Northzone is very excited to welcome our first Head of Sustainability, Anna Skarborg, to the team. In the context of the increased global focus on sustainability, ESG, and impact and the urgency of these challenges, this felt like the right moment to take further steps in ensuring our commitment grows productively and consistently by making this appointment for the first time.
In her role, Anna will be responsible for growing our existing industry-leading sustainability efforts and for driving forwards a long-term sustainability strategy that spans from the sourcing and investment phase to portfolio development and support, tracking performance to foster greater dialogue and transparency. Her primary focus will be on value creation, working with founders to integrate sustainability from the start of their journey, and ensuring that it is a key component in their business strategies and growth plans. Rather than taking a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach, Anna will focus on meeting founders’ needs and will continuously develop the role to make use of the comparative advantages that venture capital has within the sustainability space.
Anna will be joining our Stockholm office but will work closely with all our teams globally. She will use our international presence to ensure that our efforts are scalable and that we include best practices and source the best impact ideas, wherever they come from. At Northzone we constantly challenge ourselves to identify the best approaches for understanding and managing our impact. As our partner, Pär-Jörgen Pärson commented: “Anna shares our belief that the most material impact that Northzone as a VC can have is through our investments. By partnering with founders at an early stage, we have the potential to make sustainability a natural part of their corporate DNA, rather than an afterthought.”
Sustainability should never be an afterthought as it will only leave you behind in the long run. We believe sustainability and impact represent a tremendous investment opportunity for years to come and have started to invest more consciously for many years.
We’re confident in saying that companies with no sustainability agenda will not survive the times ahead. Global talent no longer wants to join companies that only target revenue. If most of this change was previously led by consumers, today’s world is heavily driven by where the best people choose to work.