In recent years, sustainability has become an increasingly important consideration for businesses of all sizes, including startups. Large companies have started to demand sustainability reporting from their suppliers and partners. If you think sustainability reporting is only for the really big fish, you might be in for a surprise. Because the success of your startup could ultimately depend on sustainability reporting. Don’t panic! Let’s explore sustainability reporting requirements for startups that want to sell to big companies in the EU and Switzerland.

Sustainability reporting is the process of communicating an organization’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance to its stakeholders. This includes information about the organization’s impact on the environment, its social and ethical practices (like: how do they treat their employees?), and its governance practices. The goal of sustainability reporting is to provide stakeholders with a comprehensive view of the organization’s sustainability performance.

Sustainability reporting was formally and widely introduced when publicly listed companies in the EU were forced to introduce a sustainability reporting due to the EU Directive 2014/95. The Swiss regulators followed suit. Since then, all large publicly traded companies report on their performance concerning the sustainable development goals UNSDGs. What first started as just another legal requirement, is today a highly strategic topic in the boardrooms. Nowadays, it is a reputational risk to not carefully assess and report on environmental and social performance of the company’s operation – and that goes even for family-owned businesses and SMEs not required to do so by law. 

This article introduces the Swiss Triple Impact and summarizes the keynote held by Martin Studer, the 25th of August at the Impact Hub Basel.

Swiss Triple Impact is a program designed and initiated by BLab, a non-profit organization that serves to redefine business success so that companies not only compete to be the best in the world but the best for the world.

Swiss Triple Impact helps Swiss companies to measure their contributions to the sustainable development goals (SDGs), letting them identify the most important areas for improvement.

The program is open to Swiss companies, NGOs and other organizations of all sizes and sectors.

A significant number of participants are startups that want to do it right from the beginning. Many established businesses already have a sustainability program and have joined the STI program to get support in aligning their goals and exchange ideas with other STI participants.

The 17 SDGs and their targets set the basis for the realization of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. It’s an ambitious agenda that wants to set the world on a course of inclusive, sustainable development.

While the SDGs are formulated and designed for political entities, you can translate these SDGs from country-wide goals to organizational goals with the STI program. After completing the program, a participant prioritizes on 4 or 5 SDGs that are crucial for the sustainability strategy with well-defined pledges and action plans for the further improvement.

The sustainable development goals.

Step 1: Introduction

In an introductory workshop, you’ll learn everything about the SDGs and the STI program. This allows you and your team to establish a baseline of knowledge.

Step 2: Workshops

In a prioritization workshop, you define what SDGs you want to focus on. In a subsequent implementation workshop, you work on methods to transform your business toward these SDGs.

Step 3: STI Directory

If you want, you can get listed in the STI Directory for everyone to see your pledge and action plan.

The SDG action manager is a free online tool anyone can use. It helps you identify which SDGs are most relevant to you based on your company profile. You can further measure your contributions, set goals and improve your performance.

Once you’ve answered around 30 baseline questions, you’ll get an idea of what SDGs might be relevant to your company. This is a great start for organizations that want to become more sustainable, but do not know where to start. “The pricing for participating in the Swiss Triple Impact Program depends on your company’s annual turnover (starting at 1’400 CHF).”

As part of our venture mentoring for startups service, we offer technology driven and innovative startups personal guidance to a sustainable growth path.

We inform you about relevant organizations and partners that help us transform our economy into a sustainable future. Keep an eye out for further developments

The Solar Impulse Foundation supports sustainable technologies with four crucial steps:

1. Certification:

Innovative sustainable technologies often face the challenge that their potential buyers face big risks in adopting a new solution. In order to win the needed confidence, the solution needs references and certifications. Achieving this is time consuming and costly, because early adopters are attracted through the offering of considerable discounts. The Solar Impulse Foundation certifies innovative products and technologies and verifies that they are applicable with its own label. The label certifies the solution’s positive impact on nature compared to the status quo and its financial viability. Compared to other services the certification is free of charge and thus the going-to-market process is shortened considerably. Find out if your solution qualifies! More information on the certificate and the link to the application here: https://solarimpulse.com/label

2. Acceleration:

After successful certification, the solutions go through an acceleration phase. The awarded companies benefit from the foundation’s network of cleantech experts. The Solar Impulse Foundation helps gain new markets and find new clients through events and exhibitions, as well as with entries on their Solutions Explorer software.

3. Access to Capital:

To further help labeled companies, the Solar Impulse Foundation develops activities to create investment opportunities in the SIF Efficient solutions portfolio. This includes the development of two investment funds, e-pitches and the presentation of ventures to other investors in the network.

4. Promotion

Lastly, the foundation advocates for the solution on its many platforms, including publications and guides, ambassador programs and experts’ articles.

Supporting startups is just one side of the coin. To make sure that the new solutions are adopted and replace dirty technologies of the past, the buyers of these solutions need to be educated. Research has shown that cities are key and an ideal starting point for change.

A majority of the population lives in cities; they are responsible for most of the emissions and contribute most to the global GDP. In other words, cities have the people, the problem and the money to solve it.

The Solar Impulse Foundation has created a Solutions Guide for Cities that helps decision-makers implement efficient solutions in cities:

1. Analysis:

Prioritize key projects where cities can realize real impact through the adoption of innovative cleantech solutions. While every city is unique, common sustainability challenges prevail.

2. Identification of relevant solutions to deploy:

While challenges may be the same, different local solutions may be applied with local startups that qualify for a Solar Impulse certification.

3. Inspiration:

Be inspired by concrete examples of implementation and best practices. Assisting partner cities on their journey unleashes a “Can do”-attitude that helps in solving the remaining challenges.

The Solutions Guide for Cities is offering a range of case studies that serve as an inspiration for decision makers and city planner and can be downloaded for free.

And for more inspiration, the Solar Impulse Foundation has recorded a podcast to explore how partner cities are undertaking their green transition, the obstacles they face and how authorities, private entities and the common citizen can work together to overcome them.

While cities have a big potential to drive change, we all have the responsibility to act. As a business, your specific needs and challenges are similar to cities. The solutions explorer of the Solar Impulse Foundation is a powerful resource for your business to improve your infrastructure, production processes, and supply chains.

Use it as a search engine to find relevant solutions tailored to your unique situation.