# ESG monitoring of investment portfolios with satellite data Investors locate the physical assets behind each holding, such as plants, mines, plantations or properties, and observe them with satellite data over time. This shows deforestation, land-use change and activity at each site, independently of what the company reports. Aggregated across the portfolio, the asset indicators show where environmental risk and impact concentrate. ## The task An investor sees a portfolio as holdings: shares, bonds, loans and funds. The environmental impact sits elsewhere, in the plants, mines, plantations and buildings behind those holdings. EUSPA notes that traditional methods frequently fall short in monitoring the environmental footprint of specific industries [3]. Satellite data adds an outside view. The University of Oxford's Spatial Finance Initiative calls this field spatial finance: the integration of geospatial data and analysis into financial theory and practice [4]. Portfolio mapping, real asset monitoring, deforestation analysis and the verification of submitted disclosures are among the areas that ESA's business applications projects address in finance [1]. ## How portfolio monitoring works 1. **Link holdings to assets.** Each holding is linked to the physical assets it owns or finances. Open asset databases such as GeoAsset record location, ownership and capacity for high-impact industries, for example cement, steel, petrochemicals and pulp and paper [4]. 2. **Observe each asset.** Satellite data shows the state of each site and its surroundings, and how both change over time. 3. **Derive indicators.** Per asset, for example forest loss within a radius or new land take, and aggregated per holding and for the whole portfolio. 4. **Compare with disclosures.** Where an indicator contradicts what a company reports, the difference becomes a question for engagement or for the investment decision. **Figure:** Each holding is linked to the physical assets behind it, each asset is observed with satellite data, and indicators such as forest loss or new land take are compared with what the companies disclose. Illustrative portfolio, not real data. ## Which data and satellites - **Land cover**: the Copernicus CORINE inventory maps land cover and land use across Europe in 44 classes [7]. It gives the context of a site. - **Optical imagery**: Sentinel-2 records 13 spectral bands at up to 10 m resolution and revisits every five days with two satellites [5]. It shows vegetation, clearing and construction at a site. - **Radar imagery**: Sentinel-1 supplies images in all weather, by day and night [6], which matters for assets in regions with frequent cloud cover. - **Asset data**: locations, ownership and capacity of the assets, from your own records, from the companies or from open databases [4]. How these satellites work is explained in [what Earth observation is](https://leto.space/knowledge/earth-observation/). ## What you get - A map of the portfolio's physical assets, linked to the holdings. - Alerts when deforestation or land-use change occurs at or near an asset, from optical imagery revisited every five days at the equator [5]. - Indicators per asset that support screening and ESG reporting [2]. - A basis for questions to investee companies where observations and disclosures differ. ## Limits **Limits** - **No location, no observation:** Satellites observe places, not companies. Where the assets behind a holding are unknown, the method has nothing to observe. Open asset databases so far cover a selection of high-impact industries \[4]. - **Clouds and resolution:** Optical sensors are limited by clouds \[8], and at 10 m resolution \[5] a satellite shows the extent of a site, not what happens inside its buildings. - **An indicator is not an impact assessment:** A satellite indicator shows a change on the ground. Whether it is material for a holding, and who is responsible for it, still needs analysis and, often, a conversation with the company. ## How we help In [strategy and use cases](https://leto.space/consulting/strategy/) we define which indicators matter for your portfolio and test whether the asset locations can be established. In [requirements and procurement](https://leto.space/consulting/procurement/) we specify the data and services and compare providers against your requirements. [More on implementation](https://leto.space/consulting/implementation/) To find providers, [Spacegraph](https://leto.space/spacegraph/), our discovery platform, has an industry category "Insurance & Finance" and a use-case category "Carbon & ESG verification". ## Related use cases - [Automatically enriching CSRD reporting](https://leto.space/use-cases/csrd-reporting/): The same indicators, seen from the reporting company's side. - [Monitoring forest health and deforestation](https://leto.space/use-cases/forest-monitoring/): How satellites detect forest damage and clearing. - [Assessing climate risk for properties and assets](https://leto.space/use-cases/property-climate-risk/): Flood and wildfire risk for the assets in a portfolio. - [Satellite data in insurance and finance](https://leto.space/industries/insurance-and-finance/): All use cases for insurers, banks and investors. ## Frequently asked questions ### How can investors monitor the environmental impact of assets in a portfolio? By linking each holding to the physical assets it owns or finances and observing these assets from space. Portfolio mapping, real asset monitoring, deforestation analysis and the verification of disclosures are among the areas that ESA's business applications projects address in finance [1]. Financial institutions also use Earth observation to screen investments and to provide indicators for ESG reporting [2]. ### Does this work for listed companies, or only for real assets? It works wherever the location of the assets is known. For direct real assets you have the locations. For listed companies they have to be collected; open asset databases such as GeoAsset at the University of Oxford record location, ownership and capacity for high-impact industries like cement and steel [4]. ### How do we start? Start with one part of the portfolio where environmental risk is concrete, for example holdings with plantations, mines or heavy industry, and check how many asset locations you can establish. Then test a small set of indicators against what the companies disclose. Our [consulting overview](https://leto.space/consulting/) shows the path from the problem to operation. ## Sources 1. [ESA Space Solutions: Space for finance and insurance, European Space Agency (ESA), ESA Space Solutions, accessed 2026-10-06](https://business.esa.int/finance-and-insurance) 2. [EU Space Market Report 2026, Issue 1, EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), 2026-05-26](https://www.euspa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/EU_Space_Market_Report_2026.pdf) 3. [EUSPA EO and GNSS Market Report, Issue 2, 2024, EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), 2024](https://www.euspa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/external/publications/euspa_market_report_2024.pdf) 4. [The Spatial Finance Initiative, Oxford Sustainable Finance Group, Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford, accessed 2026-10-06](https://www.cgfi.ac.uk/spatial-finance-initiative/) 5. [Sentinel-2: Facts and figures, European Space Agency (ESA), accessed 2026-10-06](https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-2/Facts_and_figures) 6. [Sentinel-1, European Space Agency (ESA), accessed 2026-10-06](https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-1) 7. [CORINE Land Cover, Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, accessed 2026-10-06](https://land.copernicus.eu/en/products/corine-land-cover) 8. [Recommended Practice: Flood Mapping with Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 Imagery and Digital Terrain Models, UN-SPIDER (United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs), accessed 2026-10-06](https://un-spider.org/advisory-support/recommended-practices/recommended-practice-flood-mapping-sentinel-1-and-sentinel-2) Page: