How this map is built

This page explains where the connections on this map come from, how they are reviewed, what we are confident about, and what we are not.

What this map covers

311 concepts across six dimensions: regulation and framework, measurement and boundary, data and evidence, operations and action, business outcome, and stakeholder and scope.

The scope is corporate sustainability disclosure — what companies are obligated to report, how those numbers are produced, and what follows from them. It is not a general reference for climate science, environmental policy, or ESG investing.

The map is built from Sprih's own published writing. That has a consequence worth stating plainly: it reflects what we have covered, not the whole of the field. Where our coverage is thin, the map is thin, and we mark those areas rather than hiding them.

Where the connections come from

1. Extracted — We crawl our own site and split each page into sections. A language model identifies which of our defined concepts each section discusses, and which relationships between them the text actually supports. It works only from the supplied text, adds no outside knowledge, and never proposes a relationship simply because it sounds plausible. Every proposed connection must carry a verbatim quote.
2. Typed — Each connection is assigned a relationship type and direction from a fixed vocabulary: requires, measures, evidences, enables, constrains, supersedes. Connections we cannot type confidently are labelled as associations and rendered differently.
3. Reviewed — A named person confirms, corrects, or removes each connection before it appears here. Connections not yet reviewed are marked as unverified.

Nothing reaches this map automatically. Concepts and connections are proposed by the extraction step and published by a person.

How SustainSense answers

SustainSense is the assistant that explains a concept when you select it.

Its answers are written by us in advance, reviewed by a person, and stored. They are not generated at the moment you ask. This means the same concept gives the same answer every time, and every answer has been read by someone before you see it.

It can only answer from the concepts and sources in this map. It has no general knowledge to fall back on, which is deliberate — we would rather it tell you it doesn't cover something than improvise an answer about a regulation.

What we are confident about

• ✓Every connection links to the source text it came from, and you can open it.
• ✓Every published concept has been reviewed by a person.
• ✓Every regulation carries its jurisdiction, its timing where we can state it, and the date it was last reviewed.
• ✓Relationship types come from a fixed vocabulary, applied consistently.

What we are not confident about

• –Two concepts appearing together in a piece of writing is weak evidence. It suggests a relationship. It does not prove one. Connections resting only on co-occurrence are marked as unverified.
• –A missing connection may mean we have not written about it yet. Absence on this map is not evidence of absence in the world.
• –Regulation changes faster than we update. Scope, thresholds and timetables have moved on several of the frameworks here, and will move again. Check the last-reviewed date, then check the source.
• –This map is not advice. It explains how concepts relate. It cannot tell you whether a specific obligation applies to your company.

What is deliberately not here

Our own products are not concepts on this map. They can be shown as an overlay, but they are switched off by default.

The map is capped at around 80 concepts on purpose. Every additional node makes the whole slightly harder to read, so a concept earns its place or it doesn't appear.

How often it is updated

We re-crawl our published content periodically and review the full map quarterly. Changes to regulation are reflected within 30 days of us becoming aware of them. Every concept shows the date it was last reviewed.

Found something wrong?

Please tell us. Every concept and every connection carries a correction link, and we would rather hear from someone who knows the subject better than we do. We publish what changes.

Last updated 8 September 2026 · Maintained by the Sprih sustainability team · Ontology version 1