Elodie Broad 
- Portfolio News
- 06 May, 2026
My two favourite Balderton Guides – On Board with Balderton, and A Start-up Guide to ESG – have had a baby! Balderton is proud to have sponsored a new VentureESG resource on the important topic of Board stewardship and governance when it comes to growing sustainable and responsible start-ups.
This guide is a timely practical toolkit for boards navigating the complex intersection of growth and sustainability. Drawing on just short of 40 interviews with board members, experts and CEOs, it addresses a pressing gap: while sustainability is vital to long‑term success, many start-up boards don’t approach it strategically—if at all. Because of competing priorities, of a tendency (and necessity) to prioritise immediate concerns, and the sheer breadth and fluid nature of the topic. Yet, taking a more intentional approach to integrating sustainability considerations into the Board agenda could help drive significant value protection and creation.
From a board point of view, your role is fundamentally to make sure you’ve got the right strategy, the right resources, and the right governance. ESG is an important element of all three of those.
Scaling Sustainably: Board Guide
ESG is as much integral to a board member’s responsibility; at the same time, given their strategic and stewardship responsibilities, Boards are uniquely positioned to help business scale sustainably.
The guide recommends Boards to take nine steps to engage with sustainability intentionally and strategically. Starting with addressing the all too important question of why does the company care about ESG, and how the company’s mission is aligned to higher-order environmental or social outcomes. Board members and executive teams need to help each other to carve out the time to have this discussion.
If nine steps feel already too long to read, the guide also provides a template for an initial 30 minute Board conversation – which would need to be prepared and facilitated by the CEO and one of the Board members – as well as four existential questions every Board should ask itself:
- Do we have the necessary expertise at Board level to provide informed oversight of the company’s material sustainability opportunities and risks? And if not, how should we address this gap via training, external input or recruitment
- Have material sustainability-related risks and opportunities been identified by the business – and was said identification process sufficiently robust and evidence-based?
- What is the company’s plan to address these issues and opportunities – how is progress being managed, measured and incentivised?
- Who on the Board holds accountability for oversight and how is it embedded in our governance structures?
