United Renewables’ Chris Caldwell chats with venture capitalist Amory Poulden about climate change and business.
United Renewables’ Chris Caldwell chats with venture capitalist Amory Poulden about climate change and business.
Douglas, Isle of Man, January. Dec. 10, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Using ESG frameworks to evaluate early-stage companies is unhelpful, unlikely to succeed, and risks obscuring a startup’s true strengths, D2 Fund founder Amory Poulden declares in a report. positive influence. An episode of Climate Conversations released today.
“It might be a controversial point, but I really hate the word ESG,” Poulden explained. “You’re taking different qualitative data, trying to quantify it, and then trying to build an absolute metric across different pools, which is dangerous in itself.”
Podcast host and entrepreneur Chris Caldwell, who was on hand at Shell Ventures before launching his own climate fund in 2022, spoke on how to measure the sustainability of small companies. The investment firm’s head of risk (Poulden), who warns that “some of my peers in the VC industry are following the ESG mainstream. Pushing the company into a process-heavy model…and making it pointless. “
Global climate tech venture capital hits record high
Poulden’s comments about his industry come against the backdrop of a boom in venture funding for climate start-ups. In 2021, more than $37 billion in venture capital was deployed into the climate technology market, a 250% increase from pre-pandemic levels.
In a sign of the health of the global market, the US was the largest market for cleantech venture capital activity last year, followed by Europe; while China still holds the top spot for overall funding in the period since 2010.
Founders call for focus on qualitative impact
Both Caldwell and Poulden, CEO and founder of green energy company United Renewables, understand the importance of supporting young businesses working to address the climate crisis. However, Poulden made clear that start-ups need to be judged qualitatively “by the impact they may have in a given area,” rather than relying on benchmarks designed for other types of companies.
climate dialogue is a joint production of United Renewables and the London Business School Alumni Energy Club, which invites leading academics and business leaders for dialogue on sustainable development.
For the latest episode featuring D2 Fund’s Amory Poulden, click here.
All previous episodes can be found here.
climate dialogue Bringing together world-leading thinkers from business and academia to share their expertise on climate change issues.Previous guests have included Sir Andrew Liquilman, Julio Dalpoz, Professor Jean-Pierre BenoititProf. Ioannou, Prof. Tara Schmidt and Prof. Dan Cable.
All previous episodes can be found here. Related articles can be found here.
touch Isabella Hawke – Sales and Marketing Consultant
company United Renewable Energy
Telephone +447624457139
e-mail IIhawke@unitedrenewables.co.uk
web version unitedrenewables.co.uk/resources
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