Insights & contributions

We created ImpactNexus after working on sustainability for many years. In our research and practical work with companies and investors, we saw that sustainability is far too complex for most decision-makers. At the same time, we realized how digital technologies – in particular, machine learning in combination with a good UI/UX – can make sustainability much more accessible. This motivated us to launch ImpactNexus as a spin-off from the Berlin-based Borderstep Institute for Innovation and Sustainability (see also mission & vision).

On our journey towards ImpactNexus, we conducted a lot of research and worked with hundreds of companies. Accordingly, we are happy to share some of the insights we generated on the way and that contributed to ImpactNexus.

Practitioner contributions

Working together with experts in sustainability for many years, there is a wide range of contributions that underpin our software development.

Our Co-founder Constanze led the development of the DIN-SPEC 90051-1 (quasi a German ISO standard) on sustainability impact assessments of startups in a large multi-stakeholder consortium of investors, associations and companies in Germany.

• A summary of the DIN-SPEC in English is available here.
• The official DIN SPEC 90051-1 application tool for investors, startups, startup supporters and assessment institutions is available here.
• The official full document of the DIN-SPEC is available in German and English here.

We developed an open-source impact scoring model based on the international best practices of the Impact Management Project that allows to assess and compare all kinds of impacts.

• The full model can be accessed here as a google sheets
• We also have a first web-version for the tool in our software. Feel free to reach-out if you want to work with it
• The methodology has also been published in the “Investing in early-stage impact tech- a handbook” of GITA – the Global Impact Tech Alliance (can be downloaded here)

Academic contributions

As a research spin-off with two PhDs on sustainability and innovation we contributed a bunch of very relevant research:

• Used semi-automated processes to map the sustainability impact of companies in Germany to the SDGs with a team of researchers from TU Berlin and the MIT (see full article)
• Developed Lean Impact Measurement as a time-efficient methodology to forecast quantitatively the sustainability impact of a new business model with a team of researchers from TU Berlin and the MIT (article 1 and 2 in this dissertation)
• Developed a model for the growth of impact startups together with Prof. Dr. Klaus Fichter from the Borderstep Institute (see full article)
• Analyzed what sustainability impact assessment means for small businesses and startups and identified existing assessment approaches through an inclusive, systematic literature review (see full article and dissertation)