Perseus Advisory Groups – Please register your interest before March 31 ► Icebreaker One

Sign up to the Project Perseus Advisory Groups

There are more than 5.9 million Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the UK, accounting for an estimated £2.3 trillion in turnover. However, there is not yet a standard for SMEs to follow when reporting greenhouse gas emissions.

Project Perseus is developing whole-of-market solutions to create rapidly scalable, low-effort, low-friction sustainability reporting. Bankers for Net Zero (B4NZ) and Icebreaker One are receiving expressions of interest for the below Advisory Groups to be run in 2023 to inform the development of an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data ecosystem which accelerates the transition to net zero.

Advisory Groups

The purpose of the Advisory Groups are to provide expert input to the programme, to address commercial, non-commercial and public needs. Participants will include a wide range of subject matter experts to meet the diverse needs of the project, and to ensure it is representative of stakeholders.

The ultimate objective is to arrive at a standardised approach that is fit for purpose for, and can be rapidly deployed across, the market. It will address social, economic, environmental, public and private sector needs. It will deliver cross-industry alignment on the approach, including clear use cases, a roadmap for work, definitions of risks, gaps and opportunities, and it will provide recommended approaches and resolutions.

Advisory Groups are currently in design and may include, for example:

User Needs & Materiality to explore, prioritise and work through use cases that should be supported by B4NZ. This includes identifying defined users, their needs, mapping the data value chain and the broader ecosystem surrounding each use case. It will also agree the data and measurement requirements that represent the greatest potential for materiality, and that can be linked to incentives which can operate at market-wide scale. This will also identify the appropriate underlying framework and reporting standards (eg. with PCAF, CDP).
Impact to develop the business, value and impact cases for the programme and its impact on the UK policy targets, banks, SMEs, and financial instruments. This will include the potential for policy and market-wide interventions.
Data Publishing to agree technical metadata and data standards for publishing data, including machine-readable standards and data access (e.g. APIs).
Data Licensing to develop standard legal data licences that allow Shared Data to flow securely across the market, with consent, in alignment with Data Sensitivity Classes. This will include key policies, such as conditions for participation, roles and responsibilities. The outputs of this group will address the necessary licences and requirements for a functioning access control.
Engagement & Communications to address the user experience, signposting and inspiring behavioural change; to create awareness, engagement and impact with stakeholders.
Policy to address potential policy interventions (including corporate policy such as potential in loan conditions, procurement and/or FCA/Ofgem intervention).

Note: Sub-groups may be formed to address specific topics and issues as they emerge.

Members of Advisory Groups will act as a representative of their industry and not of their individual company or body: expertise must be contributed as impartially as possible. Work and outputs shall align with existing work and best practices (e.g. ESG Data Task Force Data Best Practice Guidelines, Open Banking, Open Energy) with practical, demonstrable examples to address the mission, and to underpin the business case.

The outputs and work of the Advisory Groups will have oversight and direction from the Perseus Steering Group, which include: ICAEW, Innovate UK, Institute of Directors, Federation of Small Business, TheCityUK, UK Finance, BEIS, OECD, We Mean Business Coalition, Heriot Watt University (Tech Barriers and Finance Innovation), Bankers for Net Zero and Icebreaker One.