Stockholm (NordSIP) – The absence of reliable and trustworthy validation of the underlying projects is one of the main hurdles faced by impact investors. To overcome this bottleneck, Stockholm Green Digital Finance, leading capital market actors, green finance experts and technology innovators partnered to launch the Green Assets Wallet (GAW). Developed with funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the GAW offers a transparent blockchain-based platform for green bond data and green impact disclosures.
Now, GAW announced it now hosts quantifiable impact data from over 100 issuer profiles. The major milestone means key players such as financial institutions, central banks, tech giants, large energy providers, big banks and real estate companies are now on the GAW platform.
From tech giants to sustainable housing
“Green Assets Wallet started off as an innovation project under the lead of Stockholm Green Digital Finance. Because of the strong response from the market, we decided to spin it off as a stand-alone entity with a proper team to better serve the market actors,” Cecilia Repinski, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Green Assets Wallet, tells NordSIP. “Since then, we have ramped up our solutions even further, providing investors with real-world impact data that can be compared and aggregated across several issuers. We have also welcomed more issuers onboard the platform. We provide them direct support for reporting their green bond achievements to the market in the best possible way, and in a format and structure that resonates with green bond investors,” Repinski adds.
Given the geographical original of GAW, it is not surprising to find that most issuers on the platform (86%) are European, many of whom are Nordic leaders in green finance. Nevertheless, according to GAW, every region in the world is now represented with issuers ranging from banking, energy, municipalities, forestry, real estate, transport, and waste management. Almost half of all issuers (47%) are in banking, followed by energy (19%) and real estate companies (12%).
“We now have a diverse range of issuers on board in terms of size, sector, and geography. Being a one-stop solution for sustainable impact reporting, we feel one-size can fit all,” says Daniel Ekberger, COO Green Assets Wallet.
Drivers and Hurdles
“The transition from project to a purpose-driven company has been a challenge,” Repinski tells NordSIP. “But our users have kept our spirits high because we can provide them with a solution that really works. That inspired us to keep going and growing during 2020. Another key challenge was that initially our technology was outsourced, and this posed a limit on our development velocity. As of March 2021, we are running a dedicated technology team in-house and that has completely changed the way we can create new and more and better solutions and at a greater speed. Now we are to serve this highly evolving market with the solutions that really make a difference,” she says.
According to Repinski, the ability to effective communicate their green bond achievements and impact to investors is crucial to green bond issuers. “With the Green Assets Wallet impact investors can do that. We find that every issuer is different, but the opportunity to report in a standardized format is available to all through the platform. The way the issuer interface works is very intuitive and hence also serves as a knowledge transfer platform for issuers not yet accustomed to best practice reporting,” she explains.
“The Green Assets Wallet team also helps the issuers prepare their reports, and we do that at no cost, which to be frank, has taken away any extra burden on the issuer to use the platform. So the benefits of joining GAW are much stronger. I think that issuers also appreciate that we are an independent actor whose only purpose is to support the sustainable debt market and the actors behind it,” Repinski adds
Outlook
According to GAW’s CEO, the green bond market remains the focus of GAW’s work. “It is where it all starts, but it is not where it ends. The green bond market ignited what I would like to call the ‘transition finance paradigm’ and effectively demonstrated that it is possible for investors to make a real-world impact,” she says,
Going forward GAW will deliver solutions for any investible debt instrument that can demonstrate a real-world impact, regardless of label. “Our modus operandi is to help scale this instrumental market through trust; by supporting credible actors to access capital while enabling investors to locate and follow up on investments in a trusted transition, Repinski concludes.
