If you’ve ever bought a chocolate bar, burger (beef or soy), or bottle of shampoo, you’ve probably touched a supply chain linked to tropical deforestation. For years, major food and consumer goods companies have promised to end deforestation in their supply chains, but tracking or documenting progress remained elusive, showing the need to fund ESG data. A crucial step for companies is having a clear view into the environmental impacts of production, and specifically, if the Amazon or other sensitive biomes were cleared as part of the process. Companies previously had plausible deniability: Understanding the risk from their supply chains was often unknowable. That changed with the advent of Global Forest Watch, and later Global Forest Watch Pro (GFW Pro), a forest monitoring and risk assessment tool designed for companies and financial institutions.

With a few clicks, sustainability officers or those involved in purchasing could overlay satellite-based alerts with sourcing regions and supplier lists. For the first time, the company had a credible, near-real-time view into where deforestation might be creeping into its supply chain, demonstrating the importance of funding ESG data. The tool didn’t just help them avoid risk—it helped them act. A company could adjust procurement practices, flag non-compliant suppliers, and look more closely at suppliers that raised concerns. The platform became a quiet but essential component of their Environmental Sustainability and Governance (ESG) strategy.

A similar transformation is unfolding at the intersection of the seafood and insurance industries. A global marine insurer, skeptical about exposure to illegal fishing claims, joined a pilot of Vessel Viewer, a platform leveraging Global Fishing Watch data to help insurers evaluate the risk of insuring fishing vessels engaged in illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Suddenly, the insurer has easy access to information about IUU risk by integrating vessel movement data, port activity, and suspicious vessel registration practices. For a few companies, the platform has become a significant tool in streamlining the underwriting processes while aligning with the company’s commitments to sustainability and ocean governance.

Over time, skepticism of corporate sustainability and ESG commitments has grown, driven in part by concerns over greenwashing, misleading claims, and gaps between intent and action. At the core of many of these concerns are questions of data reliability and measurement challenges. ESG data so far has been voluntary, often beginning with the companies themselves, and is difficult to measure. Although tools like GFW Pro, Vessel Viewer, and others aren’t a perfect solution, many of them address key data gaps, provide standardized metrics, and support transparency.

Read the full article about funding ESG data by Robyn Paulekas at Stanford Social Innovation Review.