As a leading private equity firm based in London, Livingbridge recognizes that high-quality ESG data is critical to understanding and enhancing portfolio value. The firm needed a scalable way to collect consistent emissions data while helping portfolio companies—many without dedicated sustainability resources—better understand and manage their carbon footprint.
Prior to Novata, Livingbridge relied on a legacy platform that required significant external support and manual project management to complete annual ESG data collection cycles.
“Having a platform like Novata makes life a lot easier and means that we can focus on more in-depth engagement with the portfolio companies, rather than spending a lot of time chasing them for data,” the team shared.
The Solution: Novata’s Carbon Navigator
Many of Livingbridge’s portfolio companies are early in their sustainability journeys and do not have dedicated climate expertise internally. To support these companies, Livingbridge needed a practical way to help them measure emissions consistently and build confidence in their carbon data. Novata’s Carbon Navigator provided a structured, accessible way to calculate and understand their emissions.
“Even if they are immature or there’s not a sustainability expert within that specific portfolio company, it gives them a tool where they can robustly do those calculations and understand their carbon footprint a little bit better,” the Livingbridge team said.
By helping portfolio companies understand their emissions footprint, the platform creates opportunities for operational improvement and future decarbonisation efforts.
Carbon Navigator provides portfolio companies with the foundation they need to identify emissions hotspots, evaluate reduction opportunities, and begin embedding climate considerations into business decisions.
Livingbridge also relies on Novata’s data validation capabilities to ensure confidence in reported information.
“The data validation module has enabled us to sense-check and validate the data and go back to portfolio companies where the information they’ve submitted doesn’t look right.”
Instead of managing lengthy email chains and spreadsheet reviews, the team can review, validate, and resolve data questions directly within the platform.
“It just allows us to manage everything in one place.”
The Result: Comprehensive Carbon Data Collection
With Carbon Navigator, Livingbridge was able to significantly improve the completeness and consistency of emissions data collected across its portfolio:
- 100% of participating companies submitted Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions data
- More than 90% submitted Scope 3 emissions data
“Novata’s usability and functionality, particularly with the Carbon Navigator, has meant that we can provide a more complete picture of our financed emissions,” the Livingbridge team said.
Novata enabled the firm to bring ESG data management in-house, eliminating the need for external project management support and allowing more time for strategic engagement with portfolio companies.
“It frees up a lot of our time to be able to engage more meaningfully with the portfolio companies where we see specific ESG topics that we think can enhance their value.”
Looking Ahead
Livingbridge has established a repeatable ESG reporting cadence powered by Novata and is now focused on using its growing dataset to generate deeper insights and support ongoing portfolio engagement.
“Moving to Novata has enabled us to get into that regular cadence of collecting data, generating insights, and talking to our boards about their performance.”
