Meet our founders
Maria Svantemark — CEO & Co-Founder
Maria holds an MSc in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science from Lund University and is a Certified Board Member from Stockholm School of Economics. Before co-founding SustainLab in 2020, she spent five years as a sustainability manager at Findus and Nomad Foods, leading Nordic sustainability strategy, GRI G4 reporting, supply chain risk analysis and supplier auditing across Sweden and Norway. The core problem SustainLab solves, lack of visibility into sustainability data as a blocker for real progress is one Maria experienced directly in that role. She has been recognised as one of 33 sustainability talents under 33 that set the agenda (2017), named to the Top 100 Green Data Driven Professionals (2020), and nominated for the Sustainable Leadership Award 2024.
Kamal Hakimzadeh — CTO & Co-Founder
Kamal holds a PhD in Cloud Computing and Distributed Systems from KTH Royal Institute of Technology and spent six years as a doctoral researcher before co-founding SustainLab in 2020. His background spans large-scale data infrastructure, distributed systems and machine learning, which forms the technical foundation behind SustainLab's multi-source ESG data platform. Prior to SustainLab, Kamal researched intelligent cloud computing at Nokia Bell Labs in Dublin.
Our own sustainability work
How we walk the talk
From start, SustainLab has used the Impact Business Modelling System (IBMS) to evaluate and increase our own impact. While our direct impact is negligible and consists mainly of office space, hardware (all bought second hand), and hosting (using servers with 97%+ renewable energy and co2 compensated), our indirect impact through accelerating our customers’ sustainability work is vast. Therefore, we have chosen to use the IBMS to track our own impact and follow up key metrics in our own tool on regular basis.
In addition to environmental impact, SustainLab has from start focused on ensuring a diverse team with fair working conditions. We have received several prices and nominations for our work with equality and inclusion.
Lastly, the reason to found SustainLab is based on thinking from Effective Altruism. Our Impact work is one of our founders’ Maria’s favourite topics to discuss, so let us know if you want a call with her to discuss further.
