This chapter is the first of three looking at how data and technology are already disrupting and shaping the growth of sustainability, and vice versa. Sustainability only becomes enforceable when data becomes reliable, comparable, and embedded into the systems that govern markets. As financial institutions, regulators, procurement platforms, and insurers increasingly automate decisions, organisations unable to provide credible environmental and social data risk exclusion from finance, trade, and supply chains. Today’s fragmented, audit-heavy data ecosystem obscures risk: particularly around issues like forced labour. Incremental improvements are no longer adequate. There are emerging solutions, such as federated data systems, which allow companies, governments, and civil-society actors to share insights without relinquishing sensitive information. These technologies promise to replace today’s siloed, low-trust environment with distributed, machine-readable, architectures capable of supporting real accountability at scale. Better data is no longer optional: it is becoming the operating system of the future economy, determining access, compliance, and competitiveness.