From BASF to Startup: How SaaS Could End Greenwashing
Why one founder left corporate life to fight fake sustainability.
Summary
Greenwashing is everywhere.
Walk down any supermarket aisle and you’ll see it: “100% recycled.” “Organic cotton.” “Eco-friendly packaging.”
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: half of these claims aren’t backed by verifiable data. They’re spin. Marketing gloss. Good intentions without evidence.
For Irene Rosique-Conesa, that wasn’t good enough.
After more than a decade at BASF, one of the world’s biggest chemical companies, Irene left corporate life to build Nuvio Planet, a climate tech SaaS startup with one mission: make environmental claims measurable, transparent, and impossible to fake.
Why This Matters for Founders
Founders, let’s be blunt: sustainability is no longer optional. Investors demand it, regulators enforce it, and customers expect it.
But most startups treat sustainability the way corporates do: as a marketing add-on. Throw a green logo on your deck. Talk about carbon reduction in vague terms. Hope nobody checks the data.
That game is over.
As Irene puts it:
“Any environmental claim without transparent, verifiable data is greenwashing.”
Her story isn’t just about fighting greenwashing. It’s about what happens when you leave the safety of corporate structures to build something faster, riskier, and far more impactful.
Key Lessons From Irene’s Journey
1. Compliance ≠ Cost. It Can Be a Growth Driver.
Europe’s CSRD regulation (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) requires companies to publish auditable sustainability data starting in 2025. Most view it as a compliance headache. Irene reframes it: data transparency becomes a competitive edge.
Startups that can prove lower footprints will win contracts. Investors will reward auditable ESG systems. SaaS makes this transition possible.
2. Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) Changes the Game
Traditional sustainability reporting uses averages. All chickens, all cotton, all dairy treated as if they were the same.
Nuvio Planet flips that model:
Companies input real supplier data into pre-built templates.
The SaaS platform runs lifecycle assessment simulations.
The output: product-specific carbon footprints.
This makes compliance repeatable, affordable, and actionable — no expensive consultants needed.
3. Small Changes, Big Impact
Case in point: a dairy producer used Nuvio Planet to reformulate animal feed. The result? 8% reduction in milk’s carbon footprint — equal to 1M Berlin–New York flights saved.
That’s not PR. That’s science, scaled through software.
4. The Founder’s Leap From BASF
Leaving corporate life wasn’t smooth. Irene had to unlearn habits ingrained in global enterprises:
Moving slowly
Avoiding failure
Relying on endless approvals
Her startup mantra became:
“Shipment beats perfection.”
It’s a reminder every founder needs: speed + data beats polish + narrative.
5. The 2030 Vision: Data as Important as Price
Irene’s bold prediction: by 2030, environmental data will sit on every product label — as important as price or nutrition.
If she’s right, the winners won’t be those who talked green. It’ll be those who built the data infrastructure to prove it.
Why I’m Sharing This
Because too many founders still think sustainability is a later problem. Something you tackle post-Series B, after growth. Irene’s story proves the opposite: the startups that embed transparency early become the ones investors, corporates, and customers trust most.
And if you’re in SaaS, the opportunity is even bigger. Compliance isn’t just about checking boxes. It’s about building growth engines that investors will soon require.
Let’s Talk
If you were in Irene’s shoes, would you have left corporate security to build a startup fighting greenwashing with data?
👉 Hit reply — I read every message.
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