Verifiable and Comparable ESG Data: Accreditation for Sustainable Finance

Leonardo Catani of Prometeia and Angela Cipollone of CDP discuss how reliable ESG data and accredited certifications are shaping credit and investment decisions: a reflection on the findings of the Accredia Observatory and new market demands.

ESG data is increasingly strategic information that banks and investors use to assess risks, allocate capital, and set financing terms for companies. For this reason, sustainability must be demonstrated through comparable metrics, shared standards, and independent verification, in order to build market confidence and reward companies that are genuinely committed to the transition.

The Accredia “Osservatorio” study “The Role of Accredited Certification in Sustainable Finance,” conducted in collaboration with Prometeia, was designed specifically to measure the value generated by accredited certifications.

Leonardo Catani, Associate Partner at Prometeia, and Angela Cipollone, Head of Sustainability Assessments at Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), explain how the assurance provided by accreditation is helping to transform sustainability information into a concrete lever for accessing credit and investments.

Leonardo Catani of Prometeia: The Transformation of Sustainable Finance

What are the key findings of the study conducted with Accredia, and what is really changing in the relationship between sustainability, ESG data, and the financial system?

The most significant change is that ESG information is becoming increasingly central to decision-making processes. For many years, sustainability was viewed as a reputational and communications issue.

Today, however, it has become an integral part of the mechanisms used to assess risks, opportunities, and companies’ ability to create long-term value. Banks, investors, and regulatory authorities need reliable information to understand how a company manages climate risks or addresses the energy transition.

In this context, accredited certifications play an important role because they help make information more structured, comparable, and credible.

The issue is not merely collecting ESG data but ensuring its quality and comparability. Where do the greatest challenges lie?

The quality and comparability of data represent one of the main challenges in sustainable finance today. The problem is not merely having data, but being able to use it reliably. A primary challenge concerns standardization. Much information is still collected using different methodologies, making it difficult to compare different companies, different sectors, or the same company over time.

Some indicators are easy to measure, while others require complex collection processes involving suppliers, supply chains, and complex organizations.

There is also the issue of verifiability, because if this information is used to grant credit, make investments, or assess risks, it is essential that those who use it can trust its quality.

This is precisely where independent verification systems and certifications come into play. The challenge is not to produce more data, but to produce more reliable data.

The Accredia “Osservatorio” study highlights a positive correlation between accredited certifications and corporate performance. What have you observed?

On average, certified companies demonstrate better economic and sustainability performance than non-certified ones. This data alone is not sufficient to draw conclusions, because companies that choose to become certified tend to be better structured to begin with.

For this reason, we used methodologies that allow us to compare companies with similar characteristics and observe how they evolve over time. The results suggest a positive relationship between certification and performance. The effects tend to become more established over time, consistent with the nature of management systems that require gradual organizational changes.

Certifications represent the formalization of a process that leads a company to set objectives, structure processes, monitor results, and introduce mechanisms for continuous improvement. It is through these channels that the benefits we observed are generated.

Angela Cipollone of CDP: From Declared Sustainability to Demonstrated Sustainability

From CDP’s perspective, how important is it to be able to rely on reliable information to guide investments and transition strategies?

It is essential, because counterparties’ sustainability information contributes to the set of data used to inform decision-making. Banks and financial intermediaries are increasingly using ESG data to feed into internal risk assessment models and guide credit decisions.

CDP has also adopted an operational model—which we call the risk/return/impact model—through which we commit to assigning not only a credit score but also a sustainability and impact score to every single transaction.

To construct this score, we need robust, comparable, verifiable, and monitorable data. The point is not so much to have more ESG data, but to have data that is truly useful for decision-making. If information is based solely on self-reports, it risks being a weak signal that drives capital away. The reliability of ESG data allows us to move from merely declared sustainability to demonstrated sustainability.

What are investors and financial institutions asking of companies today when it comes to ESG?

Above all, they demand credibility. It is no longer enough to simply claim to be sustainable. The market demands clear, comparable, measurable, and verifiable data. In the past, companies communicated policies, initiatives, and safeguards. Today, the financial system demands evidence: what results have been achieved, how they were achieved, and whether they can be monitored over time.

A company with strong environmental, social, and governance safeguards is a more resilient company. The study by the Accredia Observatory in collaboration with Prometeia demonstrates this: ESG-certified companies have, on average, better operational performance than non-certified ones. It is estimated that ESG certification can lead to an increase in revenue of up to 11%.

How important is it to have independent verification and validation tools?

This need becomes evident when the market cannot distinguish between genuine sustainability and sustainability that is merely claimed. If all companies appear equally sustainable but there are no tools to verify the quality of the information, mistrust ensues. The issue is one of information asymmetry.

Those who finance a company or purchase its products do not have a complete understanding of its internal processes, controls, or capabilities for managing environmental and social risks. Independent verification and validation tools help lend credibility to the messages companies wish to convey to the market.

Independent verification is essential for moving from stated trust to demonstrated trust, because it helps protect investors and stakeholders from weak or opportunistic statements, but it also helps companies that are truly committed to their cause showcase the quality of their approach.