Data & Sustainability
Summit

Virtual Event | Tuesday, June 23rd - Wednesday, June 24th

Agenda + Recordings

Day 1 | Tuesday, June 23

Data, Finance and the Environment

measuring

 

Measuring the Environmental Impact of Technology & Data Infrastructure
9:30 AM - 10:15 AM EDT
This session will dig into the tech sector’s environmental impact, uncovering key drivers and looking to the future to see where we’re heading. Chris Adams, Cofounder of Greening Digital, will also highlight current guidance and steps tech companies can take to reduce their energy use and better understand sustainable processes available today.
SPEAKERS:
Chris Adams, Cofounder of Greening Digital
Q&A to follow led by Mark Etherington, CTO, Crux Informatics

finding-efficiencies

 

Finding Efficiencies in Data Consumption
10:30 AM - 11:15 AM EDT
A discussion around specific ways companies can find efficiencies in a world of data over-consumption. By looking at everything from how machine learning can make data centers more energy efficient to how cloud technology can bring efficiencies, this conversation will focus on real ways to set renewable energy targets across an organization.
SPEAKERS:
Natalie Hollier, North America Head of CleanTech & Sustainability Solutions, ThoughtWorks
David Cox, Global Digital Advisor, Microsoft 
Gabriele Columbro, Executive Director, Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS)
Moderated by Mark Etherington, CTO, Crux Informatics

moving-beyond

 

Moving Beyond the Acronyms: Why Sustainability Should be Core to the Finance Industry
12:15 PM - 1:00 PM EDT
The financial risks of not embracing a sustainable agenda are significant. In this session, Curtis Ravenel, Linda Giuliano and John Goldstein will frame the current understanding of sustainability and how they believe it should be understood by financial institutions. Conversation will cover key initiatives between governments and leading institutions, and some of the most exciting ideas to embed sustainability into every day practices. How do you move beyond the ESG siloed acronym?
SPEAKERS:
Curtis Ravenel, Senior Advisor, COP26 Private Finance and TCFD | Former Head of Sustainable Business & Finance, Bloomberg
Linda Giuliano, Former Head of Responsible Investment, AllianceBernstein
John Goldstein, Managing Director, Head of Sustainable Finance Group, Goldman Sachs
Moderated by Philip Brittan, CEO, Crux Informatics

Day 2 | Wednesday, June 24

The Rise and Future of ESG Data

state-of-the-market

 

State of the Market: ESG Investing
9:00 AM - 9:45 AM EDT
In this session, leaders in ESG investing will address the current market landscape, discussing the latest trends in strategies and the disruptors in the market today. With the surge in ESG data, they’ll dig into what this means for companies and investors and highlight the challenges, shortcomings and misconceptions of ESG investing.
SPEAKERS:
Basil Williams, CEO, Welton Investment Partners
Nikita Singhal, Director, Co-Head of Sustainable Investment and ESG, Lazard Asset Management  
Naomi English, Executive Director & Head of ESG Solutions, MSCI ESG Research
Moderated by Jason Taylor, Head of Partner Strategy & Integration, Crux Informatics

latest-use-cases

 

Latest Use Cases in ESG Data
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM EDT
Hear from leading ESG data providers explicitly focusing on their product, unique methodologies, differentiation and future product opportunities. Sessions will avoid sales pitches and marketing speak.
FEATURED SUPPLIERS:
Yovanka Bylander, Head of ISS ESG Client Success North America, ISS
Maggie Stafford, Product Manager - Sustainability Data & Research, Morningstar
Lauren Smart, Global Head ESG Commercial, S&P Global Market Intelligence
Stephen Malinak, Chief Data and Analytics Officer, Truvalue Labs

sourcing-evaluating-esg-data

 

