Marcel Jacobs · Green value, made visible

Compliance gets you through the door. The value is on the other side.

Your business carries material value your books never show. This work makes ESG make sense to the people who hold the money, the owner, the CFO, the board and your investors, and turns a reporting chore into a number you can take into any room where the budget gets decided.

Explore standards

20+years inside Philips, PMI & Office Depot Europe

200+SMEs using these frameworks

2judging panels: Reuters & MEIRA awards

Two people in a working meeting reviewing figures together

Dubai based · GCC & Europe

One page, one language

CFO, IR, CSO and investors, finally aligned

Working authority across

CSRD & CSDDDCircular economyCarbon & GHGSustainable value chainsDue diligence & human rightsResponsible procurementESG riskGreen marketing CSRD & CSDDDCircular economyCarbon & GHGSustainable value chainsDue diligence & human rightsResponsible procurementESG riskGreen marketing

The problem

One business. Five languages. And the owner left holding the decision.

Most sustainability work dies in translation. The value is real, but the room is talking past itself, and the person who has to sign off is the one left guessing.

The owner

carries: the call

Runs a real business. Feels the cost in the P&L and the risk in their name. Just wants one honest number to decide on.

The CFO

speaks: cost

Sees a line item and a fine to avoid. Sees only cost, because nobody has put it on the books.

The CSO

speaks: impact

Knows the value is real. Has the data. But can't price it in a language the board respects.

Head of IR

speaks: risk

Bracing for questions from investors they can't answer in numbers yet.

The investor

speaks: signal

Wants something they can actually price and compare. Getting a glossy report instead.

Your ESG report is a cost with no return, and as the owner you already suspect it. The fix is not another report. It is one number, in plain financial language, that you can take into any room and defend.

A team working together around a table, engaged and aligned

What I believe

Compliance is the doorway. It is not the destination.

Meet people at compliance, because that is where the pressure is. Then refuse to leave them there.

Most businesses meet ESG as pressure: a regulation, a customer questionnaire, a box to tick. That pressure is real. But stopping there means spending money to avoid a fine and creating nothing.

The value is one step further in: opportunity, differentiation, monetization, tender advantage. Turning "we had to" into "we chose to, and here is what it earned us."

Start at compliance Refuse to stay there Claim the value

The plan

A clear path from first read to the number that raises capital.

You do not need to swallow the whole journey at once. Four named steps, powered by the IIAF, the engine that turns your ESG data into CFO-grade financial outputs that survive due diligence.

Step one · diagnostic

First Read

A fast, honest read of where the value hides and what your books are missing. The foundation you build everything on.

Step two · valuation

Discovery

We put a defensible number on it. True EBITDA, Shadow P&L, an integrated view, all conservative and sourced.

Step three · continuity

Always On

Retained support that keeps the number current as regulation, data and your business move. Value stays on the books.

Step four · transaction

Raise Prep

The value packaged for the room where capital gets allocated. A data-driven story investors can actually price.

Worked examples are illustrative, anonymised and built to sit beside audited accounts, never to replace them.

Standards & directives navigator

Find your obligation fast, then turn it into a number.

Every ESG standard, directive and framework that matters to you, mapped by pillar, topic and region, each linked to its official primary source. Search it, filter it, and go straight to what applies to your business, including the EU rulebook and the GCC frameworks across the Gulf.

Open the navigator See what applies to you

50+standards, directives & frameworks E · S · Gfilter by pillar, topic & region GCC & EUGulf and European coverage 2026updated for the latest rulebook

Free guides

Start on your own terms. Take the value with you.

Practical, template-heavy guides that turn a specific regulatory pressure into a business move. No theory, just the frameworks 200+ SMEs already use. Pick your challenge below.

Partners

The measurement and compliance layers behind the number.

Great valuation needs solid inputs. These partners handle the tonnes and the rules, so the value work sits on ground that survives due diligence.

Carbon measurement Wind turbines and clean energy landscape

Climate Seal

AI carbon accounting workspace · ISO 14067 & GHG Protocol aligned

Turns fragmented product and supplier data into credible, verification-ready carbon reports. They measure the tonnes, with a full audit trail, so the numbers going into the valuation are defensible.

Visit climate-seal.com

Compliance tracking Team reviewing regulatory documents and data together

Verdea

AI-native EU compliance · CSRD, CSDDD and beyond

When a rule changes or your data shifts, Verdea flags which obligations are affected and what to do next. They keep the reporting foundation current, so the valuation work stands on solid regulatory ground.

Visit verdea.app

They measure the tonnes and track the rules. DutchKermit prices them.

Why me

I do not ask to be believed. I show the working.

Marcel Jacobs

ESG Value Architect · Netherlands & UAE

Twenty years inside industry

Royal Philips, Philip Morris International, Office Depot Europe. Building it, not observing from a consultancy.

Independent recognition

Judging panels at the Reuters Global Sustainability Awards and MEIRA ESG Awards. Guest lecturer at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Author of False Profit

The full thinking, for leaders who are done flying blind on what their sustainability work is really worth.

Conservative by design

Sourced numbers, gaps flagged rather than guessed, built to survive due diligence, not to flatter a report.

Read False Profit on Amazon

Work with me

Three ways in. Pick the one that fits where you are.

No maturity test. The only real filter is willingness, if the appetite is there, the maturity can be built.

Ask a specific question

Not sure where you sit yet? Send the one question keeping you up, on CBAM, CSRD, a customer questionnaire, whatever it is. I read every one.

Start here

Book a call with me

A direct 30 minutes, owner to owner. We find the value your books are hiding and decide, honestly, whether there is a number worth chasing. No deck, no pitch.

Take a guide first

Prefer to read before you talk? Grab any of the free guides. Each one hands you templates you can put to work this week.

Browse the guides

The book

False
Profit