New partnership equips customers with real-time intelligence from over 4 million sources to strengthen due diligence and monitoring across global supply chains

WASHINGTON, D.C. – September 26, 2025 – Sayari, a leader in corporate risk intelligence and supply chain transparency, today announced a new data partnership with SESAMm, a global provider of AI-driven controversy risk data. This collaboration integrates SESAMm’s real-time, AI-driven controversy risk data into the Sayari platform, providing users with unprecedented insights into hidden ESG risks across global supply chains. By combining our unique datasets, we are closing the information gap on hard-to-assess private entities and their suppliers, a critical blind spot in traditional ESG and supply chain monitoring.

The partnership directly addresses the growing need for procurement and risk teams to have comprehensive insight into emerging reputational risks as global ESG compliance requirements intensify. By integrating SESAMm’s data, Sayari's solution now monitors over 650,000 suppliers, allowing customers to proactively identify and mitigate risks from small, hard-to-assess private entities that are typically excluded from traditional ESG coverage.

The data partnership is powered by SESAMm’s advanced AI, which analyzes content from over 4 million sources in more than 100 languages. This real-time analysis provides actionable decision intelligence that can detect red flags like human rights violations, environmental scandals, and governance failures, often days or even weeks before they surface in traditional data sets, transforming reactive risk management into strategic foresight. This powerful analysis offers a unique advantage, complementing traditional ESG metrics and strengthening due diligence and ongoing monitoring efforts. The data is available across all of Sayari's platforms, including API, bulk, and visually in both Sayari Graph and Sayari Map.

“For the first time, our customers can gain a truly holistic, interconnected view of every entity in their ecosystem, from tier-1 suppliers to hidden sub-tier partners,” said Chris Brazdziunas, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Sayari. “By integrating SESAMm's real-time, AI-driven insights, we're empowering our clients to proactively identify and mitigate hidden risks on a global scale, fundamentally changing the way they approach due diligence and supply chain transparency.”

“For more than a decade, we’ve advanced AI to reveal hidden ESG and reputational risks in companies worldwide. We’re excited to partner with Sayari to bring these insights into procurement and supply chain risk management, enabling teams to detect issues earlier and address them more effectively,” said Sylvain Forté, CEO and co-founder of SESAMm.

The future of risk management demands a holistic, interconnected view of every entity within an organization's ecosystem. This partnership, powered by AI-driven analysis of more than 4 million sources, lays the foundation for a comprehensive, integrated risk management solution that will revolutionize the quality, efficiency, speed, and scale at which organizations can identify and manage third-party risk. The ability to transform deep analysis into strategic foresight is the key to empowering customers to act with confidence in an increasingly complex global economy.

About Sayari

Sayari provides global corporate transparency and supply chain risk identification for government and industry. Its commercial risk intelligence platform aggregates data from more than 250 jurisdictions worldwide. Sayari's solutions are trusted by government agencies, financial institutions, and Fortune 500 companies.

About SESAMm

SESAMm is a global provider of AI-driven controversy risk data. The company delivers real-time reputational and sustainability risk signals using advanced large language models and generative AI. SESAMm has raised over $50 million in funding and is backed by major investors including Carlyle, BNP Paribas, and Elaia. They work with major financial institutions, private equity firms, rating agencies, and corporations.

SESAMm’s AI Technology Reveals ESG Insights

Discover unparalleled insights into ESG controversies, risks, and opportunities across industries. Learn more about how SESAMm can help you analyze millions of private and public companies using AI-powered text analysis tools.

As the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference wraps up, governments and, by proxy, companies are charged with fulfilling new recommendations, especially for non-State entities to commit with integrity to Net-Zero. COP27, as the conference is also called, is the time and place where we claim as a united society at the world's center to make change for the better.

But COP27 is over. Now what? Do we go back to business as usual? Do we wait and see if we stick to any of these new agreements? Or worse, do we say we'll make changes but fall short of making those changes?

I say no. We can do better, and here's why…

We need to talk about climate change

Climate change effects are more than global warming. Global warming consequences include:

• Rising sea levels
• Stronger and more intense hurricanes
• More droughts and heat waves
• Longer wildfire seasons
• And more

Why do I bring these up? Because all of these effects will impact your business in one way or another.

For example, did you know that the Rhine River, one of Europe's major rivers, is suffering from drought? Water levels are so low that barges are limited, and it's disrupted river cruises because levels are currently 38 centimeters below the minimum required.

