Is Risk really 55% more important than Opportunity?
It's not. But you wouldn’t know it from the way companies report them.
To make sound strategic decisions, companies need to weigh both sides of Double Materiality: how their operations impact the world, and how sustainability issues create financial risks and opportunities for the business.
Yet Opportunity receives far less attention than Risk, an imbalance that creates its own Risks. Even in climate, where Opportunity reporting is most mature, EFRAG data shows 3.1 Risks disclosed for every 2.0 Opportunities. Our forthcoming research finds the imbalance is substantially wider across sustainability disclosures. That matters because overlooked Opportunities can mean overlooked growth, profitability and resilience.
Nemetan helps companies systematically find sustainability-related "shared value" Opportunities for growth, profitability and resilience using a proprietary evidence base and a repeatable discovery method. Keep reading to learn how, and why.
WHY IT MATTERS
An Opportunity-light assessment is a weaker position, not just a shorter report
A thin Opportunity side already shows up in three places business leaders care about.
Part of the assessment, not an afterthought
Double materiality requires companies to consider material Impacts, Risks and Opportunities. The numbers need not be equal. But Opportunity deserves a credible process, not a cursory brainstorm.
The Board's fiduciary duty
An Opportunity-light assessment invites a reasonable question, from an assurer, investor or board committee: did the search for upside use the same discipline as the search for downside? Not because the totals must match, but because the process should be credible.
Value someone else will claim
A Shared Value Opportunity is good for the business and the wider world from the same move. Every one you do not find is one a competitor can act on first. Defence protects your position. Opportunity is how you begin to extend it.
THE NEMETAN OPPORTUNITY ENGINE: TWO PROPRIETARY ASSETS
Built on evidence, not generic brainstorming.
Nemetan Opportunity Evidence Base
Our purpose-built structured database is created one precedent at a time, screened against five evidence tests and traceable to the real company that proved it. Unlike a generic AI or web search, every precedent is structured, screened against consistent evidence criteria and traceable to its original source.
The S.P.A.R.K & P.R.O.V.E Methodologies
Our methodologies assemble proven tools into one systematic, repeatable process, each tool chosen for the stage it serves and the problem it solves. This is systematic ideation and value creation. That is what a one-off brainstorm will rarely deliver.
Every one of the more than 1,500 precedents in our Opportunity Evidence Base has to earn its place. Nothing counts as evidence until it passes the same five screening tests.
The five tests
✓ A clearly defined sustainability problem.
✓ An fully implemented response with documented numbers achieved, not merely an ambition.
✓ An identifiable business benefit.
✓ An identifiable environmental or social benefit.
✓ Enough published evidence to tell reported results from projected ones.
SYSTEMATIC DISCOVERY OF SUSTAINABILITY OPPORTUNITIES
Turn sustainability information into evidence-grounded Opportunities
We examine the problems and constraints already visible in your company information, search our continuously growing proprietary database of more than 1,500 clinically tagged and documented precedents, and surface Opportunities for further investigation. We then apply our purpose built frameworks to help you select the Opportunities most likely to create "shared value". You can start free, prove it on one topic, learn the method, or hand us the whole landscape.
Start free, in minutes.
See where you stand before you speak to anyone.
Two free self-assessments place you in minutes and point you to the right next step. No cost, no call required.
WORK WITH US
Which one is right for you?
Still not sure?
- Read our FAQ for more details.
- Book a 20-minute fit call and we'll identify the most sensible starting point.
Be first to read it
COMING SEPTEMBER 2026
We took a deep dive into how far the imbalance runs, across every material topic. We are not publishing the figures yet. Four pieces arrive together in September 2026. Register to receive them the day they publish.
Sept 2026
Research Report
The full study, method and figures.
Sept 2026
White Paper
The argument, and how it might be closed.
Sept 2026
Plain-English eBook
The whole exploration, in an evening.
Sept 2026
Executive Brief
Two pages, built to forward upward.
WHY NEMETAN
Unique expertise, emerging evidence, one method.
Nemetan was founded by Mike Kelly, a Chartered Director whose work sits at the intersection of board-level value creation, sustainability evidence and systematic innovation. Nemetan brings together three things that rarely sit in one place: original research, a structured precedent library, and a repeatable Opportunity-discovery method. Learn more >
Chartered Director · GRI-certified ESRS Professional · BSc Trinity College, Dublin · Disruptive Innovation, MIT Sloan · MSc Sustainability Management, RSM (Ongoing)
Evidence
A structured library of Shared Value Opportunities, each screened against five tests before it counts.
Research
Original primary research measuring the Risk-Opportunity gap across material topics.
Method
Ground, SPARK, PROVE: a systematic, repeatable engine using proven best practices, not a workshop's best guess.
Judgement
Precedents are offered as evidence of possibility, with the assumptions made explicit, never as guarantees.
Get in Touch
How can we help you develop or report on Opportunities? Reach out to us.