Icebreaker Principles

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Overview

We are creating Open Standards and Trust Framework for assurable data sharing, across industrial and financial sectors, that addresses private sector needs and the public good.

Our work focuses on areas that accelerate interoperability, to have the greatest impact on our climate and environment. Since climate spans both the financial economy and the real economy, by creating cohesion of standards between sectors we can help open climate and net zero data standards exist for intra-sector, cross-sector and cross-border data sharing.

We consider Net Zero to mean ‘net zero impact’ on our ecosystems

Not just GHG emissions but harms on our climate, nature and the biosphere as a whole
[learn more about Net Zero]

Gavin Starks, Founder, Icebreaker One

Based on the Icebreaker Principles, we unlock trusted data discovery across Energy, Water, Transport, Built World, and Finance.


Brief video description of the principles


Icebreaker Principles for net-zero data

  1. Trusted data is essential to delivering net zero
  2. Access to net-zero data must be open
  3. Rules for data sharing should address public and private sector needs
  4. Net-zero data infrastructure must be governed openly and independently
  5. Net-zero data infrastructure requires mandates for engagement
  1. Trusted data is essential to delivering net zero
    Accurate, trustworthy data that informs net-zero actions (‘net-zero data’) is essential to decision-makers across finance, industry and government. It will help derisk financial instruments, accelerate new technologies to market and enable monitoring against science-based targets. 
  2. Access to net-zero data must be open
    Data must be made discoverable and accessible to those who need it.  To unlock public and private sector benefits, the ability to effectively share data (using Open or Shared licenses) across sectors is essential. This includes finance, agriculture, water, transport, energy and the built world. Net-zero data must be machine-readable, and have open metadata to enable its discovery.
  3. Rules for data sharing should address public and private sector needs
    To enable access to data, the definition of the rules used to share it requires participation from diverse actors. Robust policies and standards can also support assurance and audit. Data owners need to be able to control who can access it in a manner that addresses commercial, legal and regulatory requirements.
  4. Net-zero data infrastructure must be governed openly and independently
    To maintain an open market, data infrastructure must include public and private sector actors in its design, implementation and enforcement. A market-neutral body is a preferred approach to developing such data infrastructure and will include remits of data governance, policy, licensing, technical and operational principles. This infrastructure needs to be developed, and iterated upon, at a pace that is relevant to the urgency of the issues being tackled. Both its processes, and outputs related to its implementation, should be openly licenced.
  5. Net-zero data infrastructure requires mandates for engagement
    To close data gaps as rapidly as possible and address the public interest, Governments and regulators should define rules for access to specific net-zero data, mandate participation and drive adoption. Similarly, industry initiatives can define rules for specific industry benefit, and act as catalysts to adoption. Common policies and open standards must create mandates for machine-readable data, data access processes, access control and mechanisms for enforcement that unlock data flow. 
    v2022-09-01

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You can learn more about our mission here https://ib1.org/mission/

Our definition if Net Zero is https://ib1.org/net-zero/