You are implementing an important environmental or climate related solution. You are ready to expand and scale it to make a real difference as part of your existing or new business/project. But you need investment and additional smarts. You want investors that share your passion and your values – you want impact investors.
How do you find out if impact investors will be interested in your solution? Well, look no further. In our favourite book of all time (probably) Drawdown – The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming lists the top 80 ways to keep levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from climbing while also drawing down excess greenhouse gases so that we can keep global warming at no more than 1.5˚C.
To save you from reading through all 80 Solutions (though if you are like us you won’t be able to help yourself) here’s some things we think will be highly impactful in New Zealand and that we’d love to have the opportunity to invest in.
Coming in at 3x more effective at reducing greenhouse gases than any other solutions, changing how we farm and restoring the Earth’s natural systems is key to our future. NZ being a first world agricultural country should be leading on many of these solutions: Silvopasture, Peatland Protection and Rewetting, Tree Plantations (on Degraded Land), Perennial Staple Crops, Temperate Forest Restoration, Managed Grazing, Tree Intercropping, Regenerative Annual Cropping, Multistrata Agroforestry, Abandoned Farmland Restoration, Nutrient Management, Conservation Agriculture, Forest Protection, Perennial Biomass Production, Farm Irrigation Efficiency
Wind Farms by another name and the single solution ranked as having the greatest potential to reduce greenhouse gases. Why? They generate enough electricity to replace power plants thus replacing fossil fuels with emissions-free electricity. They typically use no more than 1% of the land they sit on and they go up quick – rapidly producing energy and return on investment.
Solar Farms by yet another name and the solution ranked as having the second highest potential to reduce those heat-trapping gases. Like wind farms they operate at a utility scale and in many parts of the world are now less costly than conventional power generation. By raising the height of solar panels it is possible as with wind farms to utilise the land they sit on for agricultural purposes. Bingo – win / win for our very agricultural country.
Our meat-centric Western diet on the rise globally comes with a steep climate price tag: one-fifth of global emissions. If cattle were their own nation, they would be the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Plant-rich diets reduce emissions and also tend to be healthier, leading to lower rates of chronic disease. Given NZ is one of the world’s leading producers of dairy and meat, bringing innovative solutions to this issue is not only an opportunity it is an obligation.
Back in the 1980’s when we realised refrigerants were causing a gaping hole in the ozone layer, the world moved with real urgency and thanks to the 1987 Montreal Protocol these refrigerants were phased out in two short years. Unfortunately, the replacement (hydrofluorocarbons – HFC’s) have the capacity to warm the atmosphere 1000 to 9000 times more than CO2. The 2016 Kigali Agreement makes phasing out HFC’s mandatory for NZ, a signatory nation. We are keen to invest in solutions.
Insulation, LED Lighting, High-Performance Glass, Building Automation Systems, District Heating, Smart Thermostats, Low-Flow Fixtures, Green and Cool Roofs, Dynamic Glass, Building Retrofitting, Net-Zero Buildings
This isn’t merely an intellectual exercise. We want to hear from businesses, entrepreneurs, scientists who are working on these solutions in NZ so we can bring the investment needed to scale them.
Purpose Capital is an impact investment fund whose mission is to drive social and environmental change. If you have an investable opportunity that will create systemic change and deliver intentional social and/or environmental impact click the button below to get in touch.