Secondary data gets you started. Primary data sets you apart.
Primary Data is the actual, authentic, original data on sustainability events that is locked in invoices, utility bills, environmental reports and other business files. In contrast, Secondary Data is the industry averages, structured defaults and web-scraped data that provides a good starting point.
To start, consider a corporate sustainability report that is based on 100% Secondary Data. Is this a corporate report or an industry report? It may appear unique, but that reflects the bespoke selection of industry averages. What it reveals is lack of investment in sustainability.
Most supply chains now require a new performance metric, Primary Data Share (PDS), which is designed to show users of the report how things stand. PDS is the percent of Primary Data in all data used in the report.
If every corporate sustainability report has a PDS metric, reports with a low PDS (e.g., 0–30%) will be treated quite differently by customers and investors than those with high PDS (e.g., 70–100%). PDS is a lens into data quality and investment in the quality of sustainability data, revealing far more than what it actually measures. A high PDS is a competitive advantage.
Using data quality to create competitive advantage is at the heart of a proposal to upgrade the GHG Protocols Scope 3 reporting. The supporting standards body is holding consultations on its proposal to require disclosure of data quality metrics, how they perform over time, with a clear target for improvement. This proposal reflects how it feels to use sustainability data without knowing a bit about how it was prepared. Spoiler: it raises more questions than it answers.
In contrast, imagine a company with a high PDS for its corporate reporting and for its Product Carbon Footprint report shared with customers. Both of these reports are used by third parties, and a high PDS score will immediately increase data confidence.
