“The problem when you start talking about sustainable investment is the question – what is sustainability? It differs from person to person and culture to culture. The term is often used and sometimes misused. A funny example, an acquaintance once saw at a trade fair in Asia, was a company that had produced a mug in clay, which they advertised as sustainable. When asked why it was sustainable, they replied, “yes, it’s because you can wash it up and use it again”, says Steen.

“For us, sustainability is about making a positive impression on the climate, the environment, the globe, people, etc., and that is what we at MEGATREND INVEST mean when we talk about sustainability. Our investments must support the future – in other words: We invest in the companies we do not want the future to miss.”

“But sustainability can be challenging to measure, precisely because the perception of the concept varies. For example. How do you report that we save so much CO2 and compare it to another company that saves so many children? It’s hard to line up the two.

Let me give you a quick example:

• Sustainable business 1 produces food from insects. They save water because less water is used for 1 kg of protein from insects than for 1 kg of protein from animals.
• Sustainable company 2 is a medical company. Among other things, they save patients because their product can better cure diseases.

Both companies have been put in the same category – namely “sustainable companies”, but how the hell can we compare and measure them the same? “

“So there is a gap in the market for how we measure sustainability. We can easily dive into each case and find some numbers that show that they make a difference on different parameters. Still, as soon as we compare several different sustainable companies and put an amount on their value, we are challenged. Especially because the number of cases we can compare with each other is still relatively low.

Because it is difficult to compare sustainability across different cases, we ensure that sustainability is in focus through other means. At MEGATREND INVEST, we demand companies themselves have relevant KPIs within sustainability. They must have thought of a sustainable life cycle and a sustainable design in their business and products and show relevant KPIs based on this. “

Read the rest of the interview here.