Evi Steyer

We've been working under the hood at LIVSN on the execution behind the word "sustainability" and what it means to put our money where our mouth is. And by "we" I mean Abby Hollis and Wyatt Rice - who have gone above and beyond in this pursuit. I hope you take some time to read the article linked below for context on the how.

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So what is a fair match of corporate to public funding of sustainability initiatives? Let’s look at the $3 Billion USD USDA Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities grants. "🌿 Transitioning to resilient agriculture calls for collective impact with government engagement....how leading companies can pull others together to meet climate targets?" -- from a recent post by a food think-tank. Let's take a look at the USDA Climate Smart Commodity Program funded projects? Below is the percent match provided by project awardees. These "matches" can be direct and/or indirect; USDA does not provide these data. Does this demonstrate shared, "collective" impact? Perhaps. It's up to you as a taxpayer to say. What I'm even more interested in is the ROI of my tax dollar. What is the Carbon reduction per tax dollar spent for each of these projects? Will we know? Could we estimate this now?

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In this article, I articulate why significant investment in the processing and distribution infrastructure is needed to transition the US Midwest agricultural food system to a regenerative one. I use our systems analysis to explain why this is required, yet difficult to accomplish. I then bring two key hallmarks of systemic investing - combinatorial effects and nesting - to convey how the practice of systemic investing can be used to crowd in public and private capital, mitigate risk through synergistic effects, and ultimately drive the scale of impact needed. Systemic investing involves deeply understanding the system's current dynamics (systems analysis) so that we can learn the root problems of a challenge. It is also about designing a systemic portfolio of interventions to address the behaviours these root problems generate (funding architecture). This article serves as a brief and imperfect introduction on how to make this move from systems analysis to interventions. #systemicinvesting #regenerativeagriculture https://lnkd.in/dRXnwurH

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Just returned from Environmental Finance's Natural Capital Investment conference in NYC. A few takeaways: 🦋 Amazing level of interest in biodiversity credit from institutions and investors. I don’t know that I’ll ever stop being surprised that we can now pack a room by talking about nature and money at the same time. Stop making it hard for ourselves. Instead of trying to turn struggling or failed carbon projects into nature ones. Or dealing with wicked additionality issues from avoided loss forest preservation projects. Why not focus the first years of the market on uplift/restoration projects on places that even one’s mom could tell are different before and after. Buyers should start being a little clearer about what they want (i.e. forests, grasslands?) and where they want it (Ghana, Poland?). Give the market more of a head-start so they can provide it. Paula DiPerna's excellent keynote on the need for profit and loss accounting for the planet made me write down this: “If we care about minimum wage, why are we making Mother Nature work for free?” 💵 Who knew that there are already $1 billion in assets put into biodiversity funds this year?  I did not know.   Biodiversity credits are old, not new. First wetland ecosystem bank – 1982. First wildlife bank (seabirds) – 1986. First riparian ecosystem bank – 2000. First Indigenous-owned and operated bank – 2012. First comprehensive regulatory credit system for all of nature – 2024 (England). I’ve never been an a finance meeting where financial experts don’t sardonically say that capital is sitting on the sidelines waiting for someone to make conditions more attractive to them while simultaneously explaining that they have already put money on the table. 🙊 20% of nature-based carbon projects on the market are solid and 80% are questionable? One opinion that I won’t forget to keep gut-checking. Nature deserves to be able to take advantage of the full suite of capital tools that are available in other sectors – this is a public policy goal I’m going to keep under my pillow. Thanks Environmental Markets! Genevieve Redgrave Ruben Ortiz Hernandez Chris Martin Julia Santander Megan Reilly Cayten Nkwi Flores Manesh Lacoul Jessica Smith Sacha Spector

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Here’s what I know: Dedicate acres to habitat and conservation and measurable outcomes happen on farms and ranches. It is globally scalable. 💯 🌎 It is low cost with long term carbon storage (measurable) and biodiversity enhancements (see link in comments). 📈 💰 It is high return to people and planet. 🌎😃 https://lnkd.in/gJCTjyVT #biodiversity #carbon

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Starting in a just a couple hours! Register now to Join USBI panelist Myles Gray, P.E today (May 28) @ 9 a.m. PT/12 p.m. ET for the Flowcarbon - CarbonSmart Conversations webinar. They will discuss all things biochar, from project finance and development to credit sales and investment needed to scale. Biochar is today’s leading carbon removal technology by far — yet last year attracted only 12% in #CDR funding. What is creating this funding gap — and what will it take to fill it? “Carbon Finance: Unlocking the Potential of Biochar” features: 👉 James Bakos, President + CEO, Titan Clean Energy Projects 👉 Myles Gray, P.E. Grey, Program Director, US Biochar Initiative 👉 Joseph Kochanski, Head of Operations, Americas, Puro.earth 👉 Martin Kessler, Chief Business Officer, Flowcarbon Moderated by Caroline Klatt, Co-Founder + COO at Flowcarbon Learn about the pivotal role biochar can play as a sustainable solution to climate change. Register for free now: https://lnkd.in/gkZUFD6F

