Excellent for social and economic added value: TSHN receives Verified Social Enterprise Label
TSHN – The Soil Health Network has been awarded the Verified Social Enterprise Label. This means TSHN is among those Austrian companies whose social and ecological impact has been externally verified and officially recognised. For TSHN, this award is a strong signal to partners, funding bodies, investors, and all those who want to distinguish genuine social added value from mere sustainability communication.
Vienna/Braunau, May 2026 – The TSHN Soil Health and Development Company GmbH was established with the Verified Social Enterprise Label Excellent. The label is considered a central standard of orientation for socially impactful companies in Austria and is awarded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs, Energy and Tourism, together with the Austria Wirtschaftsservice, SENA (Social Entrepreneurship Network Austria) and the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber for special business models.
For TSHN, the award is more than an official seal of approval. It confirms the core of the company: To make soil health measurable, understandable, and economically viable.. This is intended to make ecological impact not just a claim, but understandable, comparable, and financable.
The central question is how healthy soils can be strengthened as a basis for food security, water quality, climate adaptation, biodiversity and regional value creation. TSHN combines agriculture, science, digital processes, impact logic and new financing models for this purpose.
For TSHN, Social Impact is not just an additional benefit, but the core of our actions. The Verified Social Enterprise label confirms that our business model is geared towards positive ecological and economic added value – not as a marketing promise, but as an entrepreneurial mission.
Societal and economic added value go hand in hand.
The Verified Social Enterprise Label centres on a core idea: companies can operate profitably while simultaneously supporting sustainable social change. To qualify for the label, businesses must demonstrate a clearly recognisable societal or environmental impact with future added value (“social impact”), a commitment to „Impact First“, and an publicly accessible impact report.
This is how TSHN deliberately differentiates itself from two classic approaches: TSHN is neither a purely non-profit project nor a classic for-profit company with an added sustainability element. The aim is to connect both worlds.
TSHN will leverage economic mechanisms to strengthen soil health in the long term. Because only when ecological services become measurable, understandable, and financially viable can they be permanently anchored in agriculture, economy, and society.
The Verified Social Enterprise label makes an important contribution to the visibility of social entrepreneurship. As the federal promotional bank, we support companies in a wide range of topics, from their initial ideas to successful market entry. By addressing societal, social, and sustainable challenges, social enterprises actively support the future viability of Austria as a business location and thus make an important contribution to strengthening Austria's social and economic resilience.
TSHN as part of a growing impact economy
With the latest award, 25 further social enterprises have been recognized. This brings the total number of certified social enterprises in Austria to 85. TSHN is part of this growing movement of companies that are rethinking commercial activity: not in opposition to profit orientation, but with the aim of meaningfully combining profit orientation and social impact.
For TSHN, the Verified Social Enterprise Label is therefore not just an award, but also a confirmation of its own identity: a company that understands soil health as an ecological, social and economic issue for the future.
With the VSE label, we highlight how innovative companies combine economic success with social and ecological responsibility. The now 79 active label holders in Austria demonstrate the growing importance of this sector. TSHN is an example of a new generation of companies that are driving future topics such as soil health, regenerative agriculture, and sustainable value creation entrepreneurially, thereby making an important contribution to Austria as a business and innovation location.
Soil health as a foundation for societal change
Healthy soils are one of the underestimated foundations for a stable future. They influence how food is produced, how water is stored, how extreme weather is mitigated, and how regions can maintain their natural productivity. Ultimately, they define food security and social peace.
TSHN is working to translate this meaning into concrete structures. This includes measurability, digital documentation, scientific classification, regenerative agriculture, and new models for financing ecosystem services.
TSHN thus pursues an approach that does not separate social impact from the market, but integrates it into economic processes. This is precisely where the company's eco-economic character lies: TSHN aims to generate social impact and added value, while simultaneously combining it with entrepreneurial implementation and scalability.
VSE Presentation TSHN - Harvesting the Future
TSHN creates an approach that views soil health not just as an ecological concern, but as a quantifiable future value for agriculture, the environment, and society. The combination of science, innovation, and regenerative practices exemplifies how sustainable development can also be made economically viable. The award of the VSE label recognises this forward-looking path.
A signal to partners, funding bodies, and investors
For strategic partners, funding bodies and investors, the award is a strong signal. It demonstrates that TSHN is a company that combines social and ecological added value with a viable business model.
When it comes to future topics such as soil health, regenerative agriculture, and measurable ecosystem services, trust is essential. Cooperations require a clear common foundation. Especially in a time when sustainability is often used as a buzzword, external verification is becoming increasingly important. For TSHN, the label is therefore also a clear signal against greenwashing: impact must be verifiable, otherwise it remains an assertion.
The Verified Social Enterprise Label provides guidance for this. It helps to categorise impact-oriented businesses more clearly and to demonstrate their sustainable focus to customers, funders, and partners.
By awarding the Verified Social Enterprise label, TSHN will be more clearly classifiable for investors, funding programmes and cooperation partners. This is particularly relevant because impact-oriented business models require not only good intentions, but also trust, traceability and a clear logic of impact.
For investors, funding bodies and strategic partners, the VSE label makes it clear that a company not only communicates its impact but also pursues it structurally and can sustain it entrepreneurially. At the same time, the label also strengthens the companies themselves because it sharpens their identity, makes their impact more tangible, and helps them to credibly position themselves in the growing market for impact-oriented business models. TSHN demonstrates how a future-oriented topic such as soil health can be translated into a viable, verifiable, and long-term relevant business model.
Social Impact and VSE - Mandate and Responsibility
The award of the Verified Social Enterprise label is more than just formal recognition for TSHN. The VSE label makes it visible that TSHN is consciously pursuing this path: with the aim of making soil health measurable and developing new foundations for cooperation, financing, and sustainable value creation from this.
Especially in the area of regenerative agriculture and ecosystem services, there is a need for companies that make their impact traceable, take scientific foundations seriously, and build trust between agriculture, business, politics, and funding partners.
Soil health is one of the underestimated levers for genuine transformation. Making soil measurable creates the foundation for trust. And creating trust makes impact fundable. The VSE label is an important task for TSHN and a communication tool with high responsibility.
About TSHN Soil Health
TSHN Bodengesundheit is working on solutions to make soil health measurable, understandable, and economically viable. The company connects agriculture, science, technology, impact logic, and new financing models. The goal is to further develop regenerative agriculture and measurable ecosystem services as the basis for resilient food systems, regional value creation, and sustainable prosperity.
TSHN stands for a clear conviction: healthy soil is the foundation for healthy food, stable ecosystems, and a sustainable economy.
