Trellis climbs to export success with ESG platform

Adelaide-based Trellis Technologies is helping organisations to collect, analyse and track their carbon emissions. The company’s platform converts data from utility bills and other sources into detailed, accurate and auditable sustainability metrics.

Organisations can use this data to reduce energy costs, develop and monitor their environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives, and meet reporting requirements. Trellis counts local councils, wineries, universities and global property consultancies as clients. It is working with Austrade to find clients in New Zealand and other markets with similar accounting frameworks to Australia.

Detailed, accurate and credible emissions data

Trellis’ technology uses artificial intelligence and other tools to capture and convert information from utility, waste, fuel and solar power bills into emissions-equivalent data. Organisations can use this data to develop and track their energy efficiency and sustainability initiatives. They can also pinpoint areas where they can lower costs or be more energy and resource-efficient.

‘Most solutions use a top-down approach to calculate emissions,’ says Pavlo Smoliy, CEO, Trellis Technologies. ‘This can inflate the actual volume of an organisation’s carbon emissions by four to seven times.’

‘Our granular, bottom-up approach looks at your energy, water, waste, fuel and other resource consumption. It’s much more comprehensive, accurate and credible. Our data is trusted by NGER and Climate Active reporting entities.’

Trellis’ clients include the University of South Australia, University of Queensland, Knight Frank Australia, ResourceCo, Henschke Wine, Bridgestone, Department of Education, and local councils across Australia and New Zealand.

‘Many exporting companies are being asked to prove they have sustainable operations,’ says Smoliy. ‘Our carbon accounting and reporting platform can help exporters meet overseas regulatory requirements or requests from buyers about sustainability credentials.’

Taking Trellis to the world

Trellis is now taking its ESG reporting solution to the world. The company launched in New Zealand in 2023 and has already signed 2 clients, including Nelson City Council.

Nelson City Council has a 10-year action plan that details its proposed measures to mitigate and reduce carbon emissions. As part of the plan, the council is tracking and monitoring data from building management systems, energy meters, utility bills and related reports.

The council is using Trellis to simplify and automate the tracking of Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions across specific resource categories. By using financial records to streamline the carbon accounting procedure, the council will have visibility into individual meters and vehicles, and access to an asset-level breakdown of its carbon footprint. The council can then analyse the data to find opportunities to reduce costs, mitigate emissions and optimise energy use.

Meeting new sustainability reporting requirements

Closer to home, Knight Frank Australia has adopted Trellis as its ESG data management and reporting solution. The company manages over 2,000 properties covering over 14 million square metres. It chose Trellis for the nimbleness of its solution, local team and proven track record.

Knight Frank Australia is encouraging owners and clients to use the platform (called Prism) to track carbon emissions. The solution scrapes information from utility bills and estimates the property’s carbon emissions based on this data. The resulting insights help clients understand how their assets are performing, so they know what to do to improve sustainability.

This will be important when new sustainability reporting regulations in Australia come into force. From 2024, large organisations will be required to report and give assurances on governance, strategy, risk management, sustainability targets and metrics. The Trellis data is audit-ready, enabling users to meet the new reporting requirements.

‘What Trellis allows us to do is create a single source of truth for all our critical ESG data,’ says Jenine Cranston, Partner, Head of ESG, Knight Frank Australia. ‘It is a game changer when we’re talking about managing large volumes of data. We’ll help clients interpret reports and determine what actions to take – and translate their sustainability ambitions into action.’

Sustainability reporting is also important to attract and retain investment. ‘Investors will want to know the asset’s emissions profile and what is being done to improve it,’ says Cranston. ‘They want greater transparency and assurance, so they know their assets won’t be stranded in the future. A system like Trellis will reassure investors that fund and asset managers in Australia are completely across their portfolios.’

Austrade assistance

Trellis is focused on markets that have a similar operating and regulatory environment to Australia where its platform can be readily used. The company reached out to Austrade for assistance entering the New Zealand market. Austrade has provided introductions to potential clients, including local councils.

‘We are also hoping our international clients will adopt our solution in their operations overseas,’ says Smoliy. ‘It will help us expand our reach into those new markets.’

‘Austrade has been incredibly helpful and proactive throughout the process. They have also provided some great insights. For a rapidly scaling and busy organisation, the support with overseas markets is invaluable,’ says Ryan Waddington, Commercial Director, Trellis Technologies.