Global ESG Evidence Architecture (GEEA)

The Global ESG Evidence Architecture (GEEA) introduces a conceptual governance framework describing how sustainability evidence flows across institutional ecosystems through a seven-layer governance architecture centered upon the Evidence Infrastructure Layer. Operating as the conceptual foundation of the broader Evidence Infrastructure Ecosystem, GEEA addresses a structural challenge increasingly observed across sustainability governance: reporting standards, assurance methodologies, financial systems, and regulatory frameworks all depend upon sustainability information whose upstream evidence generation architecture remains insufficiently defined. The framework identifies the Evidence Infrastructure Layer as the missing institutional layer responsible for transforming participation activities into structured, traceable, and governance-ready evidence before reporting and assurance processes occur. To address this challenge, the paper introduces the concept of Evidence Anchoring as the institutional mechanism through which sustainability participation is captured, structured, and preserved as trustworthy evidence. The paper further introduces the conceptual origin of the Participation–Action–Data–Value (PADV) methodology, establishing the first evidence generation model within the broader Evidence Infrastructure Ecosystem. The framework does not generate evidence. The framework does not perform reporting. The framework does not perform assurance. Instead, GEEA provides the conceptual governance architecture necessary for understanding how sustainability evidence flows across institutional ecosystems and supports subsequent methodological, architectural, governance, and implementation frameworks. By establishing the conceptual foundation of the Evidence Infrastructure Ecosystem, GEEA provides the institutional basis upon which PADV, NTCC, InstiTech, ICTF, STRC, V-LAYER, and subsequent Evidence Infrastructure frameworks are constructed.