'Here you can learn a lot about sustainable investing'

February 2, 2023

Arthur Jongejans has just completed his internship at StartGreen as an Impact Investment Analyst. In this blog he elaborates on his experience and on what he has learned in the past six months.

'During my studies at Erasmus University College, I discovered I am interested in the intersection of economics and sustainability. Because I wanted to explore this further, I am now following a pre-master's in Economics at the UvA. In my search for a suitable internship, I googled 'sustainable investment' and ended up at StartGreen. On the website I saw the vacancy for an internship Impact investment Analyst and responded immediately.

Positively surprised

During this internship one can develop a financial perspective on investments and once can learn about the social impact of those investments. In the beginning I thought that investment decisions were made on the basis of calculations in Excel, that you test against requirements. I soon found out that an investment decision is much more a holistic consideration, involving many qualitative aspects. such as the composition of the team, the timing and whether this is the best solution for that particular problem. All puzzle pieces together determine whether or not you want to invest, this positively surprised me.

Personal development

My internship supervisor works for multiple funds managed by StartGreen. My work was very varied. By participating in all facets of impact investing, I have gained a broad understanding of the different domains of impact investing. My supervisor put my personal development first from the start so that I could learn what I wanted to learn. To maintain structure in my work, I worked three days a week for Energiefonds Overijssel. Every Friday afternoon, I would sit down with my internship supervisor to ask him all my questions arising from my work for an hour. I learned a lot from his experience and found his perspective very insightful. Once a month we evaluated where I stood and what I still wanted to learn here.

So I was definitely not just filling in Excel sheets 24/7, as I expected to be doing beforehand. I gathered information, partly from behind my laptop and partly by talking to founders. I also gained knowledge about themes and markets at events. In other words, I was allowed to taste a little of all the work that Investment Managers and Investment Directors do.

Adding value

In addition, I contributed to the Impact Report 2021. I learned how to quantify impact according to certain standards. Among other things, I have calculated the CO2-reduction of the investments of Energiefonds Overijssel. Each fund that StartGreen manages has its own focus; Energiefonds Overijssel focuses on accelerating the energy transition. In particular, I was able to add value to the report by aggregating the data provided by the portfolio companies of all funds. Afterwards, I performed sanity checks : are the calculations correct? Are they interpreted correctly?

Where I thought that I could add value, I gave my opinion. That is in my character, I am not bothered by power structures. I always give my opinion with respect for what people do. I felt comfortable doing that here, there was room to share opninions. I wouldn't necessarily do that in a larger company. That was also one of the reasons for choosing a smaller company.

Start career

This is my first internship. So I have no comparison, but I experienced this internship as very pleasant. Next year I will do a 'regular' master. I think it would be fun to further investigate the academic side of sustainable investing. Because I want to learn more in practice, I want to do an internship for my master's degree in the area where economic policy and climate policy intersect. After the master and internship, I'll take stock: what inspired me most? What would be a good place to work to start my career? There is certainly a chance that it is here at StartGreen.

Necessary innovations

Sustainability has become more important to me during my internship. Here I started to think more consciously about certain choices; when I go travelling, for example, I don't just get on a plane. In this environment you are in close contact with sustainability a lot. You will receive tips and tricks from colleagues and other sustainable entrepreneurs in the SDG House. It has become more clear to me that we need a lot of innovation to achieve the Paris climate goals. I think it would be really cool to do something with that later in my career.

Ample growth opportunities

I would definitely recommend this internship. You can learn a lot about sustainable investing here. I also really liked the work environment at StartGreen. Everyone willingly answered my questions. I think an important condition is that you are intrinsically driven by sustainability. Your background is not very important: eitherway you can learn a lot here. I don't have a finance background myself; you can learn that on the job. You can also tailor your learning experience here more than at a larger corporate, where more rigid structures are in place. Here you get all the space to seize opportunities yourself, while being well supervised.'

Curious about the internship opportunities at StartGreen? You can find them on the page: Working at StartGreen Capital