INSIGHTS News

March 17, 2021 – A new strategic investment from Accenture Ventures in Arabesque S-Ray GmbH has been announced today, as the two companies expand their relationship to focus on creating new tools and services for clients seeking growth from sustainability.

Research from Accenture Strategy and UNGC found that over three-quarters (76%) of global CEOs say citizen trust will be critical to business competitiveness in their industry in the next five years, and two-thirds see technology as the single most critical accelerator of the socio-economic impact of their companies to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. To accomplish this, leaders must be able to confidently look beyond traditional measures or trends, and better understand how non-financial metrics, like ESGs, can drive real change and create value for all their stakeholders – from investors and customers to their people and communities they serve. 

“Sustainability transformation must be both technology-driven and linked to value to be successful. Creating shareholder value, while also tackling some of the world’s greatest challenges, requires rewiring the global economy with new levels of data, insights and action,” said Peter Lacy, chief responsibility officer and global Sustainability Services lead at Accenture. “We are pleased to expand our relationship with Arabesque S-Ray to help our clients lead with better decision making, more informed investment prioritization, and accelerated realization of overall business value from their sustainability efforts, goals and ambitions.”

Through the agreement, Accenture will further enable Arabesque S-Ray by supporting its data and processing capabilities. Together, the companies will also develop new tools and methods for capturing, analyzing and reporting ESG data. 

“The demand for access to and analysis of ESG data has only been increasing. We’re excited to expand our working relationship with Accenture, and offer more companies around the world the ability to gain insights into their sustainability efforts and drive real success together,” said Dr. Daniel Klier, incoming CEO of Arabesque S-Ray.

Under the agreement, Accenture will have full access to Arabesque S-Ray solutions and analysis of transparent, non-financial and sustainability performance metrics to enhance its existing and highly differentiated sustainability capabilities. Using big data and machine learning models, Arabesque S-Ray capabilities draw on more than four million ESG data points daily from over 30,000 sources to drive key insights for Accenture clients seeking to accelerate their journey to make responsibility and sustainability a competitive advantage.

Accenture has previously leveraged Arabesque S-Ray data and analytics to offer clients insights that help them both serve society and manage environmental impact in their communities, while also achieving better financial performance and growth. As an example, for The Bottom Line on Trust—a first of its kind analysis of more than 7,000 companies around the world operating across 20 industries—Accenture Strategy used S-Ray data to co-develop a proprietary “trust score” to prove that trust is a critical component of competitiveness, as important as growth and profitability.