(Courtesy City Forest Credits.) Beyond soothing imagery, urban trees measurably lift air quality, energy affordability and employment. City Forest Credits aims to quantify what that's worth.
City Forest Credits matches nonprofits and cities to fundi urban trees. It describes its mission as one to make “American cities greener, healthier, and more equitable.” By computing value of rainfall interception, air quality benefits and energy savings, the outfit aims to define premium price for nonprofit organizations to charge...
Tread carefully but with clarity when engaging your board. (Photo by Todd Kaplan)
Conservation finance, by definition, involves risk. But land trust staff who engage board members in understanding and navigating risks and opportunities can bring forth new and durable income streams. How can staff members build board members' comfort and earn their support for new approaches? Success stories highlight methods for educating...
How do you ascribe dollars to this? (Photo by Bill Mullins, courtesy the Conservation Fund)
Island Press’ publication of Valuing Nature: A Handbook for Impact Investing by William Ginn comes 15 years after his first book helped launch what became the Conservation Finance Network. While the lessons captured in prior works still ring true, the conservation finance field has experienced rapid growth in recent years...
In Maryland, water quality harms from a popular oyster service lead to a financing trade in which the oyster seller buys nutrient credits, which help replace the oyster stocks.
Loss of tourism revenue and financial depression can limit funding for conservation even as pressure for mining and deforestation rise in the biodiversity hub.
Small forests add up to potentially significant pools of carbon storage. Carbon credits as structured don't make that an economic business for small owners- yet.
New York City's Brooklyn Bridge Park, here on a morning during the Covid shutdown, blends public and private capital to broaden open space access. More neighborhoods need parks like this.
America has a long tradition of creating public parks and open space, from the rugged wilds of our National Parks and National Forests to the pocket park down the road from our homes. Today, in the midst of Covid-19 social distancing, those of us who are fortunate to have access...
Businesses big and small can drive growth for regenerative growth across a range of crops.
In the words of the great agricultural philosopher Liza Minnelli, “Money makes the world go round.” Most stakeholders RAI interviewed across agricultural supply chains, especially farmers, want to grow crops and raise livestock in a sustainable way. Yet this desire to minimize environmental harm is not feasible if it creates...
