Transforming ESG: nearshore teams delivering excellence

With increasing regulatory demands and a heightened focus on transparency, financial institutions require innovative solutions to manage complex ESG datasets. Recognising this need, Element22, a UK-based specialist in data management and analytics, partnered with BBD, an international software engineering firm offering nearshore development models, to bring their ESGi platform to life on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

In a recent AWS Modernisation FX interview, AWS Senior Solutions Architect Riccardo Freschi sat down with Element22 Product Lead Tim Fox and BBD Principal Platform Engineer and UK Director Ricardo Pinto to discuss how the two companies collaborated to deliver a cutting-edge solution for sustainable impact management.

Addressing a complex challenge

Element22 is at the forefront of helping financial institutions modernise their data management practices. With the rise of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) reporting requirements, they identified a gap in the market for a digital platform capable of enabling ESG data collection and reporting at scale.

“The genesis of Element22’s ESGi platform was the European Commission’s SFDR regulation, which enforces product owners to declare ESG metrics on their products,” explained Tim Fox. “From there, we built a platform to provide trusted data collection, validation and reporting for financial institutions and venture capitalists.”

The platform addresses two primary needs:

1. Regulatory compliance: Supporting financial institutions in meeting disclosure requirements such as the EU’s SFDR (Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation) and the UK’s SDR (Sustainability Disclosure Requirements).
2. Venture capital use cases: Helping VC firms collect ESG metrics from their portfolio companies, even those smaller Impact VCs whose raison d’etre is to positively impact the world as a whole and who have limited public reporting practices.

At its core, ESGi champions data transparency, operational efficiency and trust. Agnostic in these use cases, Element22’s platform enables firms to gather metrics directly from source companies, validate and secure the data, and aggregate it for regulatory or impact reporting in a digital manner than introduces improved operational efficiencies.

A nearshore partnership forged in innovation

The partnership between BBD and Element22 began during an FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) Technical Sprint. Reflecting on the collaboration, Tim Fox shared:

“A number of years ago, when ESGi was at the conceptual stage, we happened to be participating in an FCA Technical Sprint where participants were matched at random. We ended up with a BBD team member on our workstream, and they turned out some spectacular work in a very short period of time. We thought to ourselves, if the rest of BBD is as good as that, then they’d make a great partner.”

Tim Fox, Product Lead, Element22

Pinto explains that BBD is a software engineering firm that provides skills and resources for many types of engineering requirements that institutions may have – from software development through to architecture, SDLC processes and management. “We specialise in providing teams of mixed-skill professionals to tackle problems for our clients across the technical landscape, helping organisations like Element22 bring their business product, through technology, to life.”

When BBD joined the project, ESGi was a proof of concept running on traditional virtual machines. After evaluating the current state of the architecture and codebase, BBD recommended modernising the platform with container-based technology to support scalability and efficiency. Amongst the many aspects, speed and cost of ownership took priority as chief concerns.

Having completed this groundwork, BBD mobilised a team with the identified skillsets and designed and laid down the fit-for-purpose Landing Zone with enough flexibility to grow. The application engineers then delivered on top of the secure Landing Zone and iterated with Element22 to get the future sets to a point where they felt ready and could release to their customers.

What was unique about BBD’s offering Element22 was that the company could leverage its teams across the UK, Netherlands, Portugal and India to build out a team with the right combination of skillsets for this project specifically. This nearshore engagement model meant that team leads in the UK could still work closely with the Element22 team in-person, despite the rest of team residing elsewhere. This model gave the client a cost-effective approach while ensuring the best suited team was in play. This approach has also allowed BBD to adapt resources dynamically, scaling the team up or down based on project phases – a significant advantage for evolving platforms like ESGi.

Building for the future with AWS

BBD’s expertise in AWS services was crucial in transforming ESGi into a robust, scalable solution. Migrating the platform to Amazon ECS (Elastic Container Service) and AWS Fargate enabled the team to build a system tailored for growth while minimising Total Cost of Ownership.

“AWS Fargate allowed us to focus on delivering value rather than managing infrastructure,” said Ricardo Pinto. “It’s the right fit for a platform with growth potential, offering scalability, operational simplicity, and cost efficiency.”

Key highlights of the solution included:

• Operational efficiency: Fargate eliminated manual compute resource management, simplifying deployments
• Developer enablement: Containers streamlined development workflows, enabling faster feature releases
• Cost optimisation: Leveraging AWS managed services reduced the platform’s Total Cost of Ownership on day-to-day operations

BBD also established a secure AWS Landing Zone, ensuring ESGi met stringent compliance requirements while providing the flexibility needed for future expansion.

The road ahead

Since the initial deployment, the BBD team has been adding features, running with continuous improvements and leveraging the evolving AWS toolsets to get the best result.

With ESGi now fully operational, Element22 and BBD are committed to its continuous evolution. The platform already features a data dictionary, which uniquely defines each ESG attribute collected, and a rules engine for content aggregation and reporting.

“Regulation will drive our roadmap, as firms need solutions to comply across multiple jurisdictions,” Tim Fox noted. “A platform that adapts to new regulations while maintaining trust and efficiency is key to staying ahead.”

Future priorities potentially include integrating new data points, expanding use cases, and further optimising the architecture with real-world insights. From a technical perspective, BBD will continue to leverage AWS innovations to ensure ESGi remains at the forefront of ESG reporting.

A collaborative success

The partnership between BBD and Element22 exemplifies the impact of collaboration and the value of nearshoring. By combining Element22’s industry expertise with BBD’s technical capabilities, ESGi has emerged as a trusted, efficient and scalable platform — helping financial institutions and venture capital firms lead the way in sustainable impact management.

If you’d like to learn more about BBD’s nearshore engagement models and the benefits it offers businesses, click here. Alternatively, click here to schedule a free consult call with our experts.

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