SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
Will Big Finance Finally Fund Nature-based Solutions?
The bridge between the large finance world and the movement for a new, vibrant economy
The Regeneration is rising and we need to restore ecosystems to make the new economy happen. Two rather recent actions have given me hope that a bridge is being built between the current financial world and the nature-based solutions that are so very necessary on a big scale.
Let me introduce you to my way of thinking about sustainable business.
This is my motto:
“We need to restore ecosystems and learn as human beings how to live within the boundaries of our planet”
It has two aspects: we need to restore ecosystems. We need to unleash the abundance of nature again. Our current economic thinking is killing all by-products because we just want one thing. We want monoculture grain. We cut corners with chemicals and artificial fertilizer. And in the process, we kill soil life and weeds.
Whereas, soil life and weeds are very useful beings. They are the abundance our planet has to offer us. We can use thistles for making bioplastics that are fully biodegradable. We can use micro-organisms for our health. Our gut loves micro-organisms. And our crops are much more nutritious when grown on healthy, living soil.
So the second aspect: living within planetary boundaries becomes possible when we create our businesses around nature-based solutions. Technologies that serve life.
And please don’t think I’m just a dreamer. I do love John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’, but I also see it happening for real in many corners of our world. Entrepreneurs are embracing the Blue Economy, innovators are creating new technologies based on Biomimicry, and big cities are re-inventing themselves with materials that soak up water when there’s too much and release it later when there’s drought.
We just need to want it badly enough, all of us, and it will happen…
If we think this way, using all by-products for human basic needs, we can create a vibrant economy that serves humans and the planet alike. It’s just a matter of time.
Nature-based Solutions
In order to clarify the nature-based solutions for the rest of the story, let me include a picture. Because what are nature-based solutions exactly? They are solutions that have benefits for nature and for humans at the same time. This picture by IUCN explains.
So, what gives me hope? And what about the big finance mention in the title of this story?
Well, it started with the World Bank writing about nature-based solutions.
It means that the World Bank is seeing that we cannot just invest in status-quo technology and make the world better. We need to do it differently if we want to stand a chance of creating a livable environment and an economy of purpose.
And then today I read this article by CNBC:
HSBC, one of the biggest banks in the world, is targeting the niche ‘natural capital’ industry. Funding big-scale initiatives around regenerative farming and biodiverse natural resource growing. Woods, fungi, algae, grasses, industrial hemp, bamboo; we will just need them to make the new economy a reality.
Small-Scale and Large-Scale
Hope, hope, hope, my friends.
I do know that some of you are bashing big capital, saying we need to live without money. Have exchange economies and ecovillages. And build our houses with our own hands. I love it, really, and I hope many people will do that. But I also know that many people will not.
And I’m a realist. Our world is a diversity of humans. Of cultures. Many people love to live in the city. Many people are still thinking technology and industry will save all. It might be a smaller step to align nature-based thinking and technology in cities. Just as valuable! And to be honest, technologies that are supporting life are very well possible. We are not against each other, let’s join forces…
I don’t need to change other people to do stuff they don’t feel like doing. Everybody will travel their own path. Unleash their own wisdom.
So why not find a diversity of solutions for all humans to find their peace with nature? Why not embrace big money and make sure it will be invested in the right solutions?
The really innovative, big-scale movements that are creating business cases for regenerative farming? The real innovative large-scale ecosystem restoration projects that are protecting our coastlines with mangrove reforestation?
The real innovative consortiums of governments, NGOs, and entrepreneurs that are not fighting each other, but finding ways to make nature-based solutions work for the environment and humans?
Entrepreneurial Examples
Why not invest in the earlier mentioned Novamont that is creating biochemical solutions for a human world that will not be polluting?
Why not invest in biodiverse seaweed to become the material of our future, like the Seaweed Company is showing us how to do?
Why not invest in Habiba Organic Farm in Egypt, where a whole community is growing food in the desert?
Why not invest in mangrove reforestation and other Building with Nature projects, like Ecoshape is doing in Indonesia?
Why not invest in greening the desert and calming the climate at the same time, like The Weathermakers are doing?
Why not invest in an organic tea plantation at the edge of a big nature reserve, where jobs are created so people stop poaching. Like Hathiculi Organics is doing in India.
So much is happening! Small-scale and large-scale. And I love it all.
Creating Real Biodiversity
So, for me it is good news that HSBC is stepping up, creating this fund. And I hope more investors jump on this bandwagon.
I also really hope they do not get stuck in half-solutions. Where regular, monoculture forests and monoculture plantations are still wrecking the world, saying they plant trees because it sounds cool.
That’s not regeneration. That’s no nature-based solution.
That’s business as usual.
This is the time for business as unusual.
So, what about global warming, you ask? What about CO2 and methane? And my answer is, please don’t have tunnel vision. Yes, we need to stop our CO2 output for nothing. We need to stop our overconsumption that’s responsible for excess CO2. But we can also find solutions by absorbing CO2 and methane. Healthy, living soil will absorb much, much, much! A healthy ocean and biodiverse seaweed will absorb much, much, much!
So, dear money-professionals at HSBC, please choose radically for the initiatives that create real biodiversity. Initiatives redesigning our world properly.
There’s much to choose from.
Take your pick. And help us make it happen!
If you want to connect, you can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, or my website. Or somewhere in nature learning how to align the economy and ecology…