Sage introduces Carbon Measurement API to aid banks in green lending
Sage, a prominent provider of accounting, financial, HR, and payroll solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), has unveiled its Carbon Measurement API. This tool aims to equip banks with the necessary resources to assist their SME clients on the journey toward achieving net-zero emissions.
“Sage is on a mission to support businesses on their journey to sustainability,” said George Sandilands, VP Carbon Accounting, Sage. “By fostering a more sustainable business environment and offering tailored green finance products to their customers, banks can now better serve their SME customers by offering the tools needed for accurate carbon reporting, thus driving a greener economy, and in turn, reducing their financed emissions.”
The API offers banks a user-friendly carbon accounting tool that seamlessly integrates with their existing platforms, enhancing their green lending initiatives. This comes at a time when banks globally face increasing pressure from the public, governments, and regulators to reduce their carbon footprint. Since the introduction of the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF) framework in 2019, financial institutions have struggled to accurately track the emissions associated with the businesses they finance due to limited access to direct data from SMEs. Similarly, SMEs often find it challenging to report their emissions due to a lack of proper tools and resources.
Sage’s Carbon Measurement API addresses these challenges by enabling banks to comply with PCAF standards, which provide a structured approach for measuring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions tied to their loans and investments. This tool enhances data quality for banks, helping them progress from using less detailed estimates (PCAF 5) to obtaining more precise, direct data (PCAF 2).
Darren Pirie, Climate Propositions Lead at NatWest, stated, “We need to provide carbon accounting and decarbonisation services to our 19 million business customers in the UK. By partnering with Sage, we are enabling businesses across the UK to embrace sustainable practices with confidence.”
In addition, the solution simplifies the process for SMEs, making it easy for them to understand and report their carbon emissions. SMEs can further refine the accuracy of their carbon footprint by connecting to their accounting software, leveraging advanced AI and machine learning (ML) technologies to automate data collection and analysis. All of this can then be easily reported to banks assessing SME customers’ emissions profiles during the lending process.
