aiESG Visualizes Corporate Impacts at the Product and Service Level

Companies are currently facing a wave of new ESG score-based analysis and
assessment
requirements.
It is a tide that cannot be ignored, as the results also affect investor
decisions
and corporate branding. Yet at the same time, there are so many different
measures that companies struggle to understand and meet each of their
requirements.

It is with all this in mind that aiESG, Inc. began
offering its ESG analysis service in 2022. We spoke with Shunsuke
Managi — the company’s
representative director, professor of Urban Systems Engineering and director
of the Urban Research Center at Kyushu
University — to learn how the service differs
from other analyses and how it could impact corporate ESG efforts.

Comprehensive and effective ESG analysis utilizing AI

We have entered an age where companies are expected to have an end-to-end grasp
of their product and service supply chains and demonstrate that there are no
issues in any of the ESG pillars. To do so, major companies appoint personnel to
create monitoring systems, but the enormous expense of continuously collecting
and updating information makes it impossible for some to continue maintaining
these accountability functions.

“As it is now, I think a number of companies continue their ESG initiatives just
because they feel like they have to,” Managi explains. “But companies that saw
what was happening, proactively established their own rules and took
action
are those that now have the competitive edge. As realistic solutions to this,
predictions and simulations are key.”

aiESG’s analysis service can perform
comprehensive ESG assessments of each individual product and service throughout
an entire supply chain. It incorporates the company’s own AI into a database
co-developed by Kyushu University researchers, together with Harvard and
other academic institutions, enabling sophisticated analysis from a variety of
perspectives.

“Corporate supply chains are linked to countries and regions worldwide. If there
are risks with high likelihood when procuring from a certain country, we can use
AI to see how switching to another region may reduce the risk. Rather than look
at the entire extensive structure of the supply chain, we select certain
products or processes and identify those that are high risk. Doing so allows for
early-stage improvements and for activities to be continued.”

By entering cost or usage data for materials used in a product or service, aiESG
helps companies visualize and quantify metrics at an individual level. The
service can measure metrics related to approximately 3,200 ESG issues —
including greenhouse gas emissions,
biodiversity,
air pollution, mineral resources, forced
labor,
child labor and gender equality. The service can also be customized according to
a company’s own assessment indicators.

“aiESG can [also] compare a company with competitors to visualize strengths and
weaknesses — allowing them to consider the relative benefits of strategies such
as boosting strengths, improving weaknesses, or maintaining the current course
if an immediate solution is difficult,” Managi adds. “For example,
wellbeing
is a target that many companies are focusing on but which is hard to compare.
aiESG enables companies to quantitively understand which kinds of
infrastructure, organizations and activities could improve wellbeing and can
help communicate the level of those improvements.”

The service also uses AI to analyze daily news from approximately 60 countries
and identify the latest assessment trends, which also helps provide various
recommendations.

“Many surveys, major financial institutions and researchers have been indicating
that ESG
metrics
have some degree of impact on corporate profits and stock prices, but I thought
this should be probed more deeply. When we tried aiESG analysis, the results
showed that these metrics can explain around 10 percent of stock price
fluctuations. Ultimately, doing an analysis with comprehensive data makes it
clear what needs to be improved — which should be of huge benefit for
companies.”

Embedding sustainability throughout society

Managi has been active internationally, including serving as a representative
for reporting by the United Nations’ Inclusive Wealth
Index,
and has also conducted joint research with companies and local governments to
scale sustainability and ESG in Japan. These experiences led him to the
realization that no progress can be made without an organization that drives it,
so he is now working with companies through aiESG to create a more sustainable
society together.

“Things are going well since service was launched two years ago, and aiESG has
been introduced at both major companies and startups,” Managi says. “Moving
forward, I’d also like to expand this to local governments. Matching the
products, services, technologies and skills of companies to the issues and
demands of local communities can be of benefit to both parties. Once we have
excellent positive case studies, we can venture into other regions and
countries. I think creating more of these opportunities will enable real regional
revitalization, and specializing in unique strengths at an even earlier stage
will likewise help companies survive.”

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Published Mar 14, 2025 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 12pm GMT / 1pm CET