Business View Magazine l October 2022

14 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 10 GUEST SUBMI SS ION is often in a non-digital format, or is in a multitude of data formats, using inconsistent vocabulary and differing forms, which results in… 4. A lack of actionable data: The lack of high quality and decision-useful data is unsurprisingly resulting in sub-optimal decision making. This adversely impacts the planet, societies, and companies everywhere. Unfortunately, differing market needs and regulatory priorities are inadvertently accelerating development of siloed digital taxonomies and data management frameworks around the world. This increases the risk of a lack of global interoperability, a lack of data lineage and misaligned data definitions and taxonomy structures. Additionally, the resulting alphabet soup of digital taxonomies and initiatives are not easily embedded into software for multi-taxonomy reporting. In this, micros, small, medium enterprises (MSMEs) are disproportionately impacted as they often lack the resources needed to bridge the data gaps. A material issue when you consider that according to the World Bank they represent about 90% of businesses and more than 50% of employment worldwide. They are embedded in global supply chains, local economies, and communities – solving the digital divide is critical to ensure that no one is left behind! Therefore, the DSD-Lab’s (Digitization of Sustainability Data (DSD) Lab) three-year project was announced earlier in 2022. What is the DSD-Lab? It is a convening space, a hub, where stakeholders come together to collaborate on establishing best practices for interoperability of all taxonomies (financial, ESG or others), definitions, and data dictionaries amongst others. The lab approach is founded on using consistent semantics, which comprise uniform and unambiguous definitions for the data and models involved, and the relationships between them. Why is the DSD-Lab different? In a nutshell, the approach is about integrating initiatives throughout the world into a cohesive fabric using a consensus-based approach to bring actors and stakeholders together to solve these issues. The DSD-Lab is not about creating new standards, collecting data, or developing frameworks – it is about integrating what the The fundamental issue that has led to this point is the lack of international collaboration to establish an interoperable infrastructure which, at its most basic level, is the ability to compare, share, and use information across the supporting digital data ecosystem. For instance, in the context of the greenhouse gases (GHG), interoperability means the extent to which results generated by different implementations of GHG accounting systems can be compared and/or leveraged. There is a proliferation of corporate GHG reports that are using different interpretations and input data, even when following similar standards and protocols. Interoperability does not require uniformity but rather requires design for the comparison and translation of digital information among different systems.