Private equity services
Private equity, investors and M&A
Sustainability is now a core lever in investment performance, and the most forward-looking investors are embedding it across the full investment cycle.
Sustainability is now a core lever in investment performance
We are investors ourselves, who work daily with investments in our Article 9 impact venture fund and fully understand the link between commercial value creation, risk management and strategic sustainability. From the outset of The Footprint Firm, we’ve worked closely with private equity firms, institutional investors, and M&A advisors to integrate ESG and impact into investment decision-making, ownership, value creation and exit.
We partner with leading PE firms across the Nordics and Europe, at fund level, with portfolio companies, and in transactions on both the buy and sell side. Our work spans funds of all sizes and Article 6, 8, and 9 classifications, as well as specialised investors in infrastructure, energy, shipping, climate, and impact.
ESG due diligence
We conduct ESG and impact due diligences across all sectors, all company maturity levels and tailored to specific fund strategies across article 6, 8 and 9. Our approach is tailored to the specific requirements of each fund – whether assessing traditional businesses or high-impact targets.
We offer four levels of due diligence:
- Light ESG due diligence focused on risk and compliance
- Standard ESG due diligence covering risk, compliance, and potential value creation levers
- Full impact ESG due diligence including theory of change and value creation potential plan
- Combined commercial due diligence (CDD) and ESG due diligence on impact cases, including assessment of EU Taxonomy and article 9 alignment
Depending on scope, our analyses can include double materiality assessments, peer benchmarking, risk mapping across the value chain, regulatory driver analysis, and maturity and gap assessments. We also support development of theory of change, define impact KPIs, evaluate EU Taxonomy alignment, and identify value creation levers and potential exit narratives. Our due diligence work is never just a one-size-fits-all approach but always carefully scoped to drive the most value in the process: fit with your fund strategy, target size, maturity and sector, calibration of focus vis-a-vis other DD streams and applying our business acumen to all analyses.
Exit preparation and ESG vendor due diligence
We work with companies, investors, and M&A advisors to prepare for exits, ensuring ESG performance is clearly articulated, and value creation opportunities are well positioned. This includes pressure-testing ESG data and systems, assessing regulatory implications, benchmarking against peers, closing material gaps, and preparing management teams for sustainability-related positioning in exit processes.
Additional expertise areas include
- Sustainability alignment under SFDR/EU Taxonomy
- Training on ESG and sustainability topics for investment teams and portfolio companies
- Development of fund sustainability strategy and frameworks, including reporting and impact KPIs
Our featured private equity services
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Anna Søndergaard
Co-Founding Partner & CEO
“From fund strategies to due diligence, value creation under ownership to preparing for exit, we support investors in turning sustainability into a lever for better deals, stronger portfolios, and long-term competitive advantage.”
Explore our full range of services supporting every step of the sustainability journey
- Private equity and investors
- Strategy and value creation
- Reporting and regulation
- Nature and resources
- Climate
We support investors across the full investment cycle, from fund strategy and impact priorities to Due Diligence, ownership and exit. Our work helps embed sustainability and impact throughout, unlocking long-term value and stronger outcomes.
- Sustainable fundsabout /services/sustainable-fundsSustainable funds
- Private equity servicesabout /services/private-equity-servicesPrivate equity services
Explore our full range of services supporting every step of the sustainability journey
We support investors across the full investment cycle, from fund strategy and impact priorities to Due Diligence, ownership and exit. Our work helps embed sustainability and impact throughout, unlocking long-term value and stronger outcomes.
- Sustainable fundsabout /services/sustainable-fundsSustainable funds
- Private equity servicesabout /services/private-equity-servicesPrivate equity services
Summa Equity
Establishing the foundation for Biodiversity & Nature work across investment portfolio for impact fund
Summa Equity is a thematic investment firm created to solve global challenges and has to date contributed to this through three funds and 33 investments. The investment focus spans four investment themes: Circularity, Sustainable Food, Energy Transition and Tech-Enabled Resilience. As a frontrunner in impact investing within Private Equity, Summa Equity has early on recognised the need to accelerate efforts within nature and biodiversity and engaged The Footprint Firm to conduct an impact assessment across its investments.
Services
- Private equity servicesabout /services/private-equity-servicesPrivate equity services
- Biodiversity & nature impactabout /services/biodiversity-and-nature-impactBiodiversity & nature impact
Industries
- Private equity
The project
Summa Equity sought to conduct a comprehensive nature & biodiversity impact assessment across its portfolio companies as a key step towards developing a strategic and effective response to the global environmental crisis and enable structured work with these topics from both a risk and a value-creation perspective.
Our approach
The Footprint Firm assisted Summa Equity in a two-phased approach:
- A qualitative impact assessment across the value chains of all portfolio companies applying established tools and frameworks from the Science Based Targets Network
- A quantitative impact analysis focused on energy use in the portfolio companies based on Life Cycle Assessment (“LCAs”) in line with the European Commission’s Environmental Footprint (“EF”) method
The impact
The assessments gave Summa Equity a clear and data-backed view of where nature and biodiversity impacts were most concentrated, both across the full portfolio and within individual companies and their value chains. These insights now serve as a strong foundation for prioritising targeted action and delivering measurable reductions in nature and biodiversity-related impacts.