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Join me for Sustainability Creatives #OpenDoorClimate Office Hours! 📅 When: Tuesday at 2PM CT 💼 Focus: Interviewing & Pitching Tips until the end of the year This session is all about #TransferrableSkills! Transferrable skills are so important because they are your anchor in storytelling. They create a thread that ties your past experience to the present job you are seeking. They also help you craft a vision of how you can shape the organization when you join. This is a topic I am really passionate about. Throughout my career, I've interviewed >120 sustainability professionals and have also been a job seeker myself. Let me tell you, as a creative person in climate, talking about your transferrable skills is not only essential, but they can be your superpower. I am a musician, a songwriter, a teacher, a mountain biker. All of these things make me who I am and show up in my every day work in climate (even though it might not seem obvious to an onlooker). But in music, I bring people together to create something beautiful, to collaborate, and fail fast and often as we improvise together. In songwriting, I turn lyrical concepts into fully fledged songs (bringing my ideas to reality) and figure out creative ways to market and release them. As a teacher, I meet my students where they're at and embrace active listening, experiential learning, and multiple intelligences. As a mountain biker, I embrace my connection to the outdoors and remember what I am fighting for as a climate professional. I use every single one of these transferrable skills in my day to day work. I hope you join our session tomorrow and I can't wait to hear from our community about your transferrable skills! Register here:

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https://lnkd.in/eAW_4BmT There will no doubt be much talk this week at #climateweekNYC about the efforts to address integrity concerns in the NbS carbon credit market. Here is another doubtless rigorous piece of scientific research which speaks to the only partial (30%) success of pieces of the earth's surface that are classified as "Protected Areas" to prevent deforestation. The wicked problem of deforestation, and how to best address it, is at the heart of all the noise and hand-wringing around NbS projects (and in particular REDD+ projects) over the past two years. This paper reminds us of the limitations in the datasets that undermined the critical West et al paper that media outlets like the Guardian mistakenly took to represent settled scientific truth when they published stories last year about over-crediting and "ghost credits". The analysis presented here relies on the same datasets that were selected to train the AI used in the West et al paper, namely the Hansen global spatial data on the amount of tree cover (2013) and the World Database for Protected Areas, hosted by Protected Planet. Both datasets are generalised global attempts to present data in consistent ways, and both suffer from multiple site specific errors and habitat related applicability challenges, issues well understood by those who use these data in the sector. It doesn't mean they are not valuable repositories of data, but we are going to have to find a way to communicate to the market that this is not an issue that can be reduced to "right" and "wrong"! #scientificprocess #nbs #vcm

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Earlier this week I attended the Carolina Meat Conference and was blown away by the amazing stories shared by regenerative livestock producers. They were full of ingenuity and dedication to holistically managing natural resources and supporting local communities! I moderated a session on regenerative ag labeling and why it matters. Major takeaways: 1) Regenerative ag labels can be effective tools for quickly communicating information to consumers, but the challenge is that right now there are too many certifications and labels, so it’s become confusing and a bit like the ‘wild west’ (e.g. organic, regenerative, locally grown, climate-smart, biobased, humane, grass-fed). 2) Policy clarity is needed to provide transparency around labeling definitions to reduce confusion for consumers and provide a viable value-added market for producers. 3) In the absence of that policy clarity, there is a race to the bottom meaning people can make unverified or dishonest claims. 4) Progressive regenerative ag producers have to rely on word of mouth, direct sales, and highly educated consumers – which can all be big barriers to scaling.   Thanks to the panelists Don Jackson, Emily Moose and Wyatt Ball for their participation and the insightful discussion. Also, huge shout out to Sarah Blacklin and her team at NC Choices for putting on an amazing conference! https://lnkd.in/ermcmS-Z

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A few of my Climatebase fellows need your help! Drive a car? (You know you do.) Interested in reducing your impact on the environment? Please answer this 5-minute survey to help improve their product idea: https://lnkd.in/ezKkkQyr

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Putting a shout out to #COP16 in Cali, Columbia starting today! Our colleagues at Toha Network are attending putting the flag up for place and people centred #Climate and #Biodiversity #Impact #Investing - Is this another way Aotearoa NZ can be a small country of leaders? At a time when Global changes seem hard to comprehend or act on, it's great to know that actions at home, within catchments and communities are possible. #ECX https://lnkd.in/g5UhvDdk Lets avoid having to choose between: <o> Rats/Possums OR #Birds <o> Growing Food OR the Environment By finding solutions for a thriving rich biodiversity, alongside healthy thriving communities.

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Great to hear reflexions from funders and collaborators on how this work has focused on a largely neglected field in which we need to make progress urgently. There is no way to reaching 1.5C, or any climate goal without substantive emission reductions from livestock methane by 2050. We need more solutions in more places, with lower costs, and benefits to farmers, for it to really scale. That is the EFA methane moonshot.

