the tool asks for basic structural information such as size, sector of operation, mapping of the value chain (suppliers and strategic partners) and geographical location of operational assets. Based on this information, the system carries out an analysis of climate risks based on geolocation, suggests relevant topics for the sector, maps specific sector risks and generates prioritized action plans.
“All the suggestions generated by AI need to be validated by the company, ensuring that they reflect its operational reality. This architecture preserves the organization's decision-making autonomy while multiplying the speed of analysis. It's the best of both worlds between technological efficiency and human strategic intelligence.”, reinforces Salles.
Navigating the frameworks: GRI and IFRS
One of the biggest challenges for companies starting to structure their ESG management is choosing which framework to follow. The good news is that this complexity has been decreasing in recent years. The main international standards are converging, making the path clearer for organizations looking to report their sustainability practices in a consistent and comparable way.
GRI: the world's most widely adopted standard
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is one of the most widely used reporting frameworks in the world. sustainability. Created in 1997, it has established itself as a global benchmark for its concept of double materiality.
But what does this mean in practice? A double materiality recognizes that the relationship between companies and sustainability works in two directions. On the one hand, it assesses the impacts the company has on the environment and society through its carbon emissions, labor practices and impact on local communities.
On the other hand, it considers how ESG issues can affect the company's own financial performance, such as climate risks that threaten operations, regulatory changes that can raise costs, or social expectations that influence brand reputation.
“The platform is programmed with all the GRI criteria and they guide our work. In addition, other PlurieBR modules automatically feed sections connected to DEIP and human rights. This 360-degree view makes the GRI especially valuable for companies that need to communicate impacts to a broad audience of investors, but also employees, communities, NGOs and regulators”, explains Nathália Gaiarim, Sustainability Leader at PlurieBR.
IFRS S1 and S2: financial focus for investors
Whether the GRI offers a broad view of social and environmental impact, the IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 standards, The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), launched in June 2023, adopts a more financial perspective.
IFRS S1 establishes the general requirements for companies to disclose the risks and opportunities related to sustainability can affect their cash flows, access to financing or cost of capital over time. This is a fundamental paradigm shift: the sustainability is no longer just a “social responsibility issue” but a “material financial issue”, just as relevant as traditional financial statements.
IFRS S2, on the other hand, looks specifically at the climate issues. It requires companies to disclose detailed information about direct impacts of climate change on operations, such as floods that can paralyze factories, droughts that affect supply chains or extreme events that threaten physical assets. (physical risks).
It also provides data on the impacts of the transformation to a low-carbon economy, such as new, more restrictive regulations, technological changes that could make processes obsolete, changes in consumer preferences and market dynamics. (transition risks).
The fundamental difference between GRI and IFRS lies in the target audience and perspective. While GRI speaks to multiple stakeholders about bi-directional impacts, IFRS speaks mainly to investors and creditors about financial materiality. In practice, many companies end up using both frameworks in a complementary way. The GRI for sustainability and the IFRS for integrated financial communications.
Materiality: defining what really matters
The truth is that no company has infinite resources to address all the issues of sustainability. It is not possible to simultaneously address all the environmental, social and governance issues that exist. Climate change, human rights, diversity, circular economy, corporate governance, community relations, water management and biodiversity. The list of issues ESG The relevant area is extensive and continues to grow every year.
That's where the materiality analysis comes in, a structured process that helps the company answer a fundamental question: among all the topics ESG What are the most relevant ones for our specific business? A mining company will need to prioritize tailings management, impact on communities and water use. A fintech, on the other hand, will focus on data privacy, financial inclusion and diversity in the technology sector. These are completely different realities.
“The platform makes it possible to conduct a structured materiality process by engaging stakeholders (employees, investors, customers, suppliers) through specific questionnaires to prioritize themes.”, explains Salles.
“The system automatically generates a materiality matrix that can include different approaches, depending on the strategy and framework chosen by the company. There are several internationally recognized types of materiality, and the platform is prepared to work with all of them. The company can choose to work exclusively with financial materiality, aligned with the IFRS and focused on the investors' perspective, or adopt the double materiality GRI, which considers both the company's impact on the world and the world's impact on the company. The important thing is that the analysis is robust and genuinely reflects the risks and opportunities of the business”, he adds.
When done well, materiality analysis becomes a strategic compass that directs investments, defines KPIs and connects sustainability to corporate objectives in a genuine and measurable way.
The challenge of looking beyond company borders
One of the greatest complexities of ESG management today is understanding risks that go far beyond the company gates. Distant suppliers, logistics partners, end customers are all part of an interconnected value chain that can hide critical vulnerabilities for the business. Mapping and understanding these risks systematically is no longer optional, but essential to any sustainability strategy that aims to be genuinely comprehensive.
“The ESG Insights platform suggests material topics based on the organization's context and, based on the mapping of the value chain, uses artificial intelligence to signal risks and their levels of severity, crossing sector and geolocation criteria. By integrating the partner entities” geographical data with external climate variables, the system identifies exposure to physical and transition risks. This information provides the necessary basis for the company to estimate financial impacts, establish action plans and set clear mitigation targets. The platform ensures continuous monitoring of the evolution of these goals, allowing actions to be managed and updated according to the organization's progress," explains Salles.
Smart dashboards and agile implementation
A platform ESG is only effective if the right people access the right information at the right time. O ESG Insights was designed with this premise in mind, offering dashboards differentiated by user profile. The sustainability has full operational access for detailed data entry and management. Leadership has a management view and consolidated analysis for tactical decisions. The C-level has access to executive dashboards focused on critical risks, strategic opportunities and monitoring priority plans.
“The selection of KPIs is guided by materiality and can be fully customized. We simplify ESG so that the information is targeted according to each person's needs”, points out Salles.
But there's no point in having a robust platform if it takes too long to implement. One of the biggest obstacles to adopting ESG is precisely the implementation time. Projects that take six months or a year often lose their strategic timing, whether to meet investors, participate in tenders or respond to regulatory demands.
O ESG Insights breaks this paradigm: it can be fully operational in up to 15 days. This includes initial training of 1h30min with the team, definition of workspaces by CNPJ or brand, registration and configuration of accesses, guided tutorials with a complete manual, and a dedicated Customer Success person to accompany the journey.
This agility is possible because the platform was developed on the basis of many hours of research into real workflows in teams of sustainability, eliminating unnecessary complexity without compromising technical sophistication.
ESG Insights as a driver of competitiveness
The journey ESG of companies is changing in nature. What began as a response to regulatory pressures is becoming a genuine source of competitive advantage. Organizations that invest in sustainable practices are reaping benefits such as greater operational efficiency, better risk management, easier access to new markets and a stronger reputation.
At the same time, companies that neglect the agenda ESG face increasing difficulties, from restrictions on access to capital to loss of competitiveness in value chains that demand sustainable standards.
This movement creates a virtuous cycle: best practices in sustainability reduce operational and reputational risks, opening up business opportunities and enabling additional investment in sustainable innovation. It's a dynamic that rewards those who act first and penalizes those who lag behind.
O ESG Insights is positioned precisely at this intersection between compliance and strategy. By combining intelligent automation, alignment with international frameworks and a focus on financial materiality, the platform transforms a traditionally bureaucratic process into a strategic tool for creating value.
“Our mission is to democratize access to world-class management tools ESG. We want Brazilian companies, regardless of size, to be able to compete on equal terms in global markets. And that means professionalizing the management of sustainability not as an additional cost, but as an investment in competitiveness and long-term resilience”, concludes Salles.
In a world where sustainability and financial performance are increasingly interconnected, having the right tools can make all the difference between leading the transformation or being left behind.