Our Story

Viewing climate change as an opportunity

In 2006, five young social entrepreneurs got together and founded South Pole. From the beginning, diversity, partnership and entrepreneurship have been key values for the company – and these three values continue to drive the success of South Pole today.

South Pole has always stood for one, shared belief: that our economy and society can only thrive if businesses can embed sustainability and the environment into the heart of their activities.

Unique perspectives working together as one

As graduates of the prestigious Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), each one of the five founders had a unique perspective on ways to confront climate change; from promoting renewable energy, and protecting forests, land and water, to market-driven initiatives for companies and investors. They quickly discovered that their different perspectives could work together as one.

After successfully founding the non-profit 'myclimate' they decided to position climate change as a business opportunity for visionary companies, and South Pole was born.

Drawing their motivation from the belief in a sustainable world, the founders built a fast-growing enterprise with a truly global reach. Our employees, heralding from over 30 different nationalities, have interdisciplinary backgrounds, as well as degrees from top universities and experience in both the public and private sectors.

Milestones

2006: South Pole is founded in Zurich
2007: South Pole opens offices in Beijing and Bangkok
2008: South Pole opens offices in Mexico City and Jakarta
2009: South Pole opens office in New Delhi
2009: Corisol Holding acquires a small minority stake in South Pole
2010: South Pole opens office in Medellín
2011: South Pole invests in VNEEC, Vietnam
2011: South Pole is awarded the WEF Schwab Foundation's Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award
2011 Onwards: South Pole is awarded "Best Project Developer" 2011 - 2017" by Environmental Finance
2012: South Pole invests in Climate Friendly, Australia
2012: South Pole is recognised by the City of Sydney, Australia for sustainable enterprises, businesses and supra-national organisations
2013: South Pole receives Sustainability Award for SME from the Bank of the Canton of Zurich
2013: South Pole opens office in Stockholm
2014 Onwards: South Pole becomes part of the World Economic Forum's Expert Networks
2014: South Pole becomes a core Partner of EIT Climate-KIC; the EU's biggest climate innovation platform
2016: South Pole opens office in London
2017: South Pole sells “Climate Neutral Investments" unit to Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS)
2017: South Pole is Official Partner of the UNFCCC at the COP 23 Bonn climate conference
2018: South Pole opens offices in Amsterdam and Singapore
2019: South Pole completes incubation of and sells majority share in Australian project developer, Climate Friendly
2019: South Pole opens office in New York
2020: South Pole Australia becomes a certified B Corporation.
2020: Confetti in Berlin! Our expansion into the DACH region continues with our first German office officially opened!
2020: South Pole USA becomes a certified B Corporation.
2020: South Pole sets a science-based target aligned with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. This was validated by SBTi.
2021: With a double digit million Euro investment, Lightrock takes a minority position in South Pole.
2021: A big deal for action against climate change: CO2logic joins the South Pole group.