ISOS Group began as a school project.

Nancy Mancilla was a graduate student at the University of Arkansas working toward her second master’s degree, when she read about Triodos Bank.

The Netherlands-based bank is known for its values-based banking and impact investing. That means the firm only backs organizations that drive positive change.

Inspired, Mancilla reached out and secured an internship as a sustainability analyst in 2006. She was tasked with investigating the sustainability data of U.S. companies, including human rights policies, carbon emissions and greenhouse gas data.

“Nine times out of 10, there was nothing, and I just heard silence on the other line,” she recalled in a video for the Clinton School of Public Service. “And so I thought there was a job that was needed and pursued it as my capstone project.”

That project would evolve into ISOS Group, which Mancilla launched in 2008. The consultancy supported companies with environmental, social and governance disclosure efforts. At the time, only 11% of S&P 500 companies produced ESG disclosures.

Building ISOS Group: Educating her market before selling to it

When San Diego-based Mancilla shared her idea for ISOS Group with her friends around 2007, she was met with skepticism, she told Shoutout Social.

She heard: “No one is ever going to infuse ethics in business,” “We’re never going to do anything those Europeans are doing” and “Take those ideas back to Amsterdam or California.”

But she had three goals she was determined to accomplish:

1. Create a new profession that’d rise out of the (2008) recession.

2. Inspire a new way of doing business.

3. Build a mission-driven (not profit-driven) consultancy.

Although Mancilla was eager to jump in and start advising companies, she realized they first needed to be educated about the importance of ESG reporting. This was still a relatively new concept in the U.S. at the time.

That’s one reason she teamed up with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to become one of the organization’s first certified training partners in the U.S.

“We were just a small, rather unknown company,” she said in a video. “[Becoming certified] gave us a lot of brand recognition and really gave us the endorsement of trust, which is much needed in the space.”

From there, she couch-surfed her way across the U.S., contacting and working with companies, agencies and universities that were open to hosting sustainability training sessions.

“We weren’t just speaking to corporations,” she said on the Scaling Secrets podcast. “We were speaking to practitioners, universities, anyone we could. We weren’t caring about making money. We were caring about the mission, and I think that really helped accelerate things here in the U.S.”

Mancilla told They Got Acquired that she never relied on direct sales, and the consultancy remained bootstrapped. It was lean, with two co-founders, four employees and five contractors. At any given time, they were working with approximately 60 clients.

“Our work is not as sexy as putting solar panels on rooftops, but it’s more on the management side,” Mancilla said. “We work with executive teams and boards to understand the role that they play in governing sustainability. The market is now really driving and incentivizing disclosure in this area, so we do everything to help the companies do that.”

In 2018, the company’s original co-founder left, and Brian Noveck joined Mancilla. He was completing his master’s at the University of California San Diego and offered to intern. Mancilla shared that her home life — and business — was falling apart at the time.

“Brian quickly picked up on the practice of sustainability reporting and assurance, which could take most people years to grasp. He strengthened all processes, instituted systems, cleaned up our accounting and even remodeled our office, all while smiling through a volume of client work that most couldn’t imagine a small firm like ours could process,” she said. “Within two years’ time, he enabled us to meet all our business objectives, including profit margins.”

By 2022, the company’s revenue reached approximately $1.3 million, with EBITDA at $300,000, Mancilla told They Got Acquired. Mancilla and Noveck weren’t actively looking to sell ISOS Group — but then Environ Energy approached.

How Mancilla knew ISOS Group was the right buyer

The first meeting with Environ Energy kicked off with a meditation. For Mancilla, this struck the right note.

“It was the right opportunity and the right business culture,” she told They Got Acquired.

She explained further in the acquisition announcement: “From our first meetings together, our teams realized that the combination of ESG programs and verification, highly accurate carbon tracking and on-the-ground carbon reduction programs would greatly accelerate the positive impact we can have for our clients and society.”

In December 2022, ISOS Group was acquired by Environ Energy for close to $2 million cash, with a 7-figure equity consideration and earn-out—a deal that valued the company at nearly 7x EBITDA.

“I was happy to have someone to share the risk and support growth — where I couldn’t manage,” Mancilla said.

In the end, they did not achieve the earn-out, she shared, “due to market conditions and the lag that naturally occurs when transitioning to a new brand.”

(This is common. It’s why you want to get as much of your payout up front when you sell, because the earn-out might not transpire.)

As part of the arrangement, they also received shares in the company.

After the acquisition, ISOS Group remained intact as a division within Environ, according to the press release.

“I was determined to lead my team successfully through the transition — and the company through its next stage of growth,” Mancilla told us.

In January 2025, Mancilla became Principal of Environ Energy Group after serving as co-founder and president of ISOS Group for 17 years.

As for advice, she urged founders to insist on an in-depth transition. In her experience, due diligence wasn’t enough.

“Be adamant about doing a show-and-tell of all systems and processes following the acquisition as there are pieces that might be needed in the new company, and it will help smooth the transition,” she said. “This is much more than what is shared during due diligence.”