Tag: ESG

Singapore – Peer-to-peer lending platform MoolahSense in Singapore has announced the launch of its newest platform GreenMoolah, which is focused on accelerating green and sustainable financing in Singapore and the region for SMEs.

This is in response to the growing global demand for green and sustainable financing among regional and local authorities, including businesses, that are scaling up efforts to support the reduction of emissions, yet poses a problem for SMEs who are on the search for affordable loans.

The goal of GreenMoolah is to provide a crowdfunding platform to assist SMEs who have been left out to understand and embark on projects within the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) framework, as well as to showcase to investors on how sustainable financing can be profitable.

“This not only provides positive contributions to the environment, but also helps investors to embrace the idea of sustainable financing. Such efforts are consistent with commitments under the Singapore Green Plan 2030 to advance Singapore’s national agenda on sustainable development, and places emphasis on the importance of driving high-integrity green finance,” the company said in a press statement.

Leveraging on the GreenTrust Framework, a digital utility spearheaded by MoolahSense as the key underlying technology for interoperability and verification, end-to-end financing for SMEs on the GreenMoolah platform can be instantly authenticated, digitally processed and provenance tracing obtained simply by scanning a QR code that’s embedded into the digital certificates.

For Andrew Quek, investment director at MoolahSense, he believes that most SME owners will want to play their part in the efforts towards sustainability, and yet as business owners, their primary focus would be on profitability. He also added that with limited resources in both manpower and finance, and insufficient related experience, it makes embarking on transformation even more challenging for them

“Through MoolahSense, the green framework we have developed and in the near future digitized with the use of technology like blockchain and IOT, it makes understanding assessments and reporting easier,” Quek stated.

The introduction of the GreenMoolah platform also aims to facilitate the adoption of more sustainable projects within society. With its integration and digitization processes, GreenMoolah is able to reduce the steps needed for applications and at the same time, educate businesses owners on an easy to adopt and transparent process, so that they are able to return and use the GreenMoolah platform in the future.

Hong Kong – PR Newswire, the press release distribution service under media company Cision, has launched its very first handbook dedicated to shine light on communications of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) across Asia-Pacific.

Said handbook covers the importance of ESG by spotlighting top companies’ practices such as Cisco, Apple, and American Express, wherein they shared how they develop effective strategies and best practices on communicating ESG activities to the media.

Some of the notable insights included in the handbook include 10 pointers on how brands can develop effective ESG communication strategies, eight common types of press releases to help brands craft news angles for their news as well as a list of company trendsetters that have already incorporated ESG strategies in their business endeavors.

According to the handbook, the common ESG press releases being shared on their platform include announcing key wins at industry awards, and sharing results of initiatives such as building environmentally friendly factories and introducing green solutions.

“ESG initiatives can shape and influence investors and the public’s perception of brands. In recent years, more listed companies are starting to pay attention to crafting ESG strategies and publishing data. The pandemic has accelerated interest in this burgeoning field, with more companies showing their commitment to areas such as sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI),” the company said in a press statement.

In the first half of 2021, PR Newswire distributed a growing number of press releases related to topics such as climate change and carbon neutrality across the APAC region. The number of releases distributed increased from 23 in January to 284 in June. 

According to the company, industries that are more active in ESG communications include energy, business technology, industrial automation, health/medical/biotech, consumer products and retail, and finance and insurance.

Singapore – ‘Start Digital’, a digital initiative started by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Enterprise Singapore for SME support, is refreshing their existing digital solutions in order to provide newly incorporated SMEs or those that have yet to digitize with foundational and easy-to-deploy digital solutions.

Initially launched in January 2019, the Start Digital program has helped more than 30,000 SMEs to adopt various digital transformation strategies for their businesses, known collectively as the ‘Start Digital Pack’. These solutions are offered across six partners, namely financial institutions DBS, Maybank, OCBC, and UOB, as well as telco Singtel and M1.

Start Digital is offering three new and enhanced categories:

  • Digital Collaboration – These enable employees to work from home or any other convenient locations. Examples include Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
  • Digital Marketing – Tools that provide SMEs with templates to create social media ads and manage their digital ad buys and placements on a single platform. This allows SMEs to easily manage targeted digital marketing campaigns and reach out to consumers on social media.
  • Digital Transactions – InvoiceNow-linked solutions offered by bank partners are integrated with e-payment including PayNow Corporate to enable SMEs to generate/receive e-invoices through InvoiceNow and receive/make e-payments seamlessly. These solutions help SMEs improve transaction accuracy and administrative productivity. Both e-invoicing and e-payments are part of digital utilities which IMDA is putting in place as baseline infrastructure for the digital economy. Similar to their physical counterparts, digital utilities provide common standards and ease of transactions for businesses. 

Start Digital initially included accounting, human resource management system and payroll, digital marketing, digital transactions and cybersecurity solutions. 

“Based on feedback from SMEs and Start Digital partners, IMDA and Enterprise Singapore are enhancing Start Digital to include new solutions that will enable SMEs to collaborate seamlessly with internal and external parties, and gain new customers,” according to a factsheet released by IMDA and Enterprise Singapore.

Both institutions have been proactive in driving support for SMEs and startups based on digital transformation strategies. Earlier this year, Enterprise Singapore supported the launch of the PlanetSpark Innovation Centre to focus on tech startups seeking to deploy artificial intelligence of things (AIoT) to the market.