Building Credibility, Efficiency, and Defensibility Through Data-Driven Sustainability Management
A leading US bank replaces subjective, consultant-led materiality assessments with a data-driven process, gaining nearly 90% efficiency and stronger defensibility.
Results
"Before Datamaran, we relied on manual research and consultant support, which made it difficult to capture stakeholder perspectives in a statistically meaningful way.
With Datamaran, we now have an objective, data-driven process that brings rigor and defensibility to our sustainability processes and priorities. The platform has delivered nearly 90% efficiency gains and significantly reduced costs, while enabling us to do more analysis, engage more stakeholders, and justify our decisions with clear evidence."
Overview
This US-based bank has been a corporate sustainability early mover, with nearly 20 years of voluntary reporting behind it. Sustainability sits inside core business functions here, not alongside them, and the bank aligns with GRI and SASB while tracking ISSB and CSRD. To bring more rigor and evidence to its materiality process, and prepare for future reporting norms, the bank adopted Datamaran.
Challenges
The sustainability team faced three obstacles. Earlier consultant-led assessments and literature reviews lacked robustness — limited stakeholder representation made it hard to capture perspectives in a statistically meaningful way. Stakeholder interviews were time-consuming and costly, and while peers refreshed materiality every three to four years, the team wanted more frequent updates as issues evolved. And with sustainability priorities facing more scrutiny, the team needed robust, objective evidence to validate decisions and avoid any perception of bias.
Solution
Datamaran now gives the team rigor, objectivity, and repeatability. The bank conducts and refreshes materiality assessments far faster than industry peers, uses benchmarking to understand peer disclosures and investor expectations instantly, explores double materiality internally, and gives ESG committee members fast, tailored insight into shifts like DEI disclosure trends.
Impact
The platform replaced days of manual analysis and heavy consultant reliance with fast, repeatable internal processes — delivering close to 90% efficiency gains and letting the team refresh insights far more often than regional peers can manage. By grounding decisions in data from peers, investors, industry bodies, and regulators, the bank can show its priorities come from objective evidence, not opinion. Instead of spending days on a single question, the team now answers it in minutes.
Looking Ahead
The bank continues deepening its use of Datamaran to refine governance and engage leadership, and its team takes an active role in Datamaran's Harbor community, connecting with global peers on shared challenges and emerging trends.
