Sherpa & Co. Provides "SmartESG" Sustainability Disclosure Support Cloud and AI-Powered "Answer Ease" Service to ORIX Corporation

Sherpa & Co., Inc. (Headquarters: Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Jun Sugimoto; hereinafter "Sherpa") is pleased to announce that it has commenced providing its sustainability information disclosure support cloud "SmartESG" and its AI-powered automated response generation service "SmartESG Answer Ease" (hereinafter "Answer Ease") to ORIX Corporation (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Director, President, and Group CEO: Hidetake Takahashi; hereinafter "ORIX") starting April 1, 2026.

ORIX Group is a financial services group with diversified businesses operating globally. The social mission of ORIX Group is to "bring about 'impact that opens up the future,' serving as a catalyst for the world to move in a better direction." Centered around this purpose, ORIX aims to conduct corporate management with a focus on sustainability by accurately grasping the risks and opportunities brought about by changes in the global economy, society, and environment, thereby contributing to the economic development and sustainable growth of global society.

Sherpa has now begun providing "SmartESG" and "Answer Ease" services to ORIX from April 2026. Through the "Database" and "Workflow" functions of "SmartESG," Sherpa will provide ORIX with a cloud-based centralized management platform for sustainability information to support its responses to "CSA (Corporate Sustainability Assessment)" operated by S&P Global and "CDP." Additionally, it will support the establishment of internal data collection processes and facilitate smoother communication. Furthermore, through the "Focus" function, Sherpa will visualize the relevance of sustainability information across ORIX's diverse business operations and support the systematization of the process for identifying priority issues. Moreover, with "Answer Ease," Sherpa will support the advancement of ORIX's responses to various surveys by utilizing AI for enhanced engagement with rating agencies.

Sherpa is an S&P Global partner-certified company (※1). "SmartESG" realizes API integration with the "CSA" portal (※2), enabling end-to-end response management from generation to submission within the "SmartESG" platform. Additionally, Sherpa has been recognized by "CDP" as a "CDP Silver Certified Solution Provider" (※3).

Through the provision of "SmartESG," Sherpa aims to further enhance the sustainability management of its client companies.

(※1) Sherpa Certified as APAC's First S&P Global Partner, Strengthening Integration Between "Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA)" and "SmartESG"

https://smartesg.jp/news/20250529

(※2) Sherpa Launches API Integration with S&P Global's Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) Platform

https://cierpa.co.jp/posts/qDRw4nnh

(※3) Sherpa Certified as CDP "Silver Certified Solution Provider"

https://cierpa.co.jp/posts/20250902

About "SmartESG"

"SmartESG" is a data platform that centrally manages scattered sustainability and ESG data within a company, supporting strategic sustainability management. Its four core functions streamline sustainability information disclosure operations and enable advanced analysis. "Database" and "Workflow" visualize the collection and management of siloed internal data, while "Focus" and "Benchmark" provide advanced AI-driven analytics. "SmartESG" contributes not only to enhancing corporate information disclosure and stakeholder engagement but also to accelerating the formulation and execution of sustainable management strategies.

https://smartesg.jp/

About "SmartESG Answer Ease"

"Answer Ease" is an assistance function that automatically generates draft responses to sustainability-related questionnaires based on a company's existing data. By utilizing AI as an assistant for sustainability and ESG-related questionnaire responses, which often consume significant time and effort, it reduces workload and achieves substantial efficiency improvements. Furthermore, it addresses hallucination concerns and ensures accuracy by providing references for the generated response drafts.

https://smartesg.jp/answerease

Company Profile

Company Name: Sherpa & Co., Inc.

Representative: Jun Sugimoto, CEO

Location: 1F, TERRACE SITE GOTANDA, 3-6-32 Nishi-Gotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo

Established: September 2019

Capital: 100 million JPY

Business: Development and provision of the sustainability information disclosure support cloud "SmartESG," operation of the ESG/sustainability-focused media "ESG Journal Japan," and provision of "ESG Advisory" consulting services by sustainability experts.

Corporate Website: https://cierpa.co.jp/

Recruitment Site: https://cierpa.co.jp/recruit