Accelerating Data Harmonization for Holding Companies

Editor: Gina Nala, Daisy Amanda (LCI Team)

Today, more companies — including investment firms and holding companies — are actively reporting sustainability-related performance in addition to the regular  financial report. Even if holding companies do not run factories or production facilities, they still have a crucial role in managing ESG impacts across their portfolios.

However, managing these impacts and reporting them isn’t always straightforward. Holding companies may operate in different sectors, locations, and systems. This means that they may collect and report data in different ways.

In the context of sustainability reporting, this may become a barrier. The reporting team may find themselves collecting similar types of data from each subsidiary, such as energy usage, waste volumes, or emissions, but with different formats, definitions, and levels of detail.

This makes it difficult to consolidate the information into one consistent report. Without data harmonisation, insights become fragmented. It’s hard to track performance across the group, let alone tell a coherent story to stakeholders.

Why It Matters in ESG

In ESG specifically, data harmonisation plays a critical role. Without it, inconsistent data, such as how Scope 2 emissions or waste types are categorised, may undermine the credibility of group-level disclosures and may lead to misstatements in public reporting. It also complicates compliance with global standards like GRI, ISSB, or regulatory requirements from OJK.

The lack of harmonisation may also lead to real operational challenges:

• delayed decision-making due to unclear data

• missed opportunities for synergy

• siloed operations

• difficulty in tracking group-wide performance

What Data Harmonization Really Means

Data harmonization is essentially about alignment. It means using common definitions, shared assumptions, and consistent formats so that all data speaks the same language.

When this happens, the reporting process becomes much more efficient:

• results across business units can be compared fairly

• consolidation becomes faster

• review and audit processes are smoother

Data harmonisation will eventually build internal confidence, where people know that what’s being reported is comparable and reliable.

What It Takes to Harmonize

To enable harmonization, we need:

• clear guidance from the head office

• a standard data taxonomy that all subsidiaries follow

• digital tools that can help integrate inputs into a centralized system

At LCI, our sustainability reporting experts have created a user-friendly tool called easySR to support a wide range of companies — including holding companies — in compiling and reporting their data more efficiently. This tool is supported by LCI sustainability experts to make sure that the data is understood, consistent, and ready to be used for ESG reporting.

With easySR, companies don’t just fill out templates—they gain a structured, guided process backed by expert support, ensuring the insights they report reflect their sustainability performance.

But more than anything, it requires commitment because harmonisation is about mindset and discipline.

Conclusion

In the end, harmonised data doesn’t just make reporting easier. It helps the entire group operate with more clarity, consistency, and credibility, especially when sustainability performance is increasingly under the spotlight.