Neural Alpha leveraged our leading experience in the fields of connected data and finance to build a solution which made use of graph data. This technology allowed us to efficiently model the supply chain and financial links between entities as well as to flexibly query the data to provide in depth insights to users.

Showcasing our ability to deliver sophisticated backend infrastructures, Neural Alpha delivered the database, ETLs and API powering Lucida’s advanced supply chain and deforestation analysis.

Materiality was again in the spotlight recently with launch of IFRS sustainability disclosure standards S1 & S2. Whilst the standards were generally welcomed as a significant step in creating a global baseline for corporate sustainability disclosures grounded in the best practices of accounting standards it was seen as controversial in some quarters. In a large part this was due to its approach to dealing with materiality and more specifically ‘double materiality’ — something largely avoided in the standards according to critics. Proponents highlight the mantra that “what can be measured can be managed” when suggesting that focusing on single materiality / materiality should be the priority for disclosing organisations and is thus the focus of these standards. Double materiality encompasses not just sustainability risks which impact a company’s financial performance but the degree to which that company’s products and activities impact the wider world — a philosophy more adopted in European standards such as in the work of EFRAG.