The Rebalance Earth Master Plan

(for you, us and those you care about)

Robert Gardner , CEO & Co-Founder of Rebalance Earth , 14th August, 2024

Our Initial Launch

Our initial launch for Rebalance Earth is focused on creating a ￡150 million UK fund to support projects that will protect and restore the UK's landscapes and seascape. This will benefit UK cities, communities, and companies while providing attractive risk-adjusted financial returns to investors.

Firstly, our Nature as infrastructure projects will significantly increase risk mitigation and resilience against flooding and drought, two major climate and Nature-related risks. These projects will also improve water quality, boost biodiversity, and enhance ecosystem health, increasing carbon sequestration.

Using Nature's vital ecosystem services, UK cities, communities, and companies will enjoy much greater climate security, operational resilience, and quality of life—far more affordably and faster than current approaches.

Over the next ten years, our big target is to grow the Rebalance Earth fund to ￡10 billion. By financing Nature as business-critical infrastructure, we can help close the current ￡50-￡100 billion UK 'Nature deficit' — the investment required to restore our UK ecosystems.

Our unique funding model and development of Nature as an investable asset class provide ongoing financial and resilience benefits for all our stakeholders.

But as significant as the UK is in our strategy, it's only the launch pad for us.

Our Real (Not-So-Secret) Agenda

Our overall purpose and aim is nothing short of connecting the flow of capital to protect our current natural assets and restore the natural infrastructure that has been destroyed. Here's why that matters so much…

Our world today is entirely dependent on Nature. It provides us with the essential resources to sustain our lives, yet we do not value it. Our extractive model has facilitated our development but at a significant cost to our homes. It is literally costing us the Earth—and all life on it, including ours and future generations.

That has led us to our key insight and the big idea that drives Rebalance Earth…

In simple terms, we're here to prove that Nature is our most valuable asset class and that when we value it, pay for it, and use it appropriately, we all benefit—financially and environmentally.

This turns modern capitalism from a zero-sum equation, which relies on extracting and subtracting from Nature for profit, to one where investing in Nature generates financial returns while restoring Nature's vital infrastructure and protecting life on Earth.

Nature is on life support, yet we continue to deplete its resources, destroying our own lifeline.

Here at Rebalance Earth, our mission is to provide financial and environmental resilience and a world worth living in.

You May Be Wondering

What about other efforts to meet, combat or adapt to the astronomical loss of Nature and biodiversity we face due to climate change? Here are our observations and thoughts:

This is about so much more than wind farms…

There are many incredible innovative climate change solutions, all vital to reversing the damage we have done. But we must recognise the magnitude of the problem. To alter our current course, we need a large-scale, transformative solution that provides financial incentives and drives rapid change.

The rapid rise in CO2 levels produced by our fossil fuel-dependent economy is the primary driver of climate change, which is driving Nature and biodiversity loss (and vice versa). The impact of climate change permeates all of Earth's intricate systems. Reducing CO2 levels is crucial, but we must also restore the damage to Nature caused by exploiting it to begin rebuilding the systems we have disrupted.

What about capitalism and consumerism? According to some, those are the root causes (or evils)? Only if we think very narrowly about them. The real issue has been the one-way traffic of exploiting Nature instead of co-existing sustainably with Nature. We cannot eliminate capitalism or consumerism, nor would doing so happen quickly enough to halt our Nature crises. But what we can and should do is redefine capitalism and adapt consumerism to be far more sustainable and in harmony with Nature. Which leads us to…

The Essential Approach We Need

The scale of Nature loss is so severe, and the time we have to effect change is so short that we must be clear about where to focus our energies. We also need financial mechanisms to fund the work we focus on.

That requires three things:

1. Recognising and valuing all the vital infrastructure that Nature provides us.
2. A galvanised source of investment capital for Nature restoration and protection projects.
3. Ongoing financial returns for project investors and cost benefits for cities, communities and companies.

Starting with the money, it has become abundantly clear that neither the government nor companies have deep enough pockets to fund restoring Nature at scale, which is essential to mitigate the worst impacts of the triple threat of climate change, biodiversity loss, and Nature degradation.

(Not to mention the tipping points right around the corner - which we don't fully understand but know are really bad.)

Given our expertise, we know that pension funds have that level of capital and have traditionally funded huge infrastructure projects (like motorways) when they provide an ongoing revenue stream. UK pension funds and the wealth industry currently comprise ￡5 trillion in assets. But how would their investment in Nature pay off?

Currently, 185,000 UK businesses are at risk of flooding and other Nature-related risks. As a result, their insurance costs are going through the roof, even though this insurance cannot compensate them for all the losses incurred from flooding, drought, and disrupted water supply.

These companies (along with similarly affected regional governments and other large organisations) will gladly pay for a long-term reduction in this repeated disruption and financial losses.

This will reduce climate change risks and increase resilience for cities, communities and companies. The payments for these benefits will generate an ongoing financial return for the investors, i.e. pension funds.

That's why we believe that the most direct and powerful way to make a positive contribution is to work directly with Nature, with financial incentives to achieve an effective, rapid, and sustainable way to protect and restore Nature.

This isn't widely known at the moment, but we hope it will be soon. Because we truly believe that we're all in this together, we need solutions like this, and we need collaboration to make this happen.

So, feel free to share this widely. The best time to do so is now, and the best way to do so is