Check the site against what the company told you.
Quarterly satellite screening of the sites you list for deforestation, tailings-dam change, flaring and encroachment, delivered as a map per holding and a change log for the engagement review.
Schematic, not a real holding or site. Listed sites are outlined; the red pin marks a flagged change.
- Listed site
- Stable
- Flagged
01 The job today
What the engagement review can't see
You prepare the quarterly review from the sustainability reports, the filings, the vendor's controversy feed and your notes from the last call with the issuer. Every one of those is either the company describing itself or somebody else having already written the story. That is the trouble with a physical problem at a site. A block of forest cleared at the edge of a plantation, a tailings storage facility that has grown since the last report, a flare on a pad the annual figures don't mention: these turn up in your pack after an NGO publishes or a journalist picks it up, and by then the company has the first word. Meanwhile the sites are remote and you are working from a desk.
So the disclosure gets read carefully and taken largely as written, because there is nothing independent to hold it against. ESG Screening adds that second source. Each quarter it looks at the sites you list and tells you where the ground has changed in one of four ways, so you walk into the engagement review knowing which holdings deserve a question.
02 What you get
What comes back each quarter
2.1 Map layer
Per-holding risk map
One map layer per holding, with each listed site outlined and the flagged changes marked on it. It is a picture of where to look, meant to sit in the engagement review pack next to the company's own report.
2.2 Table
Quarterly change log
A running record of what changed at each site, quarter over quarter, one row per detected change. It pastes into your engagement log, so that by the next review you can see whether a flagged site has settled or kept moving.
2.3 Four categories
Flag categories
Every flag falls under one of four headings: deforestation, tailings-dam footprint change, gas flaring, or encroachment. Nothing broader is flagged. A change that fits none of the four is not reported.
03
How it works
You list the sites
Send the holdings you want screened, with site coordinates for each. Pilot scope is the sites on your list, nothing else.
A quarterly pass
We collect medium-resolution multispectral satellite imagery over each listed site once a quarter, timed to find a usable clear view.
Change and spectral analysis
The new pass is compared with the earlier ones, and spectral analysis helps sort the changes into the four categories.
Map and change log delivered
The flagged map and the change log arrive in your pilot workspace, ready for the engagement review.
04 Where it fits
Alongside the disclosure review
It feeds the quarterly engagement review and gives you a point that doesn't depend on the company's self-reporting. It also tells you which sites need a closer look before anyone escalates. The judgement about what a flag means, and what to say to the company, stays with the stewardship team.
05
Limits
A flag is not a finding
A flag records a physical change matching one of the four categories. It cannot say who caused it, whether it was permitted or whether anyone did wrong. Treat it as a reason to ask the company a question, and to send a site for deeper diligence if the answer is thin.
Cloud cover can move a flag
Optical imagery needs a clear view. Where cloud sits over a site for a whole quarter, the change may not show until the next pass. The cadence is a target, not a promise for every site every quarter.
Resolution floor
At 3–10 m, one pixel covers a patch of ground bigger than a person, a vehicle or a flare stack. Clearing, a dam footprint and new built area show up as patches. Individual trees, small structures and the stack itself do not. Flaring is screened as a signal at the site, so the call on what it is remains yours.
Only the sites you list
The screen covers the sites in your pilot, not every operation a company owns. It is not a global database of holdings and it does not go looking for sites you haven't named.
Not a score
The delivery is a map and a log. Scoring and rating stay with your own team.
06
Who it's for
For
- Stewardship and ESG analysts at asset managers preparing the quarterly engagement review
- Teams that want a physical-risk cross-check on sites they already know about
- Holdings with mines, tailings facilities, plantations, forest-adjacent land or gas operations
Not for
- A compliance certificate or a legal finding about a company
- A replacement for reading the disclosures
- Screening every holding globally, or finding sites you haven't listed
- Detail smaller than a medium-resolution pixel
07 FAQ
Questions before a pilot
Does a flag confirm a violation?
No. It records a physical change for you to review. Whether that change is a problem is a question for the company and your own team.
Does it replace reading the company's disclosures?
No. It sits alongside them, as an independent look at the ground for the sites you list.
What happens when a quarter is cloudy?
If cloud stays over a site, a flag can slip to the next quarter's pass. The change log shows when each change was first seen.
Can it screen all our holdings?
The pilot covers the holdings and sites you list. It is not a universal database, and it will not find sites you have not named.
What counts as a flag?
A detected change that matches deforestation, tailings-dam footprint change, gas flaring or encroachment. Anything outside those four is left out.
How do we check it against what we already know?
Pick a site where you already know what changed, list it, and compare the flags with your own knowledge. That is the simplest way to judge whether it earns a place in the review.
Will it open in our tools?
It arrives as a map layer and a table, which open in a GIS or viewer and paste into a spreadsheet or engagement log. We don't write into your portfolio system.
Who owns the imagery and the outputs?
Rights over the imagery and the deliverables are agreed in writing at the start of the pilot. Ask if your legal team needs them earlier.
How is a pilot bought and priced?
Tell us the size of your list and we will come back with the scope of a pilot.
08
Screen the sites on your next engagement list.
Send us the holdings and site coordinates you are most unsure about. We will tell you what a pilot would cover.
Start a pilot