Plan A

Plan A’s co-founders (from left to right): Nathan Bonnisseau and Lubomila Jordanova. Credit: Quincy Cardinale

The story behind the Berlin-based Greentech company, recognized as this year’s Sustainability Hero for Germany in the Environment category of SME EnterPRIZE, and how they merge science with sustainability to help companies monitor their corporate carbon footprint and ESG performance.

Four years ago, Plan A transformed from a crowdfunding platform into a Greentech company that builds science-based digital tools for automated carbon accounting, decarbonisation, ESG management, and reporting.

The philosophy of Plan A stems from the belief that all businesses can and should measure and manage their impact to bring about a sustainable economy. Companies are constantly looking to transform their operations to become positive influences and powerful drivers of change. As this transformation is easier said than done, it is essential to provide companies with the right tools to help them integrate this new set of environmental, social and governance indicators and consider them on a par with financial reporting. Through accurate data reporting and proactive decision-making support, companies can set and meet science-based targets and enhance performance in every aspect of the ESG criteria.

That is why Plan A has developed an AI-driven SaaS platform for businesses to collect, process, and analyse carbon and ESG data. The platform structures reduction and ESG improvement plans and automates reporting in line with key regulatory frameworks. Plan A software products comply with the internationally recognised Corporate Standard of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and are officially certified by TÜV Rheinland (September 2021).

Plan A’s mission is to empower enterprises to manage their businesses sustainably by transforming environmental insights into positive business results. The company successfully set its science-based targets (SBTs) in accordance with the Paris Agreements, which represent the starting point for any company beginning on its sustainability journey.

To harness this potential, Plan A has built a multidisciplinary and multicultural team in which every single employee has internalised these sustainability values to better support their mission. The company values and upholds the maxim “practice what you preach” through the establishment of its very own green team – a team where all employees of Plan A are active stakeholders who enable sustainable change and ensure accurate decarbonisation practices. The team uses Plan A’s software to monitor the company’s corporate carbon footprint on a monthly basis. They also ensure that carbon reduction initiatives are conducted throughout the organisation to reduce its impact. This in-house scientific knowledge on different sustainability topics is a unique and powerful resource that is at the core of all of Plan A’s activities.

Plan A believes in social impact and in helping society reach climate goals. The company aims to become within the next two years the next Gigacorn – i.e. a company that has achieved lowering CO2 emissions by 1 gigaton a year while being commercially viable. As showcased during the COP26 and in the recent IPCC report on climate change, humanity has a very narrow window of time within which to halve global greenhouse gas emissions: failure to do so will result in drastic and irreversible effects on the planet. Plan A might hold the key to meeting this deadline on time.

To discover more about Plan A, visit plana.earth