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I'm an impact investor and aggregator of alternative funding models; here are key points to consider regarding supporting the transformation of regional regenerative systems with a focus on equitable outcomes: The regenerative agriculture investment landscape is growing, with $321.1 billion in managed assets integrating sustainable food criteria and $47.5 billion related explicitly to regenerative agriculture. (1) Emerging asset classes like farmland, cash, and fixed income are ripe for rapid development to enable regenerative agriculture. (1) As an impact investor, you can support the growth of these alternative financing models while also advocating for mechanisms that prioritize equitable access and community-led initiatives. (1,2) Partnering with local organizations, credit unions, and mission-aligned financial partners can help channel capital to the farmers and communities most in need. (1) Ultimately, transforming regional food systems requires a systems-level approach considering interconnected social, environmental, and economic factors. (2) As an impact investor, you provide patient, flexible capital and technical assistance to enable this holistic, equitable transition. (1,2) 1. https://lnkd.in/gM8GUu2x 2.https://lnkd.in/gvBibV4H

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This great report focuses on the cold supply chain. https://lnkd.in/eicFBVKU. Anyone reading this and Ceres, Inc. should look at 1) the size of the companies in the scope 3 results. Most will be small or not public, and this leads to gaps in the Scope 3 values that leak Scope 3 results to be of a lower quality 2) The Disclosures of the companies reporting may unintentionally only report a portion of their Scope 1 emissions since they may only be profiling assets that EPA Regulations effect. Refrigerant emissions in some companies may only reflect assets over 50 LBS, whereas the Scope 1 results include systems below 50. Some, like Kroger, only report HFC emissions, excluding HCFC - the narrative is explained in their disclosures. We have seen the values reflect as much as a 15x difference when applying comprehensive versus selective reporting. But this report is eye-opening.

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As sustainability has been a leading innovation driver in agriculture for the last ~5 years, I often wonder if we've made an impact yet? The EPA just released its Inventory of U.S. GHG Emissions & Sinks that ag reduced 1.8% of its GHG emissions from 2021 to 2022, accounting for 10% of national emissions in 2022. 1.8% is the most significant decline of all industries YOY (about 12M metric tons). Recognizing that this is data from one year and highly subject to crop selection & volumes, it's an encouraging number for those of us working day to day on sustainability in ag. I'm curious for your perspectives - is this progress or noise? https://lnkd.in/gBn-uBJS #sustainableag #GHGemissions

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I am convening an American Geophysical Union (AGU) annual conference session this year on Nature-Based Climate Solutions together with Carlos E. Silva from Pachama, Danielle Rappaport, PhD from the Nature Tech Collective and the University of Maryland, and Viola Heinrich https://lnkd.in/gCutSnjv from German Research Centre for GeoSciences. Session Title: Scaling Nature-Based Climate Solutions Session Abstract: Nature-based climate solutions (NbS), such as forest conservation and restoration, offer a promising approach to mitigate the effects of global climate change, conserve biodiversity, and enhance rural livelihoods. By either reducing emissions or by sequestering extra carbon in terrestrial ecosystems, forest conservation and restoration can yield substantial co-benefits for biodiversity and ecosystem services and is often a no-regret investment. However, the effectiveness of NbS may be undermined by the “additionality”, “leakage” and “impermanence” issues, unless properly addressed. Recent concerns about the integrity of forest carbon projects caused their share of the voluntary market to decline from 40% in 2021 to 30% in 2022. This session focuses on advances in carbon credit quantification methods, and empirical characterization of co-benefits, to improve the credibility of NbS. We invite submissions on: (1) advances in monitoring, reporting, and verification of NbS using remote sensing and in-situ observations. (2) advances in projections of carbon sequestration potential of NbS. The conference is 9-13 December 2024 at Washington DC. Please consider submitting your abstract to our session, and sharing with your network :)

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I'm constantly amazed at the breadth and depth of expertise going into climate solutions and strategies from my Project Drawdown colleagues. Here is just some of what the team has been focused on lately: Jonathan Foley announced a new initiative on food systems. Up to one-third of total emissions come from food, agriculture, and land use(!!). How we enhance food security while creating more resilient and regenerative ways of feeding people will be critical in the decades ahead. https://bit.ly/3wus4EX Matt Scott, Drew Arrieta, and the Drawdown Stories team are gearing up to launch the Global Solutions Diary, a platform for climate stories from people doing the work to scale solutions on the ground. https://bit.ly/3JcsWkj Yusuf Jameel, PhD, from our Drawdown Science team highlights the need to reduce black carbon, a potent short-lived climate pollutant that is often overlooked in most national climate plans. https://bit.ly/4bjeMKd Daniel Jasper, our in-house policy wonk, writes a powerful and thought-provoking op-ed on why it's time to stop thinking of international climate aid as charity. Our collective climate and ecological challenges don't care about social constructs like borders and debt. https://bit.ly/3VW0Zoo Amanda D. Smith, our expert on the built environment, outlines six systemic shifts necessary for a cleaner, healthier electrical grid that can meet energy demands with reduced climate pollution. https://bit.ly/4bxXxVP If you're interested in learning more about the important work Drawdown does or finding ways to get involved, reach out!

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