In April we celebrated Earth Day, which saw people around the world take part in protests, marches and clean-up initiatives to raise awareness around the importance of sustainability and demonstrating support for environmental protection. It was a stark reminder of the climate crisis we currently face.
Businesses are also under immense pressure from consumers and investors to take affirmative action to minimise their environmental impact. Despite this, 91% of SME owners in the UK say they struggle to be sustainable due to a lack of guidance (42%), efficient carbon footprint data (37%) and time (37%). This is where public web data collection can play a key role in helping businesses meet their environmental goals.
What is public web data collection?
In 1993, the term ‘web crawling’ first popped up. This turned out to be a significant year for this technology, as in June, Matthew Gray developed the World Wide Web Wanderer Offsite Link to measure the size of the Internet.
Later that same year, this was used to generate an index called the ‘Wandex’, which enabled the first web search engine. Prior to the advent of JumpStation's web scraping technology, public web data collecting was handled manually by an administrator who would collect and arrange data sets in the hopes that they would match what customers were looking for.
We take web scraping technology for granted nowadays, with major search engines delivering a plethora of results in an instant, saving us long manual hours.
Knowledge is every industry's superpower
Firstly, it’s important to establish what public web data collection is. It’s defined as the collection of any publicly available data on the internet that can be used to create a dataset. This is done through data intelligent technologies and advanced web data collection products. These sets of data provide businesses with new insights to help them make more strategic decisions that align with their business goals. The type of data businesses collect varies according to their business objectives and what they wish to accomplish. For example, one of the most common use cases in the e-commerce industry is comparing competitors’ public pricing data to gain a competitive edge.
However, public web data collection isn’t just for maintaining a competitive advantage. More and more businesses are now using it to train AI systems for analytical and operational needs, to discover variable data points that influence the purchasing decision process and more crucially, to help organisations shape their sustainability and environmental goals.
How might web data assist businesses in achieving their environmental objectives?
Being more sustainable and environmentally friendly is a number one priority for most businesses. However, over half of businesses (55%) don’t have access to the right data to make the necessary decisions when it comes to environmental considerations. Having access to the right data is crucial if businesses are to establish and meet their environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) related objectives.
There are an abundance of data sources available to businesses which can sometimes be overwhelming when trying to draw conclusions and inform decision making. According to a recent survey from Bright Data and Vanson Bourne, businesses use a range of data sources with over two thirds (69%) of organisations using big data generated by their own business operations, 59% using official statistics from publicly accessible sources and 48% using public web data collected and structured by a collector platform.
Public web data can be used in conjunction with the other data sources listed above to help bridge gaps in their knowledge and improve their ESG performance. For example, if a clothing brand was looking to launch a new range of organic cotton garments, they would need to find a supplier of organic cotton. Through public web data collection, the clothing brand would be able to gain insights into the environmental footprint of potential suppliers – water footprint of cotton consumption, fertiliser and pesticide use and carbon emissions from transportation. Using this public web data, the clothing brand can then make an informed decision on the most environmentally friendly supplier and bolster its ESG credentials. This is just one of many examples of how businesses can harness the power of public web data collection to advance their environmental objectives.
What does the future hold?
The global climate emergency is the biggest threat modern society has ever faced. It is essential we do everything we can to limit the damage and preserve our planet. Data is one of the most powerful resources that can be deployed to tackle the climate emergency. Although significant progress has been made across many sectors to improve sustainability practices, there’s still more to be done. In order to enhance efficient decision making and promote a culture of data-first, businesses must ensure they dedicate adequate time and budget to investing in the right data collection software and tools to achieve their sustainability goals and play their part in tackling the climate emergency.
There is no room for complacency when it comes to protecting our planet. All businesses should be making a conscious effort to take advantage of the insights public web data can offer to make better decisions - the time is now.
