A new climate action platform, FourTwoThree, has debuted with backing from NatWest Group, NAB, and SC Ventures, Standard Chartered’s platform, aiming to accelerate the sustainable transition of millions of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) globally.
The platform has been designed to facilitate collaboration between large enterprises and their SME value chains when measuring, understanding, and reducing carbon emissions. The initiative has been launched in response to growing regulatory, investor, and customer pressures on companies to address Scope 3 emissions, which often originate from supply chains and can constitute over 70% of a company’s total emissions.
According to FourTwoThree, the new platform integrates with existing bank infrastructure and meets enterprise-level requirements for risk, security, and performance, automating carbon footprint calculations for SMEs and providing tailored guidance to support decarbonization efforts. In addition, the platform supports large institutions in meeting emerging disclosure and sustainability standards and in strengthening the resilience and sustainability of their supplier networks, FourTwoThree said.
Glyn Baker, FourTwoThree’s CEO, said:
“Climate Action becomes possible when we make it accessible. SMEs play a crucial role in the global economy, representing the majority of commerce, employment and GDP. Connecting SMEs to better support accessible financing and emerging climate innovation will simply make them better and more engaged customers, suppliers and employers.”
The platform has been developed in collaboration with financial institutions that have experience deploying climate tools in-market. It is underpinned by technology from Valtech and hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
In a move to further enhance its capabilities, FourTwoThree is acquiring PointSource Technologies, a venture incubated by SC Ventures that focuses on making climate data actionable for financing, compliance, and subsidy access.
Harald Eltvedt, Operating Member at SC Ventures, said:
“When we started PointSource, our goal was to build something pragmatic and useful – something that helps bridge the gap between climate ambition and climate action. This [acquisition agreement] is exactly what we aim to do at SC Ventures: back bold ideas, build real solutions, and scale them with the right partners. With FourTwoThree, we believe PointSource can now reach the scale and relevance the climate challenge demands.”
