Challenges to Current Sustainability Assessment Frameworks: The Era of Big Data and SDGs Has Arrived

Introduction

This article discusses the contributions of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and Big Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (BDAI) in improving corporate sustainability assessments (CSA).The authors sought to understand the state of the art in assessing a firm’s contribution to sustainable development using BDAI, as well as the possible integration between the perspectives of the United Nations (UN) Agenda 2030 and current environmental, social and governance (ESG) analysis frameworks.

In 2015, the launch of the UN 2030 Agenda with its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) articulated and updated the global sustainable development agenda, setting interdependent goals and targets that encompass and go beyond existing ESG perspectives. It emphasizes integration and interdependence among the various issues, as well as the scale, urgency, and inclusiveness of the changes needed (UN, 2015). Although the 2030 Agenda was created primarily under the perspective of national governments, it provides a powerful framework for the private sector as well. It also raises questions that go beyond usual ESG concepts, frameworks, and tools.

There is a growing expectation that private investments should drive businesses towards sustainability, by prioritizing companies that contribute to a sustainable society. Current CSA tools, such as traditional ESG ratings and analysis of sustainability reports, struggle to overcome the challenges of limited relevant data on companies and self-reporting bias. Additionally, there are not broadly accepted standards to assess the contribution of businesses towards sustainable development. At the same time, the emergence of new and increasingly powerful tools to gather and process huge volumes of information using BDAI is expected to provide breakthrough alternatives also in the field of CSA.

In such a context, from February to September 2018 a research project was started, gathering background information and consulting with several experts from different countries and backgrounds to discuss these three topics - CSA, SDGs, and BDAI. This paper presents some of the main insights concerning the actual and potential use of BDAI for CSA in line with the SGDs.

This paper is structured as follows: first, the context for the three main topics of the paper is set, then the research methodology is explained, and lastly, findings, conclusions, and recommendations for future research are discussed.