The Footprint Firm

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Footprint🤸🤸♂️🎂🎈 Turning 5 is a big thing👣 👣 👣 👣 👣 An age characterized by a considerable amount of stubbornness, an increasing determination to show the world what you are capable of doing and possibly a quite persistent insistency on voicing your own strong beliefs...🧗🏋️♂️🤹🏃♀️ Footprint, you are no different. And we love you for that❤️ 💚Thank you to all of you out there who have supported our stubborn 5 year old from its very first steps in the determination to change things for the better. In the belief that things can be done in a different manner. And in the constant insistence on challenging status quo. 💚... and most of all; thank you all Footprinters for holding our 5 year old’s hand every day and encouraging every step forward❤️ #takeactionnow #footprintpeople

The ESG report will be available soon, and in our most recent Finans article 📝 Christian Sparrevohn reflects on why this should be seen as a prerequisite, not the end goal 🥅 As many sustainability managers are in the final stages of preparing their first ESG reports 🌍📄, exhaustion is paired with expectation. This monumental task has required engaging with stakeholders 🤝, deciphering changing guidelines 🔍, and countless hours of analysis 📊 So, why the expectation? 🤔 Because ESG, while primarily aimed at transparency for investors, holds the power to transform how businesses operate 💪 When done right, it not only provides external insights but also forces companies to confront internal realities—highlighting risks and opportunities related to sustainability 📈📉 That’s also why the “real exam” starts after the report is submitted. The question ❓ everyone must answer now is: With the opportunities and risks the company has identified through ESG, what are the strategies to increase its robustness, earnings and relevance in a rapidly changing world? 🌍 This is where the value comes in to demonstrate real progress and work seriously with the impacts, risks and opportunities, making sustainability business relevant and into a competitive advantage 🚀So, let's make sure we use these insights to drive real action, not just compliance 💚 👉 Read the full article (in Danish) using the link in the comments. #thefootprintfirm #sustainability #takeactionnow

📢 Søuld has officially completed an impressive fundraising round 🎉 led by Jacob Jelsing via his investment company Change Ventures, additionally we joined this round together with the existing owners of Søuld and Arentoft & Niros Invest Aps 🤝 There are many things that are exciting about this significant two-digit million investment, and one of those things is Jacob Jelsing’s involvement through Change Ventures. Jacob is a highly respected entrepreneur 💡, investor 🚀, and marine biologist 🐟 🌊, known for co-founding Gubra and his dedication to the green transition 🌱 Jacob recently shared his ambition to invest in companies that are actively working to address the climate and environmental crises 👏 As Jacob puts it, 🗣️  “With a Master of Science in marine biology and with a hearing disability, I find great pleasure in the sustainable natural material, the simple design and the great acoustic performance of Søuld. The Søuld team has been able to demonstrate an impressive growth without compromising their high standards. I am looking forward to assisting in the next phase.” We, together with Søuld, share the mission with Jacob of accelerating the green transition by backing the needed innovation ✨, and we can’t wait to partner up on the next steps of Søuld’s journey 👣 And what is next for Søuld? 🤔  Following this round, Søuld will focus on expanding its eelgrass sourcing strategy in Denmark to ensure they have enough eelgrass for future demand 📈 What’s great about this is that recruiting more farmers positively effects the whole ecosystem 👏 A massive congratulations to Kirsten Lynge, Tobias Øhrstrøm, Mads Arentoft, and the rest of the team at Søuld on this huge milestone 🎉🎊🥳, and a huge shout out to Jacob Jelsing for joining this exciting journey. We look forward to collaborating 💚 👉 Read more in the official press release (in English) here: https://lnkd.in/dGkvZhPX #thefootprintfirm #sustainability #takeactionnow

A big warm welcome to Ludwig Teßmar who is joining us as an Analyst! 🎉🥳   Ludwig is currently pursuing a Master of Science in International Business & Politics at Copenhagen Business School 🧑🎓, specializing in Business and Public Policy, and holds a Bachelor of Science in International Business & Politics. These studies have allowed Ludwig to build a solid understanding of the interplay between business 💼, society 👥, and policy 📜, as well as the economic and political forces shaping the global landscape 🌍 Ludwig’s special interest is the role of public policy in driving sustainable business practices and innovation 🌱✨   Before joining The Footprint Firm, Ludwig spent two years working in strategic planning 💡 as a Junior Associate at Capital Four, a Copenhagen-based credit asset management specialist. Here he assisted in strategy implementation projects and conducted market and industry analyses 📝, developing an understanding of how organizations define and achieve their objectives. On a personal note, Ludwig has shown determination and dedication through some of his hobbies 💪 He has been a professional competitive swimmer 🏊♂️🎖️ for most of his life and attended one of Germany's Olympic Training Centres. These days he still enjoys a lot of different sport, but right now his main go to is CrossFit 🏋️♂️ Ludwig solo backpacked 🎒🗺️ in Canada, Hawaii, and New Zealand in his gap years, where he tried many different professions, including being a gardener 👩🌾, barista ☕, bartender 🍹🍸 and an assistant in setting up weddings 💍 and festivals 🎶🎤 During that trip his love for sports also let him to find his way into surfing 🏄♂️, and in general he enjoyed spending most of his time outdoors 🏞️🌳🌞 When Ludwig isn’t doing a ton of sport or backpacking the world, he likes to wind down by reading 📚 English classics and poetry. Perhaps a new member for the Footprint bookclub? We look forward to getting to know you more, Ludwig, once again welcome to the team! 💚 #thefootprintfirm #footprintpeople #takeactionnow

💚🙏A big THANK YOU to all of you who chose to spend your afternoon with us yesterday to get smarter on CSDDD and for your many good questions and the good discussions on this important topic afterwards. This event was co-hosted by The Footprint Firm, Poul Schmith/Kammeradvokaten and Human Rights Watch Denmark represented by Arvind Ganesan, Director of Human Rights Watch’s Economic Justice and Rights Division zooming in on: 🤔❓What is CSDDD – and how do you as a company get started with this? ⚖️👩⚖️The legal implications of CSDDD and some of the things to be aware of when implementing this new legislation 🧑🤝🧑🌍CSDDD from a Human Rights perspective and why this step from EU to push private companies to take further responsibility for their value chains is so important – simply fact that violations of human rights still take place in todays supply chains. Especially in the lower tiers of sub suppliers. It made us extremely happy to experience how very different organisations working from different angles with a sustainability topic can meaningfully join forces to build knowledge and awareness🤝🏋️♀️ So we will definitely explore how we can do more of such joint-effort knowledge sessions – and are always open to suggestions for topics. Just reach out☺️(and already received quite a few from engaged participants yesterday) 🙏Again, thank you all for joining 🙏Thank you Arvind for sharing your many years of experience within this field with us all - not many can claim 25 years of hands on experience here - and for squeezing this event into your busy calendar on your very first visit to Denmark 🙏Thank you Poul Schmith & HRW Denmark for co-hosting and wanting to team up on this important topic #takeactionnow #CSDDD

“From a laboratory in Østerbro 🧪 to the catwalk at London Fashion Week 📸, the Danish biotech company Octarine Bio is ready to revolutionise one of the world's most polluting industries with its environmentally friendly colours,” reads a recent Børsen article on Octarine Bio, featuring CEO and co-founder Nethaji Gallage. What a way to summarise the incredible journey Octarine has been on! 👏🎉 According to the UN environmental organisation UNEP, the textile industry emits 10% of global CO2 emissions 📈, with a staggering 30% 🤯 of those emissions coming solely from the dyeing process. This is where Octarine comes in with their sustainable colours, PurePalette 🎨 PurePalette dyes are chemical-free, biologically based, and can reduce CO2 emissions from textile dyeing by 70% 📉, according to a recent Life-Cycle Analysis. Besides their incredible impact potential, PurePalette offers over hundreds of colours that can be mixed to match and applied to most fabric types 👔👕👗👚 Now these colours are ready to go, having debuted on the catwalk at London Fashion Week. "We finally see how several years of hard work in the laboratory with microscopic yeast cells have turned into concrete, colourful clothing collections. Octarine Bio is no longer just a good idea and a good business case, but a physical product with the potential to change a global industry,” 💪 explains Nethaji Gallage. We continue to cheer you on 🎉🎊🚀, Nethaji Gallage, Nick Milne, and the rest of the team at Octarine Bio. Thank you, Børsen, for highlighting this incredible story 💚 PS: The jacket Nethaji Gallage is wearing is one of the pieces designed by Patrick McDowell for London Fashion Week, dyed using PurePalette colours—so be sure to take a close look! 😉 👉 Read more in the link to the Børsen article (in Danish) in the comments.

The Footprint Fund I has officially reached its 3rd close 🚀🚀🚀 since our first close in April, and this brings the total fund size up to ~EURm 60 🎉 It’s crazy to think how time is flying ⏱️🤯, and to see how many incredible things are happening in such a short space of time 👏 This round was led by Lauritzen Fonden, and also included other strong investment professionals 💪 A big thank you 🙏 to all of you for this support and for your belief in The Footprint Fund and in driving sustainable change through your investments 💚 Lauritzen Fonden is a commercial foundation that shares many of the values of The Footprint Firm - and most importantly the belief in constantly finding new ways to enable greater impact 🌟📈, and the value of collaboration as an enabler for new solutions 🤝 Philip Sjøqvist, Investment Director from Lauritzen Fonden adds, 🗣️ “Lauritzen Fonden is pleased to partner with the Footprint Fund, reinforcing our commitment to Danish entrepreneurship and the green transition. Footprint’s focus and our investment strategy is a good match, and we are confident that the team will drive the green transition and bolster Danish entrepreneurship in the years to come.” Which is exactly what we love to work towards every day, and it gives us even more drive to collaborate with investors who share this vision with us 👏 A massive thank you to Lauritzen Fonden and all of the other strong investment professionals for believing in the mission of our fund and the business model fuelling it. We look forward to creating sustainable change together 💚 #thefootprintfund #thingswewouldliketochange

🦌🐐🫏Very happy and proud to share that Footprint has been awarded Børsen's Gazelle Prize 2024🤸🤸♂️🤸♀️ During the past 29 years Børsen has mapped the Gazelles of Danish companies based on the criteria: 📈Positive topline growth every year over the past 4 years 📈Minimum 100% accumulated topline growth for the past 4 years 🙏Thank you all out there for all your continuous support 🙏Thank you Børsen for this recognition ❤️The biggest THANK YOU to all fellow Footprinters who have made and are making this possible... 💚... and the best thing: the more activity, the more impact👣💪🌍 Disclaimer: For all you nature savvy out there; we are aware that the top emojies are NOT gazelles, but other - perhaps less exotic - four-legged furry friends. But the closest we could find - and added the donkey just because we really liked it... #sustainability #takeactionnow #footprintpeople

A huge congratulations to you, Tamás Kovács-Söderqvist, on your promotion to Manager! 🎉🎊🥳    Thank you, Tamas, for letting us be lucky enough to have had you as a colleague for the past three years and for choosing to join us! 🙏 We are fans of your cool 😎, calm 😌 and collected ✌️ vibe that definitely adds some understated rockstar 🤘 vibe to the office - and to all of the work you do. Tamas’ coolness coexists with the ability to be an extremely good and kind listener 👂🤔 who always helps other Footprinters shine in any way possible 💚 Also, Tamas is a person who naturally builds strong relationships with the people around him 🤝, both internally and with clients and start-ups, being a person one will naturally quickly come to trust due his honest and authentic approach in everything he does.  Also, we love how Tamas’s cool head 🧊 🧠 prevails in even the most hectic of times, and we truly admire how grounded🧘he is in all situations and we cherish the dry humour he brings. Please don’t ever change this! Besides Tamas’s expansive knowledge across multiple areas within sustainability, he has become an expert particularly in the areas of GHG accounting and decarbonization 📊📉 – as well as the lead of our Agriculture investment vertical 🧑🌾🚜 Tamas’s impressive ability to break down complex challenges into a meaningful path forward 🛤️, backed up by a high level of knowledge, is valued by us all and this ability to dive into multiple areas 🤹 and the enjoyment for learning tons of new stuff also translates to his life outside of work.  We have discovered Tamas’ true fascination for the interactions between plants 🌱 and fungi 🍄, and a lot of information 📄  on this topic is being devoured. And should any of you happen to come across cool new books, documentaries or other sources of information on mycology 😉, please let us know as Tamas is on the constant look out for more information on this topic. Tamas also has a true love for the great outdoors 🏞️💙, having done many long-distance hikes 🥾 in Scotland, Sweden and Transylvania and has already started sharing this passion with his daughter, Millie, who was introduced to camping in the wilderness of Sweden by her parents when she was just one and a half 🏕️👶 Besides being a dad to Millie, Tamas also is the proud dog dad to Folke 🐶💖 who is our occasional (and unofficial) office dog. Folke has to be the most kitted-out (and well trained) 🐕🦺 dog we have seen and truly devoted to his ‘dad’ to a degree that only can make one envious 🐾 Thank you 🙏, Tamás Kovács-Söderqvist, for being you and bringing your cool presence, smart brains, dry humour, constant kindness and unofficial office dog to Footprint 👣 We’re so lucky to have you, a massive congratulations on your well-deserved promotion! 💚 💚 from us all #thefootprintfirm #footprintpeople #takeactionnow

Thank you Realdania 🙏 for a great Investor Day and for dedicating this year’s focus to impact investments 🚀 The day focused on driving impact through investments targeting CO2e reduction 📉, low carbon real estate investments 🏢🌿, and green building materials 🏗️ The day was especially inspiring to us 💡 and the work we do in built environment vertical of The Footprint Fund, where we work closely with start-ups to help accelerate the needed innovation 🌟 in this industry. And we were proud to see two of our start-ups 👏, Kirsten Lynge from Søuld and Thomas Nygaard Hamann from a:gain [again], take the stage together with Altor Equity Partners and Generate for a panel debate around the need for green building material 💪 Also, we were truly happy to see how Realdania’s impact framework 📊 has come to life and being presented in the session on Mission Related Investments & Impact Reporting presented by Kenneth Lillelund Winther 🙌, - a framework we have had the pleasure of supporting the Realdania team in developing as part of our advisory work. Kudos to Emma Bjerregård for leading the work on the Footprint side and thank you Realdania for letting us be part of this inspiring work process 🤝 A huge shout out to Realdania for organizing this event around such important topics 💚, and a final shout out to all the speakers who were up for sharing their knowledge and helping push this agenda forward, Kenneth Lillelund Winther, Stephanie Bensimon, Matteo Minardi, Claus Vinge Skrumsager, Thomas Palm Westermann, Scott Gosselink, Katherine Treuer, Kirsten Lynge & Thomas Nygaard Hamann 💚 #thefootprintfirm #sustainability #takeactionnow