eRevalue BLOG
Big Data will change the corporate world, says new sustainability tech company
Announcing the Board of Directors leading the Datamaran™
By Lucy Goodchild van Hilten, Writer
Tech-focused start-up eRevalue today announces Helle Bank Jorgensen as Chairman of the Board of Directors, marking the official launch of the company.
Jorgensen is a global board facilitator for the UN Global Compact Board Programme and the Head of the UN Global Compact in Canada. She is also the CEO of B.Accountability – a consultancy working on sustainability and climate change.
She joins CEO Marjella Alma, COO Jean-Philippe Lecourt, CBDO Anne Floor van Dalfsen and CTO Jérôme Basdevant to lead eRevalue’s mission to empower companies through technology, to make big data digestible and to distill essential knowledge.
“If you think about identifying the risk for a company in terms of what are the material issues, that’s where eRevalue plays a role,” explains Jorgensen. “By knowing what kind of material issues are out there, and what regulations you need to be in compliance with, you suddenly go from being in a blind spot to a bright spot. eRevalue is the first – and so far the only – place where companies can get this information in a very cost-effective and efficient way.”
You can listen to a recent interview with Helle here:
Helping companies uncover their ‘bright spots’
By Lucy Goodchild van Hilten, Writer
Two people sit together on a park bench, sharing thoughts, opinions and ideas. One of them jots some words down on a napkin – a small action that is to seed a huge, world-changing movement. A familiar, if idealistic, story of entrepreneurship – did you know that the award-winning film A Few Good Men was written on cocktail napkins? (So was my thesis, but that’s another story…)
On this occasion, the familiar park bench-chatting, napkin-jotting scene has resulted in a new start-up that has the potential to change the way companies approach their business intelligence and sustainability management. eRevalue is developing a new kind of software that companies will be able to use to use big data to their advantage, helping them navigate legislation, make smart decisions about their sustainability management, conduct useful materiality assessments and even select key stakeholders.
Helle Bank Jorgensen
This week, eRevalue introduced its Chairman, Helle Bank Jorgensen. In addition to her new role as non-executive Chairman of eRevalue’s Board of Directors, she is a global board facilitator for the UN Global Compact Board Programme and the Head of the UN Global Compact in Canada. She is also the CEO of B.Accountability – a consultancy working on sustainability and climate change.
Here we get to know Helle, hear the story from her side of the bench, and find out what’s in store for eRevalue.
Listen to the audio interview:
Big data is a big buzzword. It has gotten the attention of markets and governments, with many being infatuated by its potential – including us. There are intimidating powers at play (take Palantir, the semi-secretive US defense and anti-fraud giant), beautiful visuals created (such as people’s feelings visualized as color particles), hopes for humanity (like combating global epidemics with the mobile data analytics) and a fair deal of warning about proper use (for example the button-effect of blind faith in machine outcomes, while we should always remain able to interpret the button’s offerings).
Still, one of our CTO’s favorite analyses of the situation as phrased by Dan Ariely:
“Big data is like teenage sex: everyone talks about it, nobody really knows how to do it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it.”
In the corporate sustainability field, “materiality” is the big buzzword. There too are intimidating examples (take the global and historical tracking SAB Miller’s SAM reporting tool), great visuals (such as Allianz Materiality landscape), hopes for humanity (uhm, let me get back to you about that one), and warnings about proper practice (not uncommonly through savvy blogposts).
An interview of eRevalue CEO Marjella Alma by Marjolein Baghuis (changeincontext.com)
June 30, 2014
Meet Marjella Alma, CEO of the inspiring tech startup eRevalue, which offers a tailored process for integrating Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) factors into business strategy.
What is your vision of a sustainable future?
A world without so much emphasis on the material, on beauty and on individuals. I’d like to see society de-materialize, de-beautify and de-individualize – yet make a good living in the process.
We currently live in a world of bubbles. We all like our own little bubble, characterized by similarities: our friends are like us, our jobs are on the same level, our thinking is aligned and – if we admit to them – our limitations are also similar. I think it creates a false sense of comfort and drives discrepancy between different groups of people. You can compare this to a company that has grown very quickly and hires only ‘specialists’, forgetting to hire ‘connectors’. Over time, the company’s foundations weaken and it will not be successful.
I hope we can let these artificial bubbles burst – to drive understanding between people and get back to the fundamentals. I recently came across a great example of this.
At our London HQ, we’re always on the look out for the latest revolution in sustainability. Today, we noticed a “BIG ONE” happening at our doorstep.
On 1 June, the London Stock Exchange championed the importance of long-term value creation and sustainable business by joining the UN Sustainable Stock Exchange Initiative (SSE).
With NASDAQ and NYSE already joining 2012 and 2013, all eyes were set on Europe, and especially, on whether LSE would step up. LSE is no small potato being the fourth biggest exchange in the world (Market Cap: US$ 3,396 bn) after NYSE, NASDAQ and the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Last year on 24 July, I attended an event at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) celebrating its decision to join this initiative. NYSE’s CEO Duncan Niederauer teamed up with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and together they created an exceptional energetic call-to-action.