The same goes for the Mississippi River in the U.S. The Mississippi River has dropped to the lowest levels they've ever been in 34 years, driving up shipping costs. This challenge is also a big deal because the river carries 92% of agricultural exports.

Also, in the past year, damaging hurricanes and typhoons have damaged infrastructure in South Korea, South Africa, China, Japan, and the U.S., to name a few countries, affecting crops, manufacturing operations, supply chains, and much more across the globe.

I could go on about how each effect influences enterprise, but the bottom line is climate change is bad for business. And supporting companies that enable climate change is also bad for business, which brings us to the topic of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) measures.

We need to talk about ESG

ESG has become mainstream since the UN shared a report in 2006, a joint initiative by a group of financial institutions to develop policies and guidance on how to better incorporate ESG issues in securities brokerage services, asset management, and associated research functions. This introduction has helped industries establish goals through:

• Managing ESG risks
• Anticipating regulatory action or accessing new markets
• Contributing to the sustainable development of their societies

However, with ESG policies come ESG data challenges. For example, ESG measuring, its data, and how companies report them are inconsistent. ESG data providers deal with "data gaps" differently, so their approaches can lead to discrepancies. And as ESG data becomes available publicly, how ESG data providers interpret the data varies, too.

We need to talk about greenwashing

In simplest terms, greenwashing occurs when a company misleads its stakeholders, investors, and consumers about its environmental practices, specifically by communicating positive environmental performance contrary to its actual, less flattering execution.

On the surface, you might think, "What's the big deal? We all exaggerate, right?" But as sustainability awareness among investors and eco-conscious customers grows, so has their scrutiny over business conduct to disclose information about a company's performance and its "environmental-friendly" products. Their scrutiny, coupled with the growing number of companies reporting their environmental footprints, reveals that many companies misreport and publish information about their ecological impacts, which regulators consider misleading or deceptive.

How do we know? Let's take a look at greenwashing mentions by industry.

We analyzed greenwashing mentions in web data. On the X-axis, we list the industries. The Y-axis measures the ratio of greenwashing mentions by N° of companies per industry (N=1166 companies) since 2015; this extraction method corrects sampling bias. Each industry is defined by a significant sample of large- and mid-capitalization-sized companies in developed countries.

This greenwashing mention chart clearly shows that the Energy industry has the highest ratio of greenwashing allegations. While many fossil fuel companies claim to be transitioning into clean energy, most mentions link these companies to advertisements and campaigns that don't align with the Paris Agreement goals. In contrast, fossil fuel companies are growing their carbon-intensive operations and products. It's a concerning trend because according to The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, "Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis.", the data shows that emissions from fossil fuels are the primary cause of global warming, contributing up to 91% of global carbon dioxide emissions in 2018 as an example.

Second, on this chart is the Financial industry. It has fallen short of its commitments to climate action while continuing to finance fossil fuels. According to eMarketer, financial institutions have allocated $4.6 trillion for fossil fuels while promoting sustainable finance and supporting global energy transition.

Further, the mentions volume has grown year over year since 2015—when it was almost zero—to more than 1500 present day.

Clearly, this greenwashing problem is getting worse. So what can we do about it?

We need to talk about a solution

We don't have any control over what companies will do to fulfill their agreements, but we can understand their ESG data better and make better investment and portfolio decisions.

How? With AI.

AI, specifically natural language processing (NLP) algorithms, help us read billions of news articles, forums, and web text and extract unstructured data for analysis. With SESAMm's TextReveal®, we can see an entity's ESG controversies or events in near real time, providing a unique perspective to ESG data and details, filling the data gaps more accurately.

So when Company A reports on its ESG goals, we can help verify if the results are accurate and find any potential controversies that didn't make the report. We also don't need to wait until ESG reports come out; we can extract this data from the web on an as-needed basis. Moreover, we can look at all types of companies across the globe, public or private. As long as web data exists for an entity (or concept), we can analyze it.

My final thoughts

COP27 might be over, but our agreements and commitments carry on. We have an opportunity today to make a positive difference toward climate change while still maintaining profits. In fact, I think we can be even more profitable if we support green and sustainable initiatives.

I'd like to hear your thoughts; feel free to reach out on LinkedIn and share them with me.

About Alexandre Tiesset

Alexandre Tiesset is the Head of ESG at SESAMm. He's worked in finance for seven years in various ESG-related roles, such as Credit Analyst, Sustainable Investing Specialist, Index Product Specialist, and more. He holds a Master of Science degree in Finance and Financial Analysis. His passion lies in the intersection of finance and general knowledge and making new connections.

Reach out to SESAMm

SESAMm is a leading NLP technology company serving global investment firms, corporations, and investors, such as private equity firms, hedge funds, and other asset management firms, by providing datasets or NLP capabilities to generate their own alternative data for use cases, such as ESG and SDG, sentiment, private equity due diligence, corporation studies, and more.

To learn how you can generate NLP-enhanced ESG data for your firm, or to request a demo, reach out today.

For nearly three decades, the world has annually witnessed an event of critical importance for the future of our climate: the Conferences of the Parties, better known as the COP. First held in 1995 following the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, these conferences bring together nations that have ratified this treaty in a collective effort to combat climate change, a phenomenon increasingly evident in our daily lives.

Among these conferences, two stand out for their significant impact. The first COP3, held in Kyoto in 1997, marked a turning point with the near-unanimous adoption of the Kyoto Protocol. This agreement, which came into force in 2005 after intense negotiations, mandated signatories to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 5% by 2012. Despite its legally binding nature, some countries attempted to diminish its ambition, and others, like the United States, never ratified it. Canada withdrew from the treaty in 2011, citing the discovery of highly polluting tar sands in Alberta. At the 2012 Doha conference, the Kyoto Protocol was extended until 2020 despite the absence of the US agreement.

COP15, held in Copenhagen in 2009, acknowledged for the first time the necessity of limiting global warming to 2°C above pre-industrial levels and proposed the creation of a Green Climate Fund endowed with 100 billion US dollars annually until 2020. Unfortunately, this initiative lacked legal enforcement and clear rules for fund allocation. By 2014, after the Lima conference, the Green Climate Fund had only amassed 10 billion US dollars.

Then came COP21 in 2015 in Paris, one of the most well-known conferences, which led to the landmark Paris Climate Agreement. This agreement set three primary goals:

1. Limit Temperature Rise: Keep the global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels while pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
2. Adapt to Climate Impacts: Enhance the ability of countries to adapt to climate change impacts, focusing on resilience and adaptive capacity, especially in vulnerable regions.
   
3. Align Financial Flows: Redirect financial flows towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development, ensuring consistent support for mitigation and adaptation.

Once again, the agreement was not, or only minimally, binding: Participant countries were encouraged to define their "Nationally Determined Contributions" to be re-evaluated and submitted to the UN every five years, with each submission expected to be more ambitious than the last. The only legal obligation was the transparency of national contributions and their evaluation by experts.

The Paris Agreement, however, paved the way for landmark climate litigation, including a significant case in the Netherlands where a foundation sued the Dutch government for reducing its climate ambitions. The government lost, with the European Convention on Human Rights forming the legal basis of the decision.

From Words to Deeds: The Struggle for Effective Climate Change Policies at COP28

The climate is a highly complex system with significant inertia; actions taken today might only manifest their effects in a century! As of 2020, global warming is estimated to be around +1.2°C, with an increase of approximately +0.2°C per decade.

Current policies are steering us toward a +3°C increase, underscoring the need for a COP that results in a binding agreement backed by major powers and supported by financial measures. Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon had suggested a global tax on financial transactions to fund the Green Climate Fund.

There is also hope for new agreements to ban subsidies for fossil fuels. However, the fact that COP28 is set to take place in the United Arab Emirates, chaired by the CEO of the national oil company, sends a mixed message. It is crucial that Gulf countries play a significant role on the international stage, especially given the recent escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in late 2023, highlighting their pivotal role in both international peace and climate change issues. On the latter, the trajectory is concerning: 181 million tons of oil were extracted in 2022, an increase of nearly 11% in a year, and gas extractions, though stable over the past year, have risen by 9% since 2012.
COP28, therefore, faces legitimate criticism, with the most significant being that the conference could be an exercise in greenwashing. Recent allegations reported by the BBC suggest potential misuse of the COP presidency to secure new oil and gas contracts.

Finally, responsibility contributions remain unresolved: the "Economic North" is primarily responsible for climate change, yet those who will suffer the most are the countries of the "Global South." Some island nations are even at risk of disappearing due to rising sea levels caused by climate change, and certain areas could become uninhabitable by 2050 due to extreme temperatures and humidity, preventing natural cooling processes like sweating. Addressing loss and damage will also be a central point at the conference.

Stay tuned for the second part summarizing the debates and agreements done at COP 28.