Sourcing & Evaluating ESG Data
11:00 AM - 11:45 AM EDT
In this fireside chat, Mamadou-Abou Sarr, President & CEO of V-Square Quantitative Management, and Julia Meigh, VP of ESG Research, Neudata will dig deep into the challenges associated with sourcing and evaluating ESG data sources today. With an abundance of different data sources out there, how do you determine which to use, how to analyze, and what to look for?
SPEAKERS:
Mamadou-Abou Sarr, President & Chief Executive Officer, V-Square Quantitative Management
Julia Asri Meigh, VP of ESG Research, Neudata
Moderated by Philip Brittan, CEO, Crux Informatics

latest-use-cases-edg

 

Latest Use Cases in ESG Data
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EDT
Hear from leading ESG data providers explicitly focusing on their product, unique methodologies, differentiation and future product opportunities. Sessions will avoid sales pitches and marketing speak.
FEATURED SUPPLIERS:
Noel Friedman, Executive Director, Business Manager, ESG Research Products, MSCI
Heiko Bailer, Head of ESG Quantitative Investments, RepRisk
Leon Saunders Calvert, Head of Sustainable Investing, Lipper and I&A Insights, Refinitiv
Vishal Thiruvedula, Head of Product Management, RS Metrics

path-to-stand copy

 

The Path to Standardization in ESG Investing
1:00 PM - 1:45 PM EDT
With the onslaught of ESG datasets and sources, what is the right path to standardization in today’s world of evolving disclosure frameworks? In this session, leaders from the industry and standards bodies will discuss the latest initiatives from regulatory bodies to create standards and reporting frameworks across ESG datasets and ratings.
SPEAKERS:
Siobhan Cleary, Director of Capital Markets Engagement, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
Sonal Dalal,  Director of Civil Society & NGO Outreach, SASB (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board)
Anthony Miller, Coordinator, Sustainable Stock Exchanges, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
Moderated by Todd Arthur Bridges, Global Head of Sustainable Investing & ESG Research, Arabesque Group

deyond-the-pandemic

 

Beyond the Pandemic: What Does the Future Hold for ESG?
2:00 PM - 2:45 PM EDT
The impact of COVID-19 has transcended the global health crisis, creating a multitude of questions about the future state of the financial markets. In this session, global leaders in finance will look to see what lessons we’ve learned from the pandemic and what the future holds for finance, data and more specifically ESG data in a new reality.
SPEAKERS:
Niall Hurley, Head of Business Development, Eagle AlphaEvan Harvey, Global Head of Sustainability, Nasdaq
Jared Westheim, VP of Sustainable Finance, Goldman Sachs 
Moderated by Mike Rude, Head of Go To Market, Crux Informatics

Speakers

 

Senior Advisor

Curtis Ravenel

COP26 Private Finance and TCFD

President & Chief Executive Officer

Mamadou-Abou Sarr

V-Square Quantitative Management

Director, Co-Head of Sustainable Investment and ESG

Nikita Singhal

Lazard Asset Management LLC (New York)

Managing Director, Head of Sustainable Finance Group

John Goldstein

Goldman Sachs

Former Head of Responsible Investment

Linda Giuliano

AllianceBernstein (Former)

Global Head of Sustainability

Evan Harvey

Nasdaq

Executive Director & Head of ESG Solutions

Naomi English

MSCI

Cofounder

Chris Adams

Greening Digital

Director of Capital Markets Engagement

Siobhan Cleary

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

CEO

Philip Brittan

Crux Informatics

Global Digital Advisor

David Cox

Microsoft Digital

North America Head of CleanTech & Sustainability Solutions

Natalie Hollier

ThoughtWorks

Executive Director

Gabriele Columbro

Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS)

CEO

Basil Williams

Welton Investment Partners

Head of ESG Strategy and Client Success, Americas

Yovanka Bylander

ISS

Global Head of Sustainable Investing & ESG Research

Todd Arthur Bridges

Arabesque Group

VP, ESG Research

Julia Asri Meigh

Neudata

Director of Civil Society & NGO Outreach

Sonal Dalal

SASB (Sustainable Accounting Standards Board)

