The Upright Project

Big news! Upright opens its net impact database fully for the public to increase understanding of the real-world impact of companies. The gradual opening starts today with the first batch of 10,000+ company profiles. This marks the largest global open dataset published on company impact, including full EU taxonomy and SDG alignment datasets, along with Upright’s science-based net impact data. Regulations on sustainability for both investors and companies are tightening. Sustainability reports are getting longer and more detailed. However, actual common-sense understanding of the impact of businesses and industries is not growing quite as quickly. What is needed then? Science-based facts on the most significant negative and positive impacts of companies’ core business. Taking into account the whole value chain, not just what happens in the company’s own backyard. The inconvenient truth is that not all companies can become sustainable by incrementally tweaking what they do today. Entire industries will face huge transformations in the coming years, and not everyone will come out as winners. Now is the time to set aside the ESG reports, and raise big picture facts on the table.   Why are we as a group of Finnish nerds sharing this data for anyone to see for free? Because we are worried that the current sustainability discussion is not enough. Things need to be accelerated. This is our attempt to challenge the sustainability discussion to actually help humanity save itself. You are welcome to join the ride and help us spread the data!

More and more companies are crafting their own sustainability narratives – inspirational stories about their business’s sustainability commitments. This is an understandable need in today’s business environment, but let’s be clear: Sustainability *does not start* with inventing compelling stories. It’s starts with a raw, unfiltered assessment of your company’s largest impacts on the world, evaluating what needs to be fixed, and then letting that reality shape your narrative. There’s a big bonus, too: Your stakeholders appreciate the realness. After all, they don’t want a good story – they want a real one.

Here’s a prime example of science-dictated impact data in action: Upright's customer Churchill Asset Management and their recently launched sustainability report! In 2023, Churchill evaluated the sustainability of around 200 direct investments using Upright’s net impact data, complemented with our UN SDGs alignment and regulatory datasets. Our data engine supports Churchill by enhancing sustainability insights in their portfolio, identifying engagement opportunities, and providing estimates for regulatory reporting. Thank you for your trust, team Churchill! P.S. You can also find an interview with our CEO and founder, Annu Nieminen, in the report, where she shares Upright’s story and potential in private markets. Download the report here: https://lnkd.in/eUKYHxq #responsibleinvesting

Upright is 7 years strong! Cheers to all the brilliant nerds behind the world’s top science-dictated impact data engine. We’re just getting started. 💛

"In the 2020s, companies are facing a challenge unforeseen in modern capitalism: they need to justify their existence by explaining *what else* they bring to the world beyond shareholder value," writes Upright’s founder Annu Nieminen. In her blog, Annu shares why we at Upright believe that our data model – inarguably complex and hard to understand – can truly help save businesses and the planet. Head to the blog 👉 https://lnkd.in/d8226kbg

Thrilled to announce that Upright’s founder & CEO Annu Nieminen will be speaking at Slush 2024 in November. 🔥 In a time when everyone is chasing "impact", how can we actually measure it? Are today’s startups building genAI / climate tech / insert-your-own-favorite-category genuinely driving change or rather riding trends? Annu will cut through the sustainability noise, challenging your thinking on what it actually takes to build a company with real-world impact. Hope to see you there! #slush2024

Amazing news! Upright is thrilled to join forces with Slush as their impact quantification partner for 2024. For the past seven years, Upright has built the leading science-dictated data model to quantify companies’ impact on the world. This spring, Slush approached us with a new ambition to analyse their impact on the world – and we didn’t hesitate to say yes. Together, we will quantify the impact of companies confirmed to speak at Slush 2024, exploring for the first time how Slush’s stage program and featured companies shape the event’s impact on the world. The goal? To deepen understanding of impact in the startup ecosystem – and build a world-leading startup and tech event where "impact" is not a superimposed buzzword, but a guiding principle in core content decisions. Exciting times ahead. Stay tuned for insights as we approach Slush, Nov 20–21 in Helsinki. Read more about the partnership on Slush's website (link in comments).

"The goal is that when anyone wants to understand the impact of a company — instead of relying on the companies’ disclosures or marketing materials — they can easily refer to science-based, open-source knowledge," shared our founder Annu Nieminen about Upright’s mission in a recent Sustainable Brands feature. "That’s something that is needed to incentivize massive transformations in resource allocation in the global economy." Read the whole story on how and why Upright was founded – and what’s our crazy vision 5 years from now 👇 Big thanks for the insightful interview, Scarlett Buckley!

We're excited to introduce Juha-Pekka Laine, Upright’s VP of Engineering since March! Since writing his first code at the ripe age of 11 and graduating with distinction from Aalto University in Computer Science, Juha-Pekka has amassed a wealth of experience in SaaS product development in fast-paced startup environments. In his previous role at Midaxo, a Finnish/US Series B B2B SaaS startup, J-P led an engineering office in Finland and developers around Europe. What convinced us at Upright is J-P’s ability to balance a mature perspective on technical architecture with hands-on, deep expertise in a wide-ranging technical stack, including JS/TS stack, Python, databases, and infrastructure. "To do the right things with the tech, you need to understand the customer and business well. Hence, my leadership philosophy is about enabling smooth and direct communication between engineering people and customer interface," J-P shares. We are excited to have J-P seeing over the big picture while ensuring clean, efficient code, as we continue developing Upright’s impact data engine!

Investors, this is essential reading! 📈 In his new piece for CFA Institute, Upright’s Mikael Homanen discusses the latest solutions in corporate impact measurement for investors – and what the future holds. The big question: Are the products and services of the companies you invest in driving negative or positive material outcomes? Upright's impact data model, leveraging scientific evidence, provides answers. It’s the very reason why Mikael joined Upright from UN Principles for Responsible Investment four months ago. Thank you CFA for this collaboration! Read the article 👇