Despite the ever-shifting sands of the international political landscape, assessment by a host of international experts – as well as executives, shareholders and board members – points to the ongoing acceleration of investment, both financial and philosophical, by the global business community in being able to continue assessing, reporting and acting on their nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities.

International business and financial leadership recognises that the prosperity of societies and the profits of corporations and organisations depend on the health and resilience of nature. There is also recognition that science, innovation and experience is required to support business to meaningfully address nature-related risks and underpin the long term viability of their operations.

The thinking is that momentum in this area has gone too far for it to reverse because of the whims of political ideology. This is now a movement that is science-lead and market-driven.

One of the many solutions that the business community can access in this regard is the power of environmental markets.

Environmental markets are a mechanism whereby agricultural landholders and other resource managers, who have undertaken activities to protect, restore or protect natural assets, can attract funding from the private sector for continuing and scaling this work. This is achieved by converting the quantified outcomes from these projects, which are all nature-based solutions, into a financial instrument that can be traded on a market. The financial instruments, in this case, are environmental units of various kinds, the most well-known of which are carbon credits.

Partnering on the ground

GreenCollar, one of Australia’s largest environmental project and market developers, has expanded internationally, with experience on most continents and an international office in Washington DC. We began partnering with land managers, such as farmers, graziers, conservation organisations and traditional owners in 2011, to develop nature-based land management projects and sell the units generated on the relevant environmental markets.

The company’s aim has always been to deliver solutions that can be scaled by attracting private investment.

For example, avoided clearing projects prevent carbon stored in standing forests from being released if a landholder were to otherwise act on their permit to clear their land, while regeneration projects work to create carbon sequestration by regenerating forest landscapes that have been degraded and suppressed by agricultural activity. Both can also act to preserve and rehabilitate habitat.

Commitment to measurement, verification and research

From the beginning, GreenCollar has invested extensively in in-house scientific research and testing by supporting and partnering with universities and researchers. We continue to invest in research and development on a large scale because we are committed to ongoing improvement and operating at the forefront of scientific and technological advances. In this way, we can be sure that we are delivering the most accurate outcomes possible in our nature-based projects.

GreenCollar is dedicating substantial resources to building scientifically strong datasets across our project portfolio, including by continuing our investment in: on-ground data collection and measurement; high-resolution, high-precision remote sensing technologies (terrestrial and aerial); data analyses; and research.

Investing in biodiversity and water quality

Our NaturePlus® biodiversity scheme has been designed to incentivise the restoration of degraded landscapes anywhere in the world, as well as to reward the ongoing stewardship – or conservation – of these restored, intact ecosystems.

It uses the scientifically rigorous Accounting for Nature® environmental accounting framework which rewards measured improvements in native ecosystems. Once these environmental outcomes are measured and certified, they form the basis on which NaturePlus® biodiversity credits are generated and issued. One hectare of active restoration or conservation of habitat or species generates one NaturePlus® credit.

Our Reef Credits Scheme was developed as a way of improving the quality of water entering the Great Barrier Reef ecosystem. While climate change is considered the most serious long-term risk to coral reef systems, declining water quality, influenced by land-based run-off, is recognised by marine scientists as one of the most significant threats to their long-term health and resilience.

Land management projects run in partnership with a wide range of farmers, graziers and landholders on agricultural properties in the reef catchment area, improve water quality by reducing run-off of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and fine sediment. One kilogram of DIN or 538 kilograms of sediment generates one Reef Credit, which is unique and traceable. Credits are third-party verified by the Scheme’s independent administrator, Eco-Markets Australia. The scheme can be applied to reefs and other waterways worldwide.

Community value

Environmental markets don’t only function to help support environmental and climate action. They deliver wider community benefits as well.

In Australia, these projects also build on-farm resilience to the elements and provide an alternative income that assists the farmers and graziers in hard times – and their success is often attributed by locals to economic and social rejuvenation of their communities.

In countries such as Malawi, villagers who are running carbon projects are supported to grow small plots of harvestable wood species – they are not only incentivised in the process to cease harvesting local native species for fuel and construction, but can begin to develop sustainable incomes from their resultant timber business activities.

In this manner, businesses can find that, when they trade on environmental markets, they are contributing to more than only outcomes for nature and the climate.

GreenCollar currently has a portfolio of over 220 registered and contracted projects, covering over 5 million hectares of private land. These projects are forecasted to generate more than 132 million Australian Carbon Credit Units and to deliver over 60,000 NaturePlus® credits and over 50,000 Reef Credits.