RESOURCES FOR VCs
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Venture Capital Industry Research
Starting Up: Responsible Investment in Venture Capital
United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment
January 2022
This report by UNPRI explores the nascent development of ESG incorporation in the venture capital industry. It highlights current approaches and examples of emerging good practice; alongside the substantial barriers that need to be addressed for responsible investment to be more widely adopted across the venture capital industry.
How Venture Capital Can Join the ESG Revolution
Stanford Social Innovation Review
August 2021
Venture capital has lagged on the adoption of ESG practices. Here are four ways they can become more mainstream.
Responsible Investing in Tech and Venture Capital
Harvard Kennedy School, Belfer Center
September 2020
This discussion paper highlights several challenges and some potential solutions for advancing managing societal impacts of venture capital firms and portfolio companies.
Responsible Venture Capital
ERM, CDC and FMO
January 2020
A report commissioned by CDC Group plc and FMO, and prepared by Environmental Resources Management (ERM). This report is intended to provide practical advice about how to invest responsibly in early-stage businesses in emerging markets; managing environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and identifying opportunities, while supporting the growth of innovative companies. -
Regulation
EUROPE
EU Taxonomy
The EU Taxonomy is a green classification system that translates the EU’s climate and environmental objectives into criteria for specific economic activities for investment purposes.It is a transparency tool that will introduce mandatory disclosure obligations on some companies and investors, requiring them to disclose their share of Taxonomy-aligned activities. This disclosure of the proportion of Taxonomy-aligned activities will allow for the comparison of companies and investment portfolios. In addition, it can guide market participants in their investment decisions.
SFDR - Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation
The Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) is a European regulation introduced to improve transparency in the market for sustainable investment products, to prevent greenwashing, and to increase transparency around sustainability claims made by financial market participants.
UNITED STATES
SEC - Proposed Climate Disclosure
The Commission is considering a proposal to improve disclosures by certain investment advisers and funds that purport to take Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors into consideration when making investing decisions. -
Measurement & Reporting Frameworks
B Corporation
Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.
GHG Protocol
This GHG Protocol Corporate Standard provides standards and guidance for companies and other types of organizations preparing a GHG emissions inventory.It covers the accounting and reporting of the six greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol — carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6).
ILPA Data Convergence Project for Private Equity
The ESG Data Convergence Initiative provides industry benchmarking for ESG metrics for the private equity industry to create useful, comparable data.
Science-based Targets Initiative
The latest climate science sends a clear warning that we must dramatically curb temperature rise to avoid the catastrophic impacts of climate change.Science-based targets show companies and financial institutions how much and how quickly they need to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to prevent the worst effects of climate change
Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures
The TCFD provides 11 recommendations across four pillars: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics & targets.
UN Global Compact
Launched in 2000 as a special initiative of the UN Secretary-General, the UN Global Compact provides a framework for developing a more sustainable and responsible business.
UN Sustainable Development Goals
The Sustainable Development Goals or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future". The SDGs were set up in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and are intended to be achieved by 2030.
UN Principles for Responsible Investment
Developed by investors, for investors. The six Principles for Responsible Investment offer a menu of possible actions for incorporating ESG issues into investment practice. -
ESG Standards
GRI - The Global Reporting Initiative
The GRI provides ESG standards that address disclosures of socially material topics affecting a company’s stakeholders.The standards are designed to be used by organizations on a voluntary basis to report their impacts on the economy, the environment, and society.
SASB - Sustainability Accounting Standards Board
SASB provides guidance on how organizations can align their sustainability reporting with the financial needs of investors. -
LP Due Diligence Questionnaires
UNPRI - Responsible Investment DDQ for PE Limited Partners
The Limited Partners’ (LP) Private Equity Responsible Investment Due Diligence Questionnaire (DDQ) has been developed to help investors understand and evaluate a general partner’s (GP) processes for incorporating material environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities into their investment practices and to understand where responsibility for doing so lies.
ILPA ESG Assessment Framework for Limited Partners
ILPA released this ESG Assessment Framework as a resource for limited partners looking to build a tool to evaluate and understand the various stages of ESG integration that peers are observing among general partners in the market today. It is designed to help LPs evaluate and benchmark GP responses to due diligence efforts, inform goal-setting conversations with GPs and measure ESG integration progress over time.
ILPA Diversity Metrics Template
The updated DEI section within the ILPA DDQ 2.0 includes several enhancements that align with prevalent areas of LP inquiry specific to DEI. Similarly, the developments to the ILPA Diversity Metrics Template reflect information sought by LPs, as well as information increasingly requested by LPs of GPs, informed by signatories to the Diversity in Action initiative, validated through multiple working groups and round tables focused on diversity metrics and aligned with ILPA’s recently released ESG Assessment Framework. -
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Venture Capital Report Examples