In a First for Europe, Nordic VC Firm Reaches Carbon Neutrality

(Photo Credit: Stian Vesterinen, Unsplash)

Nordic VC investment firm Butterfly Ventures says that it has become the first carbon-neutral VC investor in Europe. The firm has offices in Helsinki, Stockholm, and Oulu, Finland.

Butterfly Ventures was founded in 2012 and has since invested in 62 companies, with a focus on seed-stage startups primarily in Finland. The firm says that it committed to eliminating all of its carbon emissions in recognition that global warming is an accelerating problem.

They began collaborating with the Finnish company CO2Esto, which helps companies find ways to eliminate their emissions by preventing them from forming in the first place. CO2Esto offered Butterfly Ventures the option of acquiring emission allowances from the EU Emissions Trading Market, the firm said.

“As part of our new sustainability strategy, we acquire the same amount or more emission allowances than we emit each year,” they said.

CO2Esto also calculated the firm’s carbon footprint using a tool that takes energy, travel, waste, services, events, and purchases into account. Travel accounted for 77% — 27,246 kilograms of CO2 equivalent — of Butterfly Ventures’ emissions.

After giving their emissions more thought, the firm came up with several future changes:

• An annual 10% decrease in emissions from traveling per portfolio company. “The decrease will be accomplished by, well, flying less,” the firm said, as well as “more efficient distribution of tasks between the team members, and by organizing more meetings on Skype instead of seeing face-to-face.”
• A new waste recycling system. “Plastic, paper, and bio-waste won’t see each other in our trash bins anymore.”
• Renewable energy. “We will switch to green energy in our Oulu office,” the firm said. “In Helsinki, our office is in Maria 01’s premises and in Stockholm, we’re at Epicenter. Thus we can’t decide the type of electricity by ourselves in those locations — at least not yet.”