Background Parent companies and their subsidiaries can play a key role in combating many environmental problems: economic growth and environmental damage are closely correlated. However, linking parent company environmental performance and financial performance in a form that is relevant to investors will contribute to de-coupling economic growth from environmental damage. It is also recognised that influencing decisions at the highest level of accountability, ultimately the board of the parent company, can be highly effective in bringing about far-reaching improvements in environmental performance. A single business or a geographical area is subject to a range of environmental laws each requiring different datasets for permitting, compliance, monitoring, incidents and enforcement. A challenge facing regulators such as the EA is that the data that they gather to support the implementation of specific environmental laws do not easily or usefully align with the businesses they regulate or the geographical areas where improvements to the environment are needed. Instead regulators are limited to looking at data in isolated, disconnected datasets which prevents them from seeing clearly the environmental performance of a whole company or the environmental impacts on a region. Integrated data and information can provide regulators with the evidence to best target resources to protect the environment and people by offering a clear view of those businesses that are performing well and those that are performing badly. The EA collects site level data on more than 500 000 businesses, many of which are owned by global parent companies based in more than 30 different countries. Objectives The CLEAR Info project will demonstrate a system for integrating and analysing the site level data EA collects as an environmental regulator, providing information to drive improvements in parent company performance. The project will allow European regulators to share data across regulatory boundaries and build an understanding of corporate performance. In this way it will be able to influence business decisions in the boardroom and enhance the importance of environmental risk in financial markets. While developing better reporting systems, the EA will review and streamline data collection to reduce the burden on business. CLEAR Info will improve the knowledge base for environmental policy by transforming disparate site and subsidiary data into influential information on parent companies operating across Europe and globally. In particular, the CLEAR Info will deliver: Information from environmental data to improve parent company performance; information from environmental data to influence investment decisions in the finance sector; and improvements in quality, efficiency, access to and exchange of data and information Expected results: The project is expected to: Involve relevant stakeholders at key points during the project to ensure the integration of the right sources of data and deliver useful company information; Integrate environmental data derived from separate but related regulatory activities; Turn integrated data into information that will promote effective implementation of EU environmental legislation and improve the knowledge base for environmental policy; Reduce the regulatory burden on business and communicate the link between data demands and EU environmental legislation and policy objectives; and Work with others in Europe to implement the INSPIRE Directive and Shared Environmental Information Systems by improving access to, exchange and effective use of data and information within a standardised spatial infrastructure.