The ESG Alphabet Soup: BRSR, CSRD and WTF Is My Hotel Bill Doing Here? ft. Karantaj and ShaayakOn the 3 Techies Banter podcast, founders Karantaj Singh and Shaayak Chatterjee of Breathe ESG discuss how their sustainability software emerged from consulting and on-ground CSR work where ESG data was fragmented across departments, spreadsheets, and even paper registers.
They explain there was no single “aha” moment - more perseverance and ambition to build an India-based solution that helps large companies become more sustainable - while narrowing focus from an early “Breathe Impact” idea to ESG management and later “Zero” for Scope 3 and net zero. They outline how they convince skeptical leaders by highlighting reputation, operational efficiency, and financial incentives like sustainability-linked loans, and address misconceptions that ESG is a small subfunction or only for manufacturers.
The episode covers solving data ingestion via integrations, OCR/LLMs, mobile workflows, and handling multiple global regulations with overlapping metrics, plus a quick rapid-fire round.
Chapters:
00:00 Highlights of the Episode
05:25 Podcast Intro And Origins
06:08 Consulting Pain Points
10:37 Early Product Focus
14:13 Selling ESG Benefits
20:45 Common ESG Misconceptions
25:06 Who Needs ESG Most
29:06 Solving The Data Problem
34:18 Customer Example Coworking Bills
37:01 Granular Data Matters
37:27 AI Footprint Tradeoffs
40:24 Regulation Alphabet Soup
44:49 Data First Reporting
46:03 Supplier Scoring Workflow
47:53 Fighting Greenwashing
52:20 Smarter Disclosures
55:05 Proof of ESG Impact
58:15 Finance Incentives
01:00:12 Hidden Emissions Leaks
01:02:50 Rapid Fire
01:09:35 Closing Thoughts
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