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Startups are agile, fast-growing, and poised to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges, but when it comes to environmental impact, they’re often left out of the conversation. The problem? Startups don’t have historical data. Their impact, like their business model, is still a hypothesis. Traditional ESG frameworks fall short because they’re backward-looking, measuring past performance. They were designed for established companies, not for early-stage startups that are still testing their business models.

In partnership with Startup Estonia, the Estonian Business and Innovation Agency, and the Estonian Business School, we’re proud to introduce the Environmental Impact Assessment Toolkit. This new toolkit helps support organizations guide early-stage startups in hypothesizing, assessing, and communicating their potential environmental impact, even when there’s no historical data to build from.

Here's why environmental impact assessment is becoming a necessity, not a nice-to-have:

• Customers, especially B2B buyers, increasingly demand transparency and sustainability commitments.
• Investors, particularly impact funds, require environmental performance data.
• Public funding from the EU and member states now often requires proof of positive climate impact.
• Regulators are tightening requirements, and startups that prepare early will be more resilient and fundable.

Inside, you'll find clear definitions of key concepts like ESG, SDGs, and circular economy principles, a structured approach to hypothesizing environmental impact, templates and tools for estimating GHG reductions, SDG alignment, and long-term sustainability impact, and practical guidance for support organizations on how to help startups through the assessment process.

Download the Environmental Impact Assessment Toolkit here.

The development of the environmental assessment toolkit has been supported by the European Regional Development Fund under the EU cohesion policy funding period 2021–2027.

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