Just Climate, a specialist venture capital firm established by Generation Investment Management, is dedicated to limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C by catalyzing and scaling impactful climate solutions. As a firm that invests in later-stage, asset-heavy startups, their strategy goes beyond traditional financial metrics. It is fundamentally rooted in identifying and backing technologies with the highest potential for real-world greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction in the economy’s highest-emitting sectors.
To uphold this commitment, Just Climate requires a level of technical scrutiny that is both deep and precise. Before finalizing any investment, they must be certain that a company’s solution can deliver on its climate promises. This critical, late-stage validation is where Fresh Coast comes in, providing lifecycle climate due diligence as part of their investment analysis process.
Overview
Lifecycle climate due diligence
Avoided emissions modeling
Full value-chain analysis
Investment committee–ready validation
Fast, deal-ready delivery
In the high-stakes world of venture capital, deals move quickly. For a climate-led investor like Just Climate, the challenge is twofold. First, they must rigorously validate the environmental claims of a potential investment. This involves moving beyond surface-level reviews to quantify the full, lifecycle-based climate impact of a new technology—from raw material extraction to end-of-life. Second, this complex analysis must be performed under the tight timelines of a pending investment deal.
When Just Climate’s investment committee is close to closing a deal, they need a defensible assessment of a technology’s potential to reduce or avoid emissions. The core question is always the same: If this company succeeds, what will the net climate impact be, and does it meet the specific, ambitious criteria Just Climate has set for its portfolio? Answering this requires sophisticated modeling and deep technical expertise.
Fresh Coast is one of Just Climate’s service providers for this due diligence work. When a promising investment reaches the final stages, Fresh Coast is brought in to conduct a comprehensive, life cycle-based avoided emissions analysis.
We build complex, customized models to simulate the potential climate impacts of the technology in question. This analysis considers the entire value chain, accounting for both direct and indirect emissions. The goal is to assess the solution against a set of internal criteria established by Just Climate, ensuring that every investment is aligned with their overarching mission.
Each analysis culminates in two key deliverables that provide the assurance Just Climate needs to proceed:
A Comprehensive Excel Model: This detailed model provides a transparent and robust foundation for the analysis, outlining all assumptions, data inputs, and calculations used to determine the potential emissions impact.
A Formal Letter of Confirmation: If the assessment meet’s the requisite criteria, Fresh Coast submits a formal letter to Just Climate’s bank and investment committee. This document summarizes the findings of the analysis, confirming that, based on their expert assessment, the technology is projected to meet the necessary climate impact requirements for the investment to proceed.
Our rigorous, lifecycle-based approach helps ensure that capital is channeled to companies with the greatest potential to bend the curve on global emissions.
“We are a repeat Fresh Coast client because they embody our ethos in executing effective global climate change solutions swiftly. They deliver exceptional technical work within tight timelines and provide us the confidence we need to make impactful investment decisions. They are a true partner in the work we do and consistently make us feel that we are their highest priority.”
