Completed Project Case Study: Greenwashing Analysis: A Data Science Approach to Evaluating ESG Integrity 

The Challenge 

As ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) data become more influential in investment decisions and public attention, the trustworthiness of corporate sustainability claims is under greater scrutiny. A key issue is greenwashing, where companies exaggerate or misrepresent their ESG efforts, which damages trust, skews capital distribution, and hampers real progress in sustainability. 

Investors, regulators, and financial institutions face a persistent problem: ESG disclosures are often difficult to verify, inconsistent across firms, and disconnected from real-world behaviour reflected in markets and media. There is a clear need for transparent, data-driven tools that can assess whether ESG claims align with external evidence. 

The Project 

This pilot project set out to address greenwashing by developing a transparent, data-science-led framework to evaluate the credibility of corporate ESG claims. Led by Dr Fahimeh Jafari at the University of East London, and supported by UKFin+ Network, the project was co-designed with industry partners Cykube Ltd and Global Digital Finance to ensure it was relevant to real-world decision-making. 

The team developed an interactive Greenwashing Risk Dashboard analysing companies across the FTSE 350 and S&P 500. The platform combines: 

• Corporate ESG and sustainability reports scraped directly from company websites 

• Global ESG-related news sentiment using machine learning and data from the GDELT project 

• Financial market signals, including price volatility around ESG-related events and discrepancies in external ESG scores 

Using Natural Language Processing (NLP), rule-based ESG claim extraction, and discrepancy scoring, the dashboard identifies potential misalignments between what companies report and how they are perceived externally. 

The Research Approach 

The project combined empirical research and policy analysis. Researchers conducted interviews with consumers to uncover gaps in awareness, misconceptions, and lived experiences with crypto assets. Thanks to Fintech WA’s active support, the team was able to connect with willing interviewees from the industry and consumer groups. Alongside this, the academics reviewed the existing legal and regulatory frameworks, assessing how far current policies address the risks facing consumers. 

Key Outputs and Insights 

• A working Greenwashing Risk Dashboard providing dynamic risk scores and sector benchmarks 

• Evidence that ESG reports vary widely in structure and clarity, requiring flexible automated processing 

• Identification of gaps between corporate ESG narratives, media sentiment, and market reactions 

• Demonstration that greenwashing risk can be detected through combined textual, sentiment, and financial signals 

The pilot showed how ESG credibility can be assessed without relying on a single score or opaque methodology, supporting more nuanced and responsible interpretation. 

Collaboration 

The project was co-designed and delivered through close collaboration between academia and industry partners from the outset. Cykube Ltd and Global Digital Finance were actively involved throughout the project lifecycle, helping shape the scope, review outputs, and ensure that the dashboard remained usable for non-technical stakeholders such as investors and policymakers. 

Industry feedback played a critical role in refining how risk scores were presented and interpreted, ensuring the outputs were technically robust, accessible and practical. Clear communication, early alignment on expectations, and regular review meetings helped keep the project focused and well-coordinated despite differing academic and industry timelines. 

A key lesson from the collaboration was the value of involving non-academic partners continuously from design through testing, rather than only at the beginning or end of the research process. 

Impact 

For Industry and Regulators 

The project delivered tangible value for industry and regulators by demonstrating a practical, data-driven approach to assessing the credibility of ESG disclosures. By combining corporate sustainability reports with external media sentiment and financial market signals, the Greenwashing Risk Dashboard provides early indicators of potential reputational and disclosure risk. This supports investors, financial institutions, and regulators in making more informed judgments about ESG integrity and helps shift the focus from headline claims to evidence-based assessment. The work also contributes to wider efforts to improve transparency and accountability in ESG reporting, an area of growing regulatory and market importance. 

For Academia 

For academia, the project established a scalable interdisciplinary framework that integrates finance, artificial intelligence, and data science to address a real-world challenge in sustainable finance. It demonstrated how responsible AI techniques and transparent methodologies can be applied to complex ESG questions without relying on opaque or single-score approaches. The project also strengthened capacity for applied, impact-driven research by embedding industry perspectives throughout the research lifecycle, creating a strong foundation for future academic work and collaborative funding opportunities. 

More broadly, the project illustrates the value of close academic–industry collaboration in tackling complex and evolving challenges such as greenwashing. By aligning technical innovation with practical usability and regulatory relevance, the pilot shows how research can move beyond analysis to influence behaviour, decision-making, and trust in financial markets. 

In the future 

With support from the FCA’s Digital Sandbox, the next phase will test the dashboard in realistic regulatory scenarios and refine features based on regulatory and industry feedback. 

Future development will focus on structured validation, real-world testing, and pathways to adoption, ensuring the platform evolves from a successful pilot into a robust ESG transparency tool. Continued engagement through the UKFin+ network will be critical to expanding collaboration, gathering diverse perspectives, and supporting wider uptake. 

UKFin+ Role 

UKFin+ funding enabled this project to bring together academic expertise and industry insight to tackle a complex and timely challenge in sustainable finance. By supporting early-stage, co-designed research, UKFin+ helped lay the groundwork for a practical solution to greenwashing, one that strengthens trust, improves market transparency, and contributes to more accountable ESG practices across financial services. 

Full report published: From News to Knowledge: Leveraging AI and Knowledge Graphs for Real-Time ESG Insights