Commercial, Energy Efficiency, GHG Emissions, Sourcing Renewables  -  March 23, 2020

Butterfly Ventures becomes first carbon-neutral VC firm in Europe

The Finnish VC firm Butterfly Ventures announced that they have become the first carbon-neutral VC firm in Europe by reducing air travel, sourcing renewable energy and purchasing emission credits.

The VC investor partnered with CO2Esto to acquire emission allowances from the EU Emissions Trading Market equal to or greater than the amount of emissions they emit each year. 

The company determined that 77% of their emissions come from travelling and has shifted strategies to achieve a 10% decrease in emissions from traveling annually, per portfolio company, by increasing remote meetings and more efficiently distributing their team.

"Venture is a contact sport, it requires plenty of footwork, meeting people, digging the most talented entrepreneurs out no matter where they are, and as a result, there's a lot of travel," CEO Juho Risku told Forbes. "It felt [..] bad to contribute to the catastrophe, and we figured out we must do something."

Energy accounts for 2% of the company’s annual emissions. To reduce these emissions, Butterfly Ventures plans to switch the electricity in their Oulu office to clean energy.

The third strategy to achieve carbon neutrality that Butterfly Ventures has implemented is purchasing emission allowances. Currently, they have decided to acquire 50 tons of allowances to account for unavoidable emissions. As the company continues to successfully lower their actual emissions they will decrease the number of emission allowances that they acquire.