Vice President, Sustainable Finance Group

Jared Westheim

Goldman Sachs

Global Head ESG Commercial

Lauren Smart

S&P Global Market Intelligence

CTO

Mark Etherington

Crux Informatics

Coordinator, Sustainable Stock Exchanges

Anthony Miller

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

Head of Go To Market

Michael Rude

Crux Informatics

Director, Business Development

Niall Hurley

Eagle Alpha

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ESG RESEARCH PRODUCTS

Noel Friedman

MSCI

Head of ESG Quantitative Investments

Heiko Bailer

RepRisk

Product Manager – Sustainability Data & Research

Maggie Stafford

Morningstar

Head of Sustainable Investing, Lipper and I&A Insights

Leon Saunders Calvert

Refinitiv

Head of Product Management

Vishal Thiruvedula

RS Metrics

Chief Data and Analytics Officer

Stephen Malinak

Truvalue Labs

Head of Partner Strategy & Integration

Jason Taylor

Crux Informatics

The Latest in Sustainable Data Infrastructure and ESG Investing

 
The sustainability of data infrastructure and demand of ESG data have never been more critical and relevant in financial services.
 
Crux Informatics is pleased to invite leading practitioners and thought leaders to share their understanding of the landscape, discuss key and ongoing developments, and highlight the path forward.
 
  
A two-day summit packed with impactful content

Day 1

Data, Finance and the Environment

A must for Chief Technology Officers, Data Engineering Leaders, Chief Operating Officers and any technical leads.

Day 2

The Rise and Future of ESG Data

A must for Chief Investment Officers, Portfolio Managers, Data Analysts or any investment and research leads.

Covering Key Themes

Ways to measure and improve your data architecture’s impact on the environment

 

According to a recent study, data centers consume ~2% electricity worldwide. This could rise to 8% of the global total within 10 years.1

innovation__monochromatic 1

 

Understand the state of play in the exploding ESG data category

innovation__monochromatic 1

 

Hear what’s next in sustainability and ESG investing from key industry leaders

online_lesson__monochromatic (1)

 

Crux On Data & Sustainability

Efficient energy usage makes sustainability possible--but how do we address this need now for the future? For some time, renewable energy sources, such as biomass, wind and solar power have brought us closer to addressing our growing energy demand and carbon output. But with the digitization of many industries and the rise in data-driven business models, few are aware of the immense impact that technology and data processing have on our energy usage. This growth is unsustainable. As technology leaders, we share a responsibility to understand and address our data carbon footprint. Ingraining sustainability into our practice and measuring our collective impact now is crucial to avoid the risk of future problems that can cause even greater harm.

There is a significant energy cost associated with data, exacerbated by its exponentially growing demand and the vast amount of processing, storage, and replication happening across industries. Although storage costs per unit of data continue to come down, there are still unsustainable physical, economic, and energy costs. The carbon footprint of information and communications technology is currently measured to be 2% of global emissions, and expected to grow to 8% by 2030. With firms spending approximately 80% of their data resources in repetitive data processing, storage and management work, and only 20% on data science, we believe there’s ample opportunity to design and build better processes that avoid duplicative or inefficient data processes and enable more efficient data usage.

At Crux, we sit at the intersection of data and finance and see firsthand the need among firms to set their data infrastructure on a more sustainable path. In our analysis, it’s not a question of why sustainability is essential--it is simply something that needs to be done. Our community brings together data owners, data consumers, and technologists, all of whom share the energy usage of the broader data ecosystem. We embrace our role as connectors to provide a place for important conversations on sustainability to take place. By fostering this dialogue, we hope to find ways together to make the data supply chain and the use of ESG data more efficient.

This future will not come about lightly, but we have the opportunity to solve problems now that will help us avoid future burdens on our society. It is through active and regular dialogue on this important topic that we, as an industry, can generate new ideas and create meaningful, lasting change.

1 According to a study by Anders Andrae, who researches sustainable information and communications technology for Huawei Technologies Ltd. (https://fortune.com/2019/09/18/internet-cloud-server-data-center-energy-consumption-renewable-coal/