Greetings to 3,000+ Impact Supporters! 🌍 This is Jonas writing 👋 Today, we’re talking about private equity in a way you might not expect: as a force for impact.

Private equity usually gets a bad rap for being all about profits, but what if it could be a driver of change? That’s exactly what Summa Equity are doing in Europe. In this episode, we talk to Emelie Norling to explore how impact can move from an afterthought to becoming the core of investing.

From theory of change to hands-on ownership, we cover it all. Let’s dive into impact PE with Summa Equity.

📋 What’s Inside

💡 From Law to Impact – Emelie’s path from academia to Summa Equity🦁 Taming the Lion – How private equity can meet purpose 📈 Beyond the Hype – The evolution of impact PE returns ⚙️ Inside the Machine – How Summa builds their theory of change 🌍 A Broader Lens – Why climate is just one piece of the puzzle 🔌 Bridging the Gap – What start-ups can learn from buyout impact thinking

👩‍💼 Meet Emelie Norling

Emelie’s journey into impact is anything but linear. She began in academia, studying how global institutions interpreted the early idea of sustainable development. Her world at that time revolved around legal arguments, institutional frameworks, and dense academic debates 📚

“It was fascinating,” she recalls, “but it felt distant from the places where decisions were actually made.”

That desire to get closer to the action brought her into asset management, where she led responsible investment for a Swedish insurer. Eventually she found her way to Summa Equity, where she now plays a central role in shaping one of Europe’s most thesis-driven impact platforms 🌱

At Summa, Emelie helps define impact investment themes, guide due diligence, connect leadership teams around impact roadmaps, and ensure that the fund’s commitments to its investors translate into measurable, transparent outcomes. Her work is defined by a belief that finance, and societal progress can be aligned without compromise, as long as investors are willing to commit to real depth and discipline.

💡 From Law to Impact

When Emelie first heard of Summa, she nearly dismissed it. Private equity seemed far removed from the values she had spent her career exploring.

Yet her perception shifted dramatically during a single Investment Committee meeting. A partner began by describing the societal problem, the system it belonged to, and the levers for changing that system 🌍 For the first twenty-five minutes, the discussion was solely about impact. Only after that did they open the financial model.

“It wasn’t impact as an afterthought,” she says. “It was the reason the company deserved to exist.”

This moment revealed a surprising overlap between her academic past and the world of private equity. Unlike public markets, private equity owns companies outright. It can reshape governance, guide strategy, and invest in long-term transformation. Suddenly the leap made sense, and the unlikely path became her calling.

🦁 Taming the Lion

Impact and private equity once felt like natural opposites, like a lion ordering a salad for lunch. But over the last decade, firms such as Summa, TPG Rise, and Trill Impact have rewritten that narrative. In 2016 the question was whether returns were even possible with impact. In 2021, anything that looked sustainable was overhyped and overvalued. Today, she says, the industry has entered a more grounded period.

“The hype is over, and that is healthy,” she explains. “It reveals which strategies were built around real impact and which ones were simply wrapped in the language of it.”

The lesson is clear. A strong impact story does not automatically make a strong business. It still requires discipline, thoughtful diligence, and the courage to face difficult trade-offs when they arise 🔍

📈 Beyond the Hype

A recent study from Schroders in collaboration with Oxford University’s Business School showed that impact PE funds averaged 21 % IRR, outpacing the wider industry.

Source: Schroders Capital

“If you invest in companies solving society’s biggest challenges, it makes sense that they perform well. These are the businesses the world needs.”

Ignoring impact is becoming the real risk. Climate shocks and geopolitical uncertainty make this lens essential.

⚙️ Inside the Machine: Theory of Change in Action

Summa’s approach to impact begins with a simple question. What societal problems are most in need of solutions, and which business models can help solve them?

Each of Summa’s themes starts with a detailed theory of change. The team maps the system, identifies leverage points, and explores which types of companies possess the most transformative potential 📈

“We bring together academics, industry experts, investors, and impact professionals,” Emelie explains. “That mix creates roadmaps that are directionally correct — and commercially grounded.”

Once an investment is made, the collaboration deepens. The deal team and impact team run workshops with company leadership to align on the theory of change and build a sustainability roadmap.

“It’s powerful,” Emelie says. “Founders see how their company fits into a bigger picture. That connection motivates teams far beyond compliance.”

🌍 A Broader Lens

I asked Emelie to share her thoughts on Bill Gates’s recent essay on “Three tough truths about climate,” and she agrees that climate must be viewed through a wider systems lens 🔍

“If we only focus on carbon, we won’t solve climate change. It’s about biodiversity, equity, and human well-being — because the planet will survive. The question is whether it will remain habitable for us.”

Her view reflects Summa’s investment philosophy: climate challenges sit inside a wider web of ecological and social issues, and any attempt to solve them must reflect that interconnected reality 🕸️

🔌 Bridging the Gap

Scaling innovation is always challenging. Venture-backed companies often generate the innovations needed for transformation, and buyout-stage firms have the scale to bring those innovations to the world 🌉 Yet the bridge between these two worlds is fragile.

FoodTech is a powerful example. Emelie describes how often she sees brilliant ideas in alternative proteins or food waste reduction that struggle to cross into the buyout universe.

“We need to support these companies so they can scale into our world,” she says. “Food is one of the biggest systems we can transform.”

She shares the story of a Croatian fava-bean protein company that doubled farmer yields by simply improving their seeds 🌱 A small intervention produced enormous positive consequences, illustrating how outsized impact can emerge from innovations that seem simple at first glance.

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✨ Closing Thoughts

Emelie leaves us with a reflection that feels timely for the entire field of impact investing. Measurement is essential, she says, but imagination matters just as much. It is not enough to calculate what exists today. We must have the courage to picture what could exist tomorrow 🌏

Her own path, from legal theory to investment committees, shows how change often comes from people who can see across disciplines and aim to bridge worlds. The future of impact investing will belong to those who combine rigor with creativity, who can build systems where energy is clean and affordable, food is sustainable and secure, and economic growth no longer requires ecological decline 🌿

Private equity has the potential to become one of the great engines of the green transition. Emelie’s work reminds us that transformation does not come from grand gestures alone. It comes from the steady, thoughtful decisions that shape companies’ day by day, and from the people willing to steward that change from the inside out.

As we close out the year, this feels like the right message to carry with us🌟Imagination, patience and steady progress are the work ahead. Before we wrap, this conversation with Emelie is also our last one of the year and what a note to end on! We’re taking a short festive break to rest, recharge and dream a little bigger.

Thank you for being part of this growing community. Your curiosity, feedback and support are what make Impact Supporter worth building 🙏💚 Wishing you a season filled with slow moments, good conversations and time to reconnect. We look forward to bringing new voices, new ideas and new impact stories in January 2026 🌍✨

📥 Tell Us What You Think: Can private equity become the driving force of the green transition? Reply to this newsletter or drop us a note at ImpactSupporters@thefootprintfirm.com.

👋 Thanks for reading,

Jonas

Links to articles/data mentioned:

Schroder, 2025

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