Q Insights #009

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This week’s read time: 6 minutes

Welcome to this 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 Announcement: Buyer Accounts Are Now Live! 📣

• Q Intelligence: The 4 Sustainability Solutions Buyer Personas 🔍

• Q Interview: Tidal Impact on Driving Value Beyond Compliance (An interview with Dima Alashram, Co-Founder of Tidal Impact) 💬

• Q Signals: AI is cutting ESG process time by 60–80%, Position Green acquires Morescope, ICE expands climate risk platform, and other news 🟢

• KanataQ Corner: New Listed Providers and Ecosystem Partner announced ✅

• and other insights 💡

KANATAQ ANNOUNCEMENT

📢 New on KanataQ: Buyer Accounts

Over the past year, our focus has been on building the most comprehensive marketplace of sustainability solution providers, with over 370+ solutions providers and growing.

Now, we’re making KanataQ just as powerful for the buyers.

We’ve added Buyer Accounts to our platform, now giving sustainability leaders, procurement teams, ESG managers, consultants, and investors the ability to:

✅ Create their own FREE profile on KanataQ

✅ Save solutions to personalized watchlists

✅ Easily share and circulate their favorite KanataQ listed solutions

✅ Track and revisit the providers they’re evaluating

What this unlocks:

The sustainability solutions space is crowded and fast-moving. Buyer Accounts make it easier to stay organized, compare options over time, and keep a pulse on the tools that matter most.

This is a step toward making KanataQ not just a marketplace, but the default home for decision-making in sustainability solutions.

👉 Sign up today and start building your Watchlist: kanataq.com

Q INTELLIGENCE

The 4 Sustainability Solutions Buyer Personas

🔍 Not all sustainability buyers are the same.

After reviewing 10+ in-depth interviews with buyers and vendors, we identified 4 distinct buyer personas shaping how ESG & sustainability solutions are purchased in 2025. Each comes with unique priorities, decision triggers, and barriers to adoption. ⬇️

1. The Compliance-First Enterprise

• Profile: Large multinationals in consumer goods, pharma, and manufacturing

• Priorities: Audit-ready, regulator-proof reporting; Scope 1–3 tracking (esp. automated Scope 3); harmonizing CSRD, GRI, ISSB in one place

• Barrier: Risk-averse, with long procurement cycles - trust and credibility matter most

2. The Operations Optimizer

• Profile: Industrial manufacturing, FMCG, logistics; multi-site mid-to-large orgs

• Priorities: LCA & product-level footprinting; scenario modelling for supply chains; cost savings linked directly to ESG

• Barrier: Needs quick ROI - pilots must prove value early or momentum stalls

3. The Strategic ESG Leader

• Profile: Finance, tech, consumer brands with ambitious sustainability goals

• Priorities: Beyond carbon (biodiversity & social); predictive analytics & AI; strong data visualization & storytelling tools

• Barrier: Adoption risk if organizational ESG maturity is low - vision can outpace readiness

4. The Digital Transformation Seeker

• Profile: High-growth mid-market firms & consultancies scaling globally

• Priorities: Cloud-native, API-first platforms; interoperability with ERP/CRM/BI systems; flexible pricing aligned with growth

• Barrier: Needs scalable, future-proof solutions with minimal vendor lock-in

💡 For solution providers, understanding these personas isn’t just interesting; it’s critical for tailoring your messaging, sales cycles, and proof points.

At KanataQ, we help providers reach all four types of buyers, connecting the right offering to the right decision-maker, at the right time.

🔗 Discover how providers are winning visibility → kanataq.com

Q INTERVIEW

This week’s guest:

Dima Alashram 

Co-Founder of Tidal Impact

1. For those unfamiliar, what is Tidal Impact, and what kinds of services do you provide? 

Tidal Impact is a global sustainability and impact advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations embed sustainability into their core strategy. We support clients across ESG integration, impact measurement, reporting, and framework development, always tailoring solutions to their stage of maturity. Many of our clients first approach us for clarity in navigating sustainability standards and regulations. From there, we build the structures, tools, and insights that help them set targets, track progress, and understand the impact of their actions. What sets us apart is our focus on genuine relationships, customized solutions, and ensuring leaders feel supported at every step. At our core, we help organizations move from ambition to action and from compliance to real impact.

2. Tidal Impact also helps companies move from basic ESG compliance to a more integrated, value-creating approach. What does that shift look like in practice - and what tends to unlock that transformation? 

The shift begins with meeting compliance needs but expands into a more strategic integration of sustainability. In practice, this means moving from reporting for external validation to embedding ESG into decision-making, risk management, and innovation. Companies start to view sustainability not as a cost but as a driver of profitability, resilience, and stakeholder trust. What unlocks this transformation is often twofold: strong leadership alignment and a recognition that purpose and performance are interconnected. Once leaders see that sustainability improves outcomes, not just scores, the mindset changes. This allows organizations to future-proof their business, create long-term value, and position sustainability as a tool for competitive advantage.

3. You work with a wide range of clients, from startups to institutional investors and mission-driven brands. How do you tailor your approach across such different organizational needs and maturity levels? 

Every client starts from a different point on the sustainability journey. For some, it’s about clarity and compliance; for others, it’s about leveraging sustainability as business intelligence. Our approach is to meet organizations where they are, building frameworks and tools that reflect their priorities and maturity. With startups, this might mean embedding ESG principles early for resilience and investor readiness. With large corporations, it often involves cultural alignment and supporting sustainability champions within the organization to unlock change. With investors, it’s integrating impact into decision-making. Across all cases, adaptability, creativity, and trust guide our work, ensuring solutions are not only technically sound but also meaningful, actionable, and tailored to context.

4. While Europe and the US often dominate sustainability conversations, the Middle East receives far less attention. What’s the current momentum like in the region, and what opportunities are you seeing firsthand? 

The Middle East is moving faster on sustainability than many realize. Governments and business leaders are reinvesting legacy energy wealth into clean tech, infrastructure, and innovation. Saudi Arabia, for example, aims to generate 50% of its electricity from renewables by 2030, a target that would place it ahead of the current renewable share in the US and close to levels seen in parts of Europe. We see opportunities emerging across climate finance, carbon markets, and nature-based solutions, alongside a surge of investment in renewable infrastructure and green technology. We’ve seen firsthand that sustainability is no longer a PR exercise but a pillar of long-term economic strategy. This top-down momentum creates a fertile environment for innovation, partnerships, and long-term value creation.

Q SIGNALS

Latest developments, insights, and trends

beSirius’s new Sustainability Outlook 2025 shows that sustainability is moving past symbolism and into measurable impact. Initiatives now need to prove value in hard business terms — cost reduction, margin protection, risk mitigation, or financing advantages. Regulatory volatility and investor pragmatism are reinforcing this shift: 74% of large firms have expanded in-house sustainability teams over the past two years, while reliance on consultants has dropped from 35% to 14%.

For solution providers, the real story is AI

Adoption jumped from 16% in 2024 to 89% in 2025, with leading firms reporting 80% of employees using AI daily. In sustainability, AI is cutting ESG process time by 60–80%, saving €150K–€250K per mid-sized unit and €500K+ per large enterprise. By automating reporting and surfacing insights in real time, AI nearly doubles the time teams can spend on strategy and business impact. The takeaway: providers who can help buyers embed AI and prove ROI will shape which sustainability teams survive the next 12–18 months — and which are cut as cost centers.

*beSirius is a KanataQ listed provider

📊 New tools, features, and funding rounds from solution providers

Position Green (KanataQ listed) acquired Morescope, a fast-growing Norwegian carbon management platform, in a move to strengthen its role in Europe’s carbon tech race amid tightening EU regulation and growing investor scrutiny. Morescope will remain a standalone brand focused on product innovation while leveraging Position Green’s infrastructure and European customer base. Together, the companies will offer one of the most comprehensive ESG platforms in Europe, integrating carbon tech, compliance, and strategic expertise to help businesses transform emissions data into tangible reductions, accelerate decarbonization, and navigate the rapidly consolidating ESG software market. (link)

Intercontinental Exchange - ICE (KanataQ listed) announced the expansion of its climate risk platform to include physical and transition risk data for more than five million private companies worldwide. The new offering integrates ICE’s geospatial intelligence and climate risk models with Dun & Bradstreet’s global private company data, enabling deeper insights into supply chains and corporate footprints for more robust risk assessments. (link)

Diginex (KanataQ listed) will acquire supply chain risk monitoring platform Findings in a deal valued at up to $305 million. Findings provides cybersecurity, ESG performance, and compliance readiness solutions, enabling organizations and their vendors to monitor supply chain risks and automate vendor risk management. (link)

Assent launched a new EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) solution to help manufacturers comply with the EU’s due diligence requirements aimed at eliminating deforestation-linked products from the market.. Assent’s new solution is designed to support manufacturers ahead of the December 2025 deadline by identifying impacted parts and suppliers, mapping commodities, engaging suppliers in multiple languages, collecting geolocation data, and generating compliant due diligence statements.

KANATAQ CORNER

What’s new on KanataQ?

📈 KanataQ Growing Family

Here is the list of providers that joined KanataQ since our last edition: Claritas ESG (Digital Solutions & Analytics), Eco2 Solutions (Climate Action), Foresee Advisors (Strategic Advisory Services), greenable (Climate Action), Kosher Climate (Climate Action), Measurabl (Sustainable Operations), and SHI | Locus (Digital Solutions & Analytics).

🔵 New Ecosystem Partners

We’re pleased to welcome Evan Vahouny, who joins KanataQ as an Associate Partner. As a reminder, KanataQ Ecosystem Partners are a select group of sustainability experts carefully chosen by KanataQ to contribute to the platform's growth and success.

Come join us

Are you a sustainability solution provider? Join KanataQ, the platform where sustainability solution providers connect with high-intent buyers. Generate quality leads, gain market insights, and maximize ROI with our commission-free model. List with us today.

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