Q Insights #001

This week’s read time: 7 minutes

Welcome to this first edition of Q Insights — our bi-weekly newsletter for sustainability and ESG professionals looking to make smarter solution decisions.

Each edition brings you concise, relevant updates on the tools, trends, and technologies driving the sustainable transition. We filter the noise, highlight what matters, and help you navigate the sustainability solution landscape with clarity and confidence.

In this edition, we’ll cover:

• Q Intelligence: The ESG Shake-Up: Average 6-Month Price Moves 📈

• Q Thought Piece: Sustainability Solutions: Why the Future Belongs to Ecosystems - thought piece by Nawar Alsaadi 💬

• Q Signals: Datamaran, Novata, and other providers launched new tools & features 📊 — Global standards board proposes changes to simplify some climate disclosure requirements 📑 — ESMA releases draft rules to improve transparency and consistency in ESG ratings 🇪🇺

• New on KanataQ: Enhanced search, upgraded filters, and screenshot uploads 📣

• and other insights 💡

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Q INTELLIGENCE

ESG solution pricing has shifted dramatically over the past six months. Prices are climbing fast in categories like Social & Human Capital, Strategic Advisory Services, and Sustainable Operations - a clear sign that buyers are moving beyond compliance and reporting, and focusing on solutions that deliver real, measurable value. In contrast, categories like Governance & Accountability and Reporting & Disclosure are experiencing steep price drops, as these solution providers compete for a shrinking pool of buyers.

While many solution providers are overhauling their pricing strategies to stay competitive, some of these shifts also reflect KanataQ’s rapid expansion - growing from ~100 to 300 listed solutions. This broader coverage has introduced new pricing models and fresh competition into the mix.

The next six months will be critical. To stay ahead, solutions can get real-time insights on market pricing, demand, and positioning with our Market Intelligence Portal. Contact us to learn more and to join the waitlist.

Q THOUGHT PIECE

Sustainability Solutions: Why the Future Belongs to Ecosystems

By Nawar Alsaadi

The sustainability challenges we face, climate change, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, and resource depletion, are deeply interconnected. Solving them requires collaboration across disciplines, industries, and geographies. Yet, many sustainability solution providers still operate with a lone wolf mindset, offering isolated products or services without fully integrating into broader systems of change. This approach is increasingly obsolete.

The future of sustainability will be shaped not by stand-alone players, but by integrated ecosystems, networks where solution providers, corporations, advisors, and investors work collaboratively to accelerate transformation at scale.

Take KanataQ as an example. KanataQ is building an ecosystem where sustainability challenges are addressed holistically. Companies can find software solutions for carbon accounting, access advisory services for ESG reporting, tap into climate risk analytics, and source biodiversity management tools—all within a unified platform. This model recognizes a fundamental truth: sustainability problems are complex and require multi-dimensional, interconnected solutions.

Why Ecosystems Matter:

• Complex Problems Require Systemic Solutions: Climate change isn’t just an energy problem. It's an infrastructure, agriculture, transportation, finance, and governance issue. A single tool addressing one fragment cannot fix a systemic failure. Ecosystems provide the cross-functional expertise needed to craft full-spectrum solutions.

• Network Effects Drive Innovation: When multiple providers operate within a connected ecosystem, they share insights, data, and best practices. This accelerates innovation, improves interoperability, and ensures that sustainability solutions evolve alongside emerging market needs and regulatory changes.

• Seamless User Experience: Sustainability leaders inside organizations are under immense pressure to act quickly and comprehensively. Ecosystem models reduce the friction of assembling fragmented tools by offering integrated, ready-to-scale solutions. This accelerates adoption and impact.

• Stronger Trust and Accountability: When multiple players are interconnected, transparency improves. Companies can trace carbon accounting methodologies, ESG advisory quality, and climate data sources across the ecosystem. Trust is strengthened when accountability is distributed across a network, not confined to a black box.

The Risks of Lone Wolves:

Solution providers operating in silos risk falling behind. Stand-alone carbon calculators, ESG rating services, or climate risk tools that cannot integrate or align with broader industry frameworks, or seamlessly interface with existing corporate technology infrastructure, will find themselves increasingly marginalized.

Moreover, lone wolves miss out on critical value creation opportunities that ecosystems enable: cross-sector collaborations, joint product development, bundled services, and access to pooled customer bases.

In short, isolated solutions may work for niche problems, but they will not scale to meet the global challenge of sustainable development.

What Companies and Investors Should Prioritize:

When evaluating sustainability partners or solution providers, companies and investors should ask:

• Is this solution designed to integrate with others, or is it a closed system?

• Does the provider actively collaborate within an ecosystem?

• How does the solution align with broader standards and frameworks?

• Can it evolve as regulatory expectations and stakeholder demands change?

Those who prioritize ecosystem compatibility will future-proof their sustainability strategies and avoid becoming trapped in fragmented, outdated approaches.

The Future is Collaborative

The future belongs to those who build and participate in thriving ecosystems, where collaboration, innovation, and systemic thinking drive lasting change. Companies that understand this shift will not only achieve their sustainability goals faster; they will also build the trust, resilience, and competitive advantage needed for long-term success in a rapidly transforming world.

Q SIGNALS

Latest developments, insights, and trends

📊 New tools & features from solution providers

Datamaran (KanataQ listed) launched DMA Evaluate, a new AI-powered tool designed to help companies continuously update their double materiality assessments in line with the EU’s CSRD. The solution addresses the challenges of manual, spreadsheet-driven assessments by enabling users to track evolving ESG risks and opportunities, monitor regulatory changes, and maintain audit-ready documentation. Integrated into Datamaran’s analytics platform, DMA Evaluate supports ongoing compliance and ESG strategy refinement through dynamic, expert-guided reviews.

Novata (KanataQ listed) launched a new ESG Due Diligence tool to help deal professionals streamline sustainability data collection during pre-investment workflows and post-deal monitoring. The platform centralizes diligence workflows, enables real-time data comparisons, collaborative reviews, digitized scoring, and integrates with Novata’s monitoring system.

Zevero (KanataQ listed) launched a new ESG Disclosure Reporting solution to help companies meet sustainability reporting requirements under frameworks like B Corp, CDP, and CSRD. The tool streamlines the traditionally manual and resource-heavy reporting process by extracting and interpreting data from various company documents, generating draft responses, and supporting over 100 languages.

EcoVadis launched the Worker Voice survey, a new tool designed to provide real-time, anonymous insights into labor and human rights conditions across supply chains. Developed in partnership with human rights analytics firm Ulula, the tool enables companies to invite suppliers to gather direct worker feedback via QR codes or phone calls in multiple languages. It addresses accessibility barriers, flags critical issues through real-time analysis, and aligns with global human rights regulations.

Patch launched a new platform to help companies streamline the purchasing and management of carbon credits, aiming to overcome key barriers in the voluntary carbon market (VCM) such as fragmentation, lack of standardized data, and inefficiencies in sourcing and post-purchase processes. The platform combines software, centralized project data, and expert support to guide strategy development, due diligence, and execution.

Amex GBT introduced a new feature on its Egencia platform that provides personalized, data-driven recommendations to help companies reduce emissions from corporate travel. The tool offers insights into carbon impacts and suggests lower-emission alternatives such as rail travel, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) options, and more efficient flight routes or cabin classes. By integrating data from the Avelia platform and building on its emissions-based pricing model, Amex GBT aims to support travel managers in making informed, sustainability-aligned decisions.

📑 Regulatory & Standards Update

The IFRS Foundation’s International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) proposed changes to its climate disclosure standard (IFRS S2) to ease certain reporting requirements, especially for financial sector companies. Key amendments include allowing entities to exclude Scope 3 emissions linked to derivatives, facilitated emissions, and insurance activities, while requiring disclosure of the magnitude of exclusions. Other proposed updates offer flexibility around emissions calculation methods and classification standards. The proposals are open for public comment until June 27, 2025.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) released draft rules under the EU’s ESG Rating Regulation to enhance the transparency, reliability, and comparability of ESG ratings. The proposed Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) outline requirements for ratings providers, including authorization criteria, conflict-of-interest safeguards, and mandatory public disclosure of methodologies and key rating assumptions. While ESG ratings providers can still offer certain other services like consulting or credit ratings, they must ensure clear structural separation to prevent conflicts. A public consultation on the draft rules is open until June 20, 2025, with final adoption expected in October.

NEW ON KANATAQ

What’s new on KanataQ?

🔎 Enhanced Search

We’ve upgraded KanataQ’s search functionality to be smarter, faster, and more comprehensive. Users can now perform full-string searches such as “Scope 1 Emissions in CSV format” or “Supply Chain Management for Healthcare.” Finding the right solution on KanataQ has never been easier!

✨ Upgraded Filters

We’ve introduced searchable dropdown category filters and a solution-type checkbox for Advisory/ Consulting, Datasets, and Software. For example, users can now filter by a category like “Benchmarking” and narrow results to only “Software” solution providers. Leveraging these filters, along side the many other available filters on KanataQ, will make it even easier and faster to find the exact solution you need. 

📸 Screenshot Uploads

Make your solution standout! For a limited time, all solution providers can upload a screenshot or background image to their solution card on KanataQ. Log in to your KanataQ solution provider account today and give it a try! (Note: This feature will be available exclusively to premium users later this quarter.).

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