Green Startup Monitor
Long-term monitoring of the sustainable start-up ecosystem in Germany
The Borderstep Institute has been surveying the sustainable start-up ecosystem in Germany in the research area Sustainable Entrepreneurship since 2013. Various projects and publications have dealt with the development and challenges of green startups in recent years. This year marks the sixth edition of the Green Startup Monitor (GSM).
Green startups are driving the sustainable transformation to climate neutrality by 2050, which the European Green Deal clearly states as a goal. With their environmentally friendly products and services, the approximately 6,000 green startups in Germany not only make an important contribution to climate and environmental protection, but are also an increasingly important economic and social factor with their sustainable jobs and social solutions.
GSM 2024 Download
The study measures green start-up activity in Germany for the sixth time.
How is the green start-up scene in Germany doing? What challenges do founders with a sustainable business idea face? Which business areas are particularly successful? What about the transfer of knowledge from universities? How attractive are sustainable business models for investors? How many women start green businesses? And in which region are start-ups particularly successful?
The GSM 2024 also examines what homework needs to be done by politicians and what practical changes are urgently needed.
The Green Startup Monitor analyzes the importance of those startups that contribute to the ecological goals of a Green Economy with their products and services.
It is has been published jointly by Borderstep and the German Startups Association since 2018, and the study was published for the first time in 2019. The 2019 to 2024 editions were funded by the German Federal Foundation for the Environment (DBU) as part of the project “Strengthening Green Startups as a Transformation Engine”.
A look into the archive: Green Economy Gründungsmonitor
The previous project GSM was the “Green Economy Gründungsmonitor” (GEMO). With this, the Borderstep Institute and the University of Oldenburg investigated indicators and developments regarding start-ups in the fields of renewable energies, energy efficiency, circular economy and other fields of the Green Economy.
In a pilot survey of 30 German business incubators in 2013, the Green Economy Start-up Monitor conducted its first investigation into the significance of green business start-ups. In the following years, the GEMO developed into an overall survey, which enabled a representative overall picture of green business start-ups for Germany.