Project Canary strengthens ESG audits
SUMMARY
Canary has appointed a big 4 accounting firm to validate its ESG services.
By Callum CyrusProject Canary, a climate tech and environmental impact analytics provider, said March 23 it had launched an initiative to have a "big 4" accounting firm independently verify its auditing data and operating standards.
The initiative is supported by the Payne Institute at the Colorado School of Mines, which will carry out additional checks to meet customer needs. Canary says it will provide evidence based on independent data to give clients "additional assurances" about its service's ability to help them meet net-zero emissions targets.
Project Canary will begin to provide "system and organisational controls" (SOCs) reports from independent auditors who will inspect specific aspects of a company's environmental impact regime.
Those same auditors also evaluate Project Canary's "internal standards, procedures, controls and technology", with a separate assessment also to be provided by Payne Institute.
Project Canary CEO and co-founder Chris Romer said: "The measurement economy is here, and you're either preparing for it or being left behind as ESG leaders emerge.
"Our customers can now choose an additional layer of 3rd party data review to produce unassailable emissions performance reports. You can't simply say you're independent and producing high-fidelity data – you have to prove it.”
Founded in 2018, Project Canary offers third-party data analysis such as its TrustWell certification scheme to benchmark companies on environmental, social and governance auditing objectives in the upstream and midstream oil and gas sectors.
It provides "holistic environment assessments" which factor in air, water, land and community variables. TrustWell encompasses more than 600 data points across 24 operational categories. Project Canary is also targeting methane emissions compliance through its continuous air quality monitoring tech Canary X.
The idea is to bring trust and transparency to oil and gas ESG procedures. Project Canary's ESG readouts will aim to encompass both SOC 1 and SOC 2 reports, covering two common auditing standards in the US. SOC 1 refers to internal accounting controls while SOC 2 covers controls relevant to the client's operations.
Project Canary, headquarters in Denver, Colorado, announced a pilot study with Chevron on February 23 to certify the oil major's operational and environmental performance at North American upstream assets. The process is expected to allow Chevron to verify its natural gas as being "responsibly sourced" by the middle of this year.
On February 24, Canary said it had raised $111mn of venture capital funding in its series B round from Insight Partners, Brookfield Growth, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Carica Sustainable Investments, Quantum Energy Partners, Energy Impact Partners and Frontier Venture Capital.
