Collateral Good is a Zurich-based global, thesis-driven multi-strategy investment firm focused on tackling major environmental challenges at scale with €100 million in assets under management.
The firm invests in deep-tech and innovation across the materials and manufacturing value chain, targeting emissions-intensive industries, such as food, packaging, textiles and the built environment, to develop sustainable systems while delivering attractive returns.
For Collateral Good, sustainability classifications play a central role in how the firm evaluates and reports the potential of investments. They are used during due diligence to assess how “green” investment companies are, and forms a core part of annual monitoring and SFDR reporting obligations.
“ESG isn’t a compliance exercise, it’s the investment thesis,” said Raffaella Piazzesi, Impact Manager at Collateral Good. “We’re a multi-strategy firm built to address environmental challenges, so the quality of our ESG data directly determines whether we’re achieving what we set out to do.”
The Challenge
Sustainability is central to Collateral Good’s investment and reporting approach, and the team uses the EU Taxonomy framework to assess sustainability performance and alignment across its portfolio. However, the EU Taxonomy assessment process is traditionally very complex in practice. Determining eligibility and alignment, mapping economic activities, evaluating DNSH criteria, and gathering supporting data from portfolio companies can require significant time and coordination if the correct tools and processes are not implemented. As the portfolio expanded, managing these assessments consistently and at scale became increasingly challenging and time-consuming.
“When our portfolio was small, spreadsheets worked,” said Raffaella. “As we grew, it became increasingly difficult to manage and introduced real risk: one accidental edit could compromise the integrity of our data.”
The approach also made it slow to identify trends or draw insights, and created inconsistency in how portfolio companies submitted information, often requiring extensive reconciliation work.
Simplifying EU Taxonomy Reporting with Novata
To streamline its EU Taxonomy assessment and reporting process, Collateral Good partnered with Novata to implement a tailored workflow supporting EU Taxonomy assessments, DNSH evaluation, and annual SFDR reporting requirements across its portfolio.
This need for flexibility and scalability was a key factor in the decision to work with Novata.
“Regulatory requirements will continue to evolve, and having a platform that keeps pace with that reduces the risk of being caught out,” Raffaella said. “Novata worked with us to configure the platform around our specific needs rather than giving us a generic setup. Our onboarding team was fantastic, always available to our companies and to us to answer questions and help with any technical issues.”
Using Novata’s EU Taxonomy tool, Collateral Good moved from spreadsheets to a guided, centralized workflow for assessing eligibility and alignment, evaluating DNSH criteria, and preparing data for reporting.
“Novata gave us a single place to collect, track, and report against the metrics we need for EU Taxonomy alignment and ESG reports, replacing a fragmented process. The ESG reporting, taxonomy screening, and DNSH criteria mapping that used to take significant manual effort now follows a structured workflow.”
The Novata platform also simplified engagement with portfolio companies by providing clear guidance, educational resources, and self-service functionality.
“It made it easier to explain the process to portfolio companies because the platform guides them and offers them additional help and information rather than relying on us to hand-hold each one.”
In addition to the EU Taxonomy tool, Collateral Good has leveraged Novata’s carbon calculator and user management capabilities to support broader ESG data collection and analysis efforts.
The Results
By moving ESG reporting and EU Taxonomy workflows onto Novata, Collateral Good created a more scalable process capable of supporting portfolio growth without increasing administrative burden.
“This year we onboarded almost 11 companies for the impact report, and the process wasn’t a burden,” said Raffaella. “That freed us up to focus on actually getting the data rather than spending time on setup.”
Beyond improving reporting efficiency, Novata has helped Collateral Good operationalize the EU Taxonomy framework across its investment process. The firm now has a more consistent approach to assessing portfolio companies, tracking Taxonomy-related metrics, and supporting annual disclosure requirements, while gaining greater visibility into how aligned its investments are with its environmental objectives.
The platform has also strengthened confidence in the quality and consistency of ESG information shared with investors.
“Novata has made it far easier to filter and select the information we share with LPs, without the constant back-and-forth of editing spreadsheets,” Raffaella said. “It also signals rigor and transparency. LPs can rely on the fact that what they’re seeing came directly from portfolio companies.”
Looking Ahead
As Collateral Good continues to grow its portfolio and deepen its impact measurement capabilities, the firm sees increasing value in building a consistent ESG dataset over time.
“As the dataset matures across reporting cycles, we expect the longitudinal trends to become increasingly useful,” Raffaella said. “We’ll be able to see whether portfolio companies are actually improving on the metrics that matter to us, which will inform both portfolio management decisions and future deal selection.”
“Regulatory requirements will continue to evolve, and having a platform that keeps pace with that reduces the risk of being caught out.”
