Social Impact Returns. Filling the Finance Gap with Data Value

Sustainability, regulation and environmental issues such as climate change and resource scarcity are emerging as key trends with decisive impact on company's Risk management, value creation and growth strategy. This combination represents one of the biggest opportunities to Society as a whole, including organizations, Governments and citizens. Typically, companies possess vast amounts of data, most of it unutilized. Many are now making investments in digital transformation, which generates even more data. The issue is how to generate social impact returns. The use of data and data analytics is centuries old, but with Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), jointly with other distributed ledger technologies (Blockchain, Cloud) that are advancing rapidly, there are major opportunities to capture value better, cheaper and faster. Speed is of the essence, and success depends on how fast organizations understand the need for non-financial risks management and respond to data-driven intelligence by reallocating resources to accomplish what needs to be done more efficiently. The reason for impact returns is understanding the benefit as a common value, not exclusive to companies, but it also has to distribute value among individuals, communities, and why not, to contribute to regenerate our planet based on a new economy.