​​ESGsimplify: Solving the Data Problem behind ESG Compliance​

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

ESG reporting has become an increasingly important requirement for small and medium-sized enterprises across Austria and Europe - driven by EU legislation such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, EBA guidelines embedding ESG risk into bank credit assessments, and growing pressure from supply chain partners. While large corporations have dedicated teams and resources to manage these requirements, the vast majority of SMEs do not – and the core obstacle is rarely the reporting itself, but the collection and structuring of the underlying data in the first place. 

This project, developed by a six-person interdisciplinary team from WU Vienna, TU Vienna, and BOKU Vienna, investigated the root cause of ESG non-compliance among Austrian SMEs and built a technology-driven solution to address it. The result is ESGsimplify - an AI-powered platform that automates the collection, extraction, and structuring of ESG data from existing company documents, and prepares it for further submission. The project was conducted within the E&I Garage course at WU Vienna and led to an official cooperation with OeKB - the home of Austria’s gold standard reporting tool for ESG based financing. 

Goal 

The primary goal of this project was to understand why Austrian SMEs struggle to meet ESG data requirements, and to develop a scalable, technology-driven solution that addresses the root cause of that challenge. This included mapping the existing ESG reporting landscape, identifying key pain points through extensive research, and validating a product concept through iterative prototyping and feedback from 20+ interviews. The overarching ambition was to move beyond theoretical analysis and build something tangible - a prototype that demonstrates genuine value for Austrian SMEs facing ESG compliance requirements, and that could serve as the foundation for a commercially viable product. 

Methodology 

The project followed a hypothesis-driven, iterative approach. The team conducted more than 20 expert interviews across industry, banking, sustainability, and academia to develop a deep understanding of the problem landscape. Initial hypotheses were systematically tested and refined across five full iteration rounds. This process led to a complete product pivot midway through the project: the team had originally set out to build an ESG scoring tool, but research findings made clear that the more fundamental -and unsolved - problem lay upstream, in data collection and structuring. Applying lean startup methodology throughout, the team combined qualitative research with rapid prototyping and continuous stakeholder feedback to ensure the final solution addressed a real and significant market need. This process also led to direct engagement with OeKB, ultimately resulting in an official cooperation. 

Results 

The project yielded several significant results. Through extensive research - including an in-depth mapping of the regulatory landscape and a competitive analysis of existing ESG tools - the team identified a clear and largely unaddressed market gap: while numerous reporting tools exist, none adequately solve the upstream challenge of ESG data collection and structuring for SMEs. This insight led to the development of ESGsimplify - a working AI-powered prototype that allows companies to drag and drop existing documents, automatically extracts and structures the relevant ESG data, and delivers it via an interactive dashboard and built-in chatbot, requiring no ESG expertise. A key milestone was the formal cooperation agreement with OeKB, whose ESG Data Hub is the primary infrastructure Austrian banks use to evaluate green financing decisions -positioning ESGsimplify as the essential step before submission. As a final recognition of the project's potential, the team was selected to present at the 40. AlpbacherFinanzsymposium - one of Austria’s most prestigious events for financial discourse. 

Cooperation Partner 

• ​​Student Start-up: ESGsimplify​ 

​​Contact Person​ 

• ​​Alexander Vollmann 
  h12411732@s.wu.ac.at​ 

Student Team 

• ​​​Alexander Vollmann – WU Vienna 
  Susanne Edelbrunner – BOKU Vienna 
  Muhammad Adeel Shakir – TU Vienna 
  Wei Zhao – TU Vienna 
  Tatiana Zecevic – TU Vienna 

• ​Santiago Paz Figueroa – TU Vienna​​ 

Project Manager 

• ​​​Diana Lauer​ 

• ​​Theresa Nicolussi​ 

• ​​Dragos-Cristian Vasilescu​ 

• ​Caroline Kunesch