Non-profit venture ACT, backed by some of the India's top investors and founders, has partnered with Boston Consulting Group to launch the Green Startup Pledge (GSP) at COP27, in a bid to promote clean tech and sustainable energy.
“We are confident that the Indian startup ecosystem will lead the transition towards a more sustainable economy by building businesses of the future which integrate sustainability into their core business principles, " said Prashanth Prakash, Co-founder - Accel India and a member of the board at ACT.
ALSO READ: COP 27 | What is implementation COP, and how is the Russia Ukraine war driving the world towards cleaner energy
The Green Startup Pledge will drive this transition, support startups in scaling with sustainable practices and providing resources so that India can deliver on its climate promises, Prakash added.
The pledge was launched at UNFCCC COP27 at Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt, on November 12 as well as at the Bangalore Tech Summit on November 19 with the Chief Minister of Karnataka, the venture said in a media statement.
ACT is a non-profit venture philanthropy platform that was founded in 2020 in response to the Covid crisis and is built upon the premise that an entrepreneurial mindset, technology and innovation and collective action have the power to create meaningful social impact at scale.
ACT and BCG's green startup pledge is the world's first climate pledge designed mainly for startups and is backed by India's top venture capital funds.
The pledge is promoted by entrepreneurs including Zerodha's Nithin Kamath, Zomato's Deepinder Goyal and Ola's Bhavish Aggarwal.
The organisation is developed for taking the right action to catalyse social change through collaboration across the board. It mainly focuses and is designed for VCs, startup founders, donors, NGO’s, expert advisors, government stakeholders as well as the public at large.
The Green Startup Pledge aligns with ‘net zero by 2050’ goals & related scientific measurement, feeds into the Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR) while offering streamlined reporting and a focus on sound business as the core.
"Zomato has already taken pioneering steps in this direction and we are excited about the GSP because it helps startups incorporate sustainability into core business operations in a way that builds better and delivers business results,” said Deepinder Goyal, founder, Zomato.
ACT has launched 'ACT For Environment', which funds climate and environment startups that have the potential to catalyse climate impact at scale.
In addition to providing funding, it works with grantees on strategy, operations and harnessing the strength of ACT's collective to build enduring, sustainable organisations.
"Climate isn't a distant threat, it's here and now. In order to have a realistic chance of combating it, we all have to make changes, both big and small. At Zerodha, we've been mindful of this for a very long time. This pledge will help drive this deeper and also hopefully inspire others." said Nithin Kamath, founder of India's biggest online stock broking firm Zerodha.
ACT for environment basically aims to help India deliver on its dual promises of economic development and environmental security, including those made to its citizens and laid out in the SDGs and NDCs, the prepared statement said.
Checkout Budget Highlights 2023
