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| Crunch! Measure what needs to get done.

Chapter 09

Expand! Time to catch up on some reading.

Here you’ll find the complete list of all links and resources we have provided throughout the chapters. If you feel anything is missing, let us know: contact@sustainability-playbooks.com 

Chapter 1: Why we need to take action

Current trends & key drivers: Why sustainability is at the top of the agenda

 

 

Chapter 2: A quick definition.

What is sustainability?

Corporate sustainability is imperative for business today – essential to long-term corporate success and for ensuring that markets deliver value across society. To be sustainable, companies must do five things: Foremost, they must operate responsibly in alignment with universal principles and take actions that support the society around them. Then, to push sustainability deep into the corporate DNA, companies must commit at the highest level, report annually on their efforts, and engage locally where they have a presence.

Read more here: Guide to Corporate Sustainability by the United Nations Global Compact

 

A definition of impact investing by the World Economic Forum (2003):

Impact investing is generally understood in science as the proactive intention of an investor to create a measurable positive social and/or environmental impact through investment or finance and to achieve (eco-) social returns alongside with financial returns. Impact investing is an investment approach that intentionally seeks to create both financial return and positive social or environmental impact that is actively measured.

Importance of sustainability rising in the VC & entrepreneurship scene

In 2018, a group of serial entrepreneurs started the initiative “Leaders for Climate Action” to mobilize the entrepreneurial community for climate action.

By December 2020, more than 900 leaders and 540 companies were part of the community, and 26 German venture capitalists have committed themselves to climate protection by integrating a climate clause in every term sheet and shareholder agreement.

Read more and become a member here:
Leaders for Climate Action

Chapter 3: At look at your investment strategy

 

Guidance for Exclusionary Activites / Restricted Sectors

Chapter 5: Embedding sustainability in the investment process

Further Reading on Impact Measurement

Further impact measurement approaches:

Pymwymic (Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is) Healthy Ecosystems Impact Fund, a Dutch venture capital fund that seeks to conserve and restore our ecosystems, present another approach to impact measurement in their 2018 Report.

Omidyar Network, a social change venture or philanthropic investment firm has published an “Ethical Operating System Toolkit” jointly with the Insitute for the Future, with tools to visualize and anticipate future risks to investment targets. Omidyar Network was founded by Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay, and his wife Pam.

Impact Frontiers is a learning and innovation collaboration of investors and field-builders dedicated to advancing the integration of impact into financial frameworks, processes, and decision-making: Learn more here.

Impact Frontiers also published a Handbook on Impact-Financial Integration.

Pacific Community Ventures, one of the first impact investors in the United States have developed an Impact Due Diligence Guide.

The ImPact, a global membership community of families committed to aligning their assets with their values, explore the different early-stage impact investing strategies in a report: The ImPact: Early-Stage Investments

 

Download Material

Chapter 6: How to work with your portfolio companies

Chapter 7: Setting the right example

Tackling Environmental Sustainability In-house

Why diversity pays off in Venture Capital

Bias in Venture Capital

Steps toward gender bias in Private Equity & Venture Capital

Sustainability Governance

Chapter 8: Measuring Impact