‘Carbon accounting is the new financial accounting’, but where do you start when it comes to calculating your company’s CO2 emissions?
At the end of 2020, Carbon+Alt+Delete launched: an ambitious start-up that develops software solutions with which companies can calculate and report on their environmental footprint correctly. According to founder Kenneth Van den Bergh, such reporting will soon become just as important to companies as their financial figures. Three years later, the company has already achieved a significant growth trajectory, thanks in part to the Ashoka Impact Programme, which guides start-ups through the implementation of their sustainability projects. An inspiring story of engineers whose mission – as the name suggests – is to eliminate CO2 emissions from business operations. In this interview with CEO Kenneth Van den Bergh, you can find out all about their inspiring journey from fresh start-up to a promising company in a rapidly growing market.
Let’s get straight to the point: Why Carbon+Alt+Delete?
Companies are increasingly required to start measuring their carbon footprint. Although there is currently no legal obligation in place except for specific sectors, companies nowadays face extensive questioning about their choices. Financial institutions, investors, banks, customers and even employees want to know more about a company’s sustainability strategy before dealing with them. The need to be able to calculate CO2 emissions is certainly present. However, we found that companies lacked suitable tools to calculate this carbon footprint to a high standard. Carbon+Alt+Delete offers a solution to both problems: by using powerful software to calculate your ecological footprint, it becomes possible to take quick action.
How does it actually work?
There are typically three issues our software resolves. First and foremost, it calculates your current CO2 emissions accurately and transparently. You can compare it to financial accounting tools that ensure that everything can be standardised and audited. Secondly, the software provides crucial insights. What are the problem areas? What improvements can we make right now, in the short term? Certain recurring elements will stand out. And finally, the software saves huge amounts of time. Just think of all the time that is currently lost collecting and processing data, creating manual reports, etc.
In future, will companies actually have to report on their carbon footprint in the same way as they do for their financial figures? Are things really heading that way?
A lot is changing and things are moving incredibly fast. Carbon footprinting and sustainability are no longer being tucked away in companies’ ‘green credentials corner’. There are solid business reasons to prioritise such matters. We strongly believe in the statement ‘carbon accounting is the new financial accounting’. This means a number of things: companies will need to calculate their carbon footprint, just as they calculate their financial results, in order to remain competitive in a CO2 neutral society. They must also be able to report it to their stakeholders. Just as they do for their financial accounts, they will often rely on the assistance of external service providers who do this work on a daily basis and have the relevant expertise. We refer to these experts as ‘carbon accountants’. And it’s those carbon accountants who will rely on our software in their turn.
An engineer setting his sights on eliminating CO2 emissions: how did that come to pass?
The seeds were sown long ago. I’ve always been passionate about everything related to climate issues and, more specifically, the energy transition. Of course, the two go hand in hand. During my studies to become an engineer, my interest remained undiminished. That’s also why I decided to dedicate my thesis to the topic of modelling renewable electricity systems. I found many like-minded souls among my fellow students, including Hanspeter Höschle, my co-founder. Together, we came up with the idea of setting up Carbon+Alt+Delete. Initially as a non-profit organisation, to offer private individuals a tool to help calculate and reduce their families’ CO2 emissions more easily. That included making it possible for them to offset part of their CO2 emissions by purchasing ETS certificates, for example. In this phase, Carbon+Alt+Delete was a hobby project. Of course, we also had a thesis to complete. Only at a later stage did we start transforming our model to meet companies’ needs.
Why this change of target audience?
It was actually the companies themselves who reached out to us. Often, they were doing a bit of research online on how to reduce CO2 emissions and would stumble across our website. After receiving multiple sincere, specific requests, we decided to start actively working on them. 2020 was the perfect time for this, as the coronavirus pandemic ensured that business managers were critically reviewing their companies and also had the time to implement improvement processes. It was a real tipping point, for us too. It was during this period that the business – or at least the business plan – transformed into the Carbon+Alt+Delete we know today. It was also in this period that we decided to really go for it.
How did you set about that?
First of all, we looked for someone who could help us build solid, high-quality software. We definitely found that expert in Hanspeter Höschle – also a friend from my student days. He and I started focusing on the project full-time in 2020. The three other PhD students who co-founded the project also worked with us to draw up a business plan during the Ashoka Impact Programme.
How did you end up at the Impact Programme?
It actually all happened very organically. The timing was right – the coronavirus pandemic provided the momentum both for us to really dare to make the leap, and for other companies to want to do things differently. Then we saw a LinkedIn post by Ashoka in passing and signed up. Our main intent was to investigate thoroughly whether this project was worthwhile. Once we were done, we would see whether the project had ‘any meat on the bone’. Fortunately, that proved to be the case!
When we started the Impact Programme, we had not got that far, in all honesty. We had a rough idea that we believed in very strongly, but there were certainly other participating start-ups that had already progressed much further. The Impact Programme forced us to take a structured approach. We really benefitted from that phased progress and the accompanying deadlines back then. It did us good and caused us to take things more ‘seriously’ ourselves than we had previously. By the end of that journey – not quite a year later – we had a solid business plan and set up a company and in the beginning of 2021, the ball really got rolling.
That seems like major progress in a short period of time. What exactly helped you move forward?
Within the programme, you can call on the services of a variety of experts. There are workshops togehter with other participants, but you also receive individual coaching. And while there are many incubator programs offering expertise, the Impact Programme offers a unique mix. This is because the expertise originates not just from the traditional business world, but also from the non-profit sector. A unique combination you won’t find in any other incubator programme. ABN AMRO was able to offer coaching on financing, Accenture helped us with software-related questions and Ashoka gave us food for thought about stakeholders in businesses with a social impact. It all really came together.
What were your biggest challenges?
As we were still in the very early stages of our entrepreneurial journey, we had plenty of those! I think expanding the team was one significant stumbling block. The original founders of Carbon+Alt+Delete all came from very similar backgrounds. We were all good at the same things, but also struggled with the same things. It wasn’t until we found a software specialist that we could really move on. Of course, there was also the financing issue: we needed some breathing room to continue for at least a few months. Fortunately, we were also successful in obtaining funds via VLAIO. Our request was approved while we were still doing the Impact Programme.
And you won the ABN AMRO Ready to Invest award!
Yes, that’s right! At the end of the Impact Programme, there is an award show. The participating companies once again pitch their projects, which by then, of course, are somewhat more advanced than at the outset. One of the prizes is awarded by ABN AMRO, the Ready to Invest award. And we were the lucky ones! In practice, this meant we could call on ABN AMRO’s expertise for the financing component. Together, we polished our pitch. This was a huge reality check for us – the document was really not very good yet – but we were able to improve it enough that we managed a capital increase of EUR 600,000 last summer! That will allow us to accelerate. We can tidy up the software as well as spending part of it on sales & marketing, also very important of course. The market is growing fast, and we need to be able to move quickly. The investment round has ensured that we are ‘ready to go’.
What does the future of Carbon+Alt+Delete look like?
We want to become a European reference player in carbon accounting. We are focusing on the European market, as we are already active in various countries. In the long run, we will work towards serving the 200,000 companies that will have to report professionally on their carbon footprint in this market. There is huge potential there. We want to have at least 10% of these companies using our software. Meanwhile, North America has also been taking important steps with regard to mandatory reporting. For the time being, however, it’s only sensible for us to focus on our home market.
In conclusion, how optimistic are you about the future of our fight against climate change (so far)?
My answer to that question varies from day to day! (laughing). When I read some reports by climate scientists, I can become a bit pessimistic. The obstacle course we will need to navigate to really keep climate change under control is daunting. But when I put on my engineer’s hat and see how quickly technology is advancing and how the business world is evolving, I feel more optimistic. I am truly convinced that we can and will evolve towards a climate neutral economy. It does remain to be seen whether we will do so in time to limit the impact of climate change. I am sure that we – or at least our children and grandchildren – will be living in a structurally warmer world. However, I hope that with the help of various technical solutions, we can keep this world habitable. If I can just voice my biggest frustration, often, we are still stuck repeating the wrong discussion today. There is actually a lot we can do right here and now. We have solar panels, wind turbines, heat pumps, electric vehicles and so on. We know what we need to do and we can do it, but now the time has come that we need to act.
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