The ESG Alphabet Soup: BRSR, CSRD and WTF Is My Hotel Bill Doing Here? ft. Karantaj and Shaayak

On 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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