IN SUMMARY:
MARQ Trustees has provided fund services to Conscious Investment Management supporting its partnership with Greening Australia to restore Australian landscapes.
MARQ Trustees’ client Conscious Investment Management (CIM) has partnered with environment not-for-profit Greening Australia to deliver biodiverse environmental planting projects across Australia.
Founded in 2019, CIM is a dedicated impact investment fund manager investing in social and sustainability-focused assets, which are managed alongside its Impact Partners (the majority of which are not-for-profits).
Responding to biodiversity loss and vulnerability at ‘Dixieland’
CIM and Greening Australia this week announced their first investment through the partnership with the purchase of a 755-hectare property located in the Snowy Monaro region of Southern NSW, known as ‘Dixieland’.
Through the project, approximately 140,000 native trees and shrubs will be planted on the property in 2025, with the goal of supporting conservation of native wildlife by creating and connecting habitat across the landscape.
Greening Australia CEO Heather Campbell commented on the significance of Dixieland and future projects in CIM’s media release: “Dixieland is an uncommon beauty in an ecologically significant location. Restoration of the property will create and link critical habitat for native species whilst storing carbon and delivering co-benefits for the local community.
“Our partnership with CIM will channel investment into further property acquisitions for biodiverse environmental planting projects like this one, helping scale our vital restoration work through the power of environmental markets.”
Innovative financing featuring carbon credit repayments
The parties have plans to register the property as an environmental plantings project via the Clean Energy Regulator with a 100-year permanence period.
Greening Australia will act as landowner and project developer and CIM has provided innovative financing for the project with repayments linked to the generation and sale of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) through the environmental planting methodology.
Casey Taylor, Executive Director at CIM, says the partnership establishes a scalable framework to support Greening Australia’s mission:
“Our partnership with Greening Australia aims to deliver environmental planting projects with a focus on biodiversity and climate resilience and which structurally embed perpetual land custodianship.
“We hope to replicate the Dixieland project in other regions and continue to make a tangible, visible difference to Australian landscapes with the backing of our over 750 mission aligned investors.”
The innovative deal was covered by the Financial Review’s Street Talk column.
MARQ Trustees’ services for Conscious Investment Management
The MARQ Trustees team provides trustee, fund administration and registry services across CIM’s suite of funds.
Managing Director Andrew Patrick commented: “We are immensely proud of supporting CIM to create positive social and environmental change through projects like Dixieland.”
ABOUT MARQ TRUSTEES
Established in 2014, MARQ Trustees brings together a team with decades of financial services experience in managed funds. Under the authority of our Australian Financial Services License (AFSL), our firm provides services to wholesale managed investment schemes including trustee, custody and other AFSL services; advisory, fund administration and registry services; as well as fund to market and capital raising advice. For more information, contact us via phone: +61 3 9005 9282 or email: [email protected].
