Download Energize’s 2022 Annual Impact & ESG Report here.
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The Energize team is thrilled to present our 2022 Annual Impact & ESG Report, an annual review of our impact and ESG approaches and performance across Energize’s firm and portfolio. This latest report builds on the frameworks and metrics we debuted in our inaugural 2021 report, with particular emphases on driving transparency and increasing the precision of our calculation methodologies. As a climate software investor focused on accelerating the sustainability transition, we have seen first-hand how impact returns align with financial returns. We’re proud of what our team achieved in the last year, and we plan to continue collaborating to develop and implement leading impact and ESG strategies.
In the first half of 2022, we focused on formalizing Energize’s impact and ESG foundations. We worked with peers to form working groups across the VC ecosystem and laid the groundwork for becoming a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). We also integrated impact and ESG considerations into our investment process, from deal sourcing and diligence to post-investment engagement. We are sharing that integration process publicly for the first time in this report.
In the latter six months of 2022, we put our impact and ESG foundations to work. We focused on developing tools to support our portfolio and define standards of excellence in impact and ESG strategies as companies scale, while also advancing our own internal practices. We’re sharing some of our firm’s impact and ESG highlights from the last year below.
Impact
In an important milestone, 2022 marked Energize’s first time differentiating the “gross” and “net” avoided emissions that our portfolio has enabled, with gross emissions representing the total avoided CO2 emissions that our companies have helped enable at some point in the value chain and net emissions representing the avoided CO2 emissions directly attributable to our portfolio companies’ software solutions. Those metrics at a glance:
- Our portfolio helped enable more than 9.8 million MTCO2e of gross avoided carbon emissions.
- We estimated our net avoided emissions at 1.4 million MTCO2e, or 17 percent of the gross amount.
We are continuing to increase the precision of our impact calculations as our practices and portfolio companies mature, with a focus on transparency about our methodologies and assumptions. We welcome collaboration and feedback on how these can be improved as best practices for Scope 4 emissions develop.
ESG
Over the past year, Energize has remained focused on managing material ESG considerations for our portfolio companies and raising the bar for our firm’s internal practices. In 2022:
- Two out of the seven new companies we funded have at least one diverse co-founder.
- Energize doubled our firm headcount, with women and individuals from under-represented communities making up 70 percent of our team.
- We offset our firm’s operational carbon emissions, utilizing the software from portfolio companies SINAI (footprinting and decarbonization platform) and Patch (marketplace for climate action).
Looking ahead at broader industry trends, we expect conversations around ESG and impact to grow murkier before we gain clarity – a typical growing pain for maturing markets. As we navigate a changing regulatory environment and evolving market expectations, Energize is looking forward to continuing to collaborate with peers to align on how these concepts apply to VC and climate investing. We also plan to play a more hands-on role supporting our portfolio companies through this uncertainty, with a focus on long-term value creation.
Thank you to everyone who has worked with us to continue to raise the bar for ESG and drive impact by scaling climate solutions.
Download our 2022 Annual Impact & ESG Report here.
* For detail on calculation methodology please see the appendix included in Energize’s 2022 Annual Impact & ESG Report.
