Sustainability & competitiveness
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Built by innovation capital
In Europe today, sustainability and competitiveness are tightly linked. How core systems are decarbonised increasingly shapes industrial strength, growth and long-term value creation. Over the past two decades, technologies once seen as fringe became the backbone of core infrastructure, with wind and solar now supplying over half of electricity in parts of Europe.
Innovation capital helped move solutions from pilots to systems, creating new markets by integrating new technologies and moving them to scale.
These are the outcomes where innovation capital produced structural change.
The clean tech era
What began as experimental became normal. Wind, solar, biogas and smart energy systems moved from pilots into the backbone of daily life, powering homes, businesses and transport across Europe. Innovation capital backed the European companies that pioneered the technology. In wind, they retained global leadership; in solar, manufacturing scaled elsewhere.
Opening the grid
European regulation provided a platform to put power in more hands. Redefined grid rules, battery classifications and decentralised energy rights unlocked entirely new market categories, and innovation capital backed the companies that filled them. New business models emerged that simply could not have existed before the rules changed, albeit in some regions the shift has been faster than others.
Nothing wasted
Innovation capital backed the platforms and processes that turned what used to be discarded into new value: from second-hand markets that made reuse first choice, to technologies that extract new worth from waste materials. Less waste. More value. Innovation capital enabled circularity to become a core industrial strategy in Europe.
Purpose as an asset
A generational shift took hold. Talent started to choose climate and impact as a career path. Consumers became increasingly willing to pay a green premium. Businesses responded. Innovation capital accelerated that shift, backing the companies that turned changing behaviour into new markets.
Sustainability as a USP
What began as signalling became core strategy. Measurement tightened, governance strengthened and sustainability turned into a value concept that can be monetised. Sustainability evolved from a compliance exercise into a growth strategy, shaping pricing, supply chains and long-term competitiveness.
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The systemic friction holding us back
Outcomes in this area have followed the same arc: innovation capital backing the transition from discovery to deployment, from breakthrough to industrial reality.
We have watched a pattern repeat across our portfolios. Europe gets to deployment. We lead on system design, shape the global market, set the standard. And then manufacturing, supply chains and downstream value consolidate elsewhere. Not because the innovation failed, but because the conditions for value capture were not in place.
Europe leads on innovation. Systemic value capture is the next frontier.
The transition from innovation to system scale stalls in Europe
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Necessary shifts: how GPs see it
"There was good sustainability momentum... but we're currently falling behind compared to the US and Asia."
This quote summed it up perfectly. The progress is real, but so is the urgency of compounding it. What follows are the shifts that would help sustain and build on it.
Take the policy seat
As GPs we need to show up differently in the policy conversation. Advocacy needs to be institutionalised and professionalised. The regulatory environment that shapes what gets built and what gets funded requires our active participation.
"What we need to do more of is lobbying and continuous dialogue."
Act as one Europe
We see it in our portfolios. A company that works in one market faces a different regulatory environment in the next. Solutions that are ready to scale get slowed by administrative complexity that multiplies across borders.
"This is Europe's problem... we don't act as one Europe."
The rules are moving in the right direction. But the complexity that 27 different regulatory environments create still needs to be addressed.
"Simplification, simplification, simplification.”
Make it tangible
The industry exists. Investments are being made. Companies are being built. What remains is making the impact visible.
“No asset class exists in itself... we have to reason in a systemic way.”
Closing the gap requires delivering verifiable evidence of what sustainability investment actually produces: financial returns, societal outcomes, environmental impact. The discussion kept returning to the same point: transparency and engagement. Data alone is not enough. Investors, regulators and citizens need narratives that connect what we build to the world they live in.
"Investors require measurable impact. The standard is changing but more needs to be done."
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Future outcomes if the shifts hold
If the policy conversation changes, Europe acts as one and the impact is made visible and measurable, we believe re-industrialisation on greener, more resilient foundations becomes possible. This could redefine Europe's economic model, strengthening competitiveness while reducing dependency.
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