This page provides a concise guide to integrating sustainability into your company’s growth, with recommended focus areas and metrics for each stage—from laying the foundation at the Pre-Seed stage to achieving maturity and sustainable business practices by Series B.
While we encourage you to explore the full sustainability toolkit, we understand the need for a quick reference. These recommendation maps offer an easy overview of key sustainability considerations and metrics by growth stage. The toolkit provides detailed guidance on implementing these recommendations.
Our approach is practical, focusing on sustainability actions with clear business and economic benefits. While we don't cover materiality in detail here, you can explore how to identify the most valuable areas for your company within the toolkit. Additionally, we share our recommendations for ESG frameworks and data platforms widely used in the VC industry.
| Stage | Focus Areas |
|---|---|
| Pre-Seed | Foundation: Vision, basic policies, initial practices |
| Seed | Integration: Embedding sustainability, initial metrics |
| Series A | Scaling: Formal tracking, enhanced governance |
| Series B | Maturity: Comprehensive reporting, advanced initiatives |
Focus: Laying the foundation
| Category | Metric |
|---|---|
| Workplace culture and employment practices | Establishment of culture and values goals |
| Implementation of fair hiring practices | |
| Initial communication of sustainability vision to key stakeholders (e.g., early investors, partners) | |
| Data privacy and cybersecurity | Data privacy and security framework setup including a draft data privacy and protection policy |
| Responsible product design | Integration of sustainability considerations in product/service design |
| Establishment of customer feedback mechanisms | |
| Environmental effect | Sustainability strategy and objectives |
| Basic resource management practices | |
| Supply chain management | Initial supplier management policies |
| Initial selection criteria includes sustainability considerations | |
| Impact companies | Understand if your startup qualifies as an impact company and align your product with relevant UN SDGs. Develop a strong narrative around the problem you are tackling, how your product addresses it, and why your team is best suited to solve it. |
Focus: Embedding sustainability
| Category | Metric |
|---|---|
| Workplace culture and employment practices | Employee headcount |
| Net new hires | |
| Initial employee engagement and feedback mechanisms | |
| Development of a code of conduct for employees | |
| Draft of diversity and inclusion (D&I) policy | |
| Development of employee handbook | |
| Relevant sustainability training programs for early employees and leadership (link to areas of priority such as data controls) | |
| Data privacy and cybersecurity | Adoption of data protection best practices |
| Implementation of basic cybersecurity measures | |
| Responsible product design | Customer feedback integration into product development |
| Initial sustainable design principles for product lifecycle | |
| Identification and protection of potential IP | |
| Environmental effect | Implementation of energy efficiency measures |
| Preliminary tracking of Scope 1 & 2 emissions (if relevant) | |
| Investment in sustainable innovation projects | |
| Supply chain management | Supplier selection criteria with sustainability considerations |
| Initial supplier assessments for vulnerabilities | |
| Impact companies | Choose a metric representing impact objectives, incorporate impact into brand and business objectives, and align with commercial goals. |
Focus: Scaling practices and meeting investor expectations
| Category | Metric |
|---|---|
| Workplace culture and employment practices | Annual employee turnover rate |
| Gender pay equity analysis | |
| Regular employee satisfaction surveys | |
| Representation of underrepresented groups on the board | |
| Women in leadership positions (C-suite) | |
| Involvement of leadership in sustainability initiatives (e.g., board committee participation) | |
| Data privacy and cybersecurity | Regular audits of data protection practices |
| Implementation of advanced cybersecurity protocols | |
| Responsible product design | Full integration of customer feedback into product design |
| Sustainable design and material use in product lifecycle | |
| Tracking and management of patents/IP | |
| Environmental effect | Tracking of Scope 1 & 2 emissions |
| Energy consumption and efficiency tracking | |
| Percentage of energy from renewable sources | |
| Supply chain management | Comprehensive supplier assessments focused on sustainability |
| Supplier audit initiation | |
| Impact companies | Reassess impact metrics, benchmark against similar companies, and develop an impact strategy integrated with commercial objectives. |
Focus: Maturing a sustainable business
| Category | Metric |
|---|---|
| Workplace culture and employment practices | Detailed diversity metrics across gender, race and ethnicity |
| In-depth employee engagement and satisfaction analytics | |
| Full representation of diversity on board and in leadership levels | |
| Ongoing sustainability training for all employees and leadership | |
| Data privacy and cybersecurity | Incident response plan for data breaches |
| Impact analysis of any data breaches | |
| Responsible product design | Full integration of sustainability in product lifecycle |
| Comprehensive assessment of product design’s environmental impact | |
| Patents/IP portfolio related to sustainable innovations | |
| Environmental effect | Comprehensive tracking of Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions |
| Advanced energy efficiency and resource management initiatives | |
| High percentage of energy from renewable sources | |
| Supply chain management | Comprehensive supplier evaluations for sustainability performance |
| Circular economy initiatives in supply chain | |
| Full supplier audit completion | |
| Impact companies | Show progress of impact measurement vs goals, conduct independent verification of impact metrics, and link leadership remuneration to impact progress. |
ESG data platforms are pivotal for enhancing a company's sustainability efforts, social responsibility, competitive advantage, and adherence to regulatory standards. They furnish essential insights into ESG performance, spotlighting areas for improvement. Demonstrating robust ESG performance can significantly benefit companies by attracting socially conscious investors, customers, and top talent. Moreover, these platforms play a critical role in ensuring regulatory compliance, helping to avert potential penalties and safeguard the company's reputation and financial health.
Recommended ESG data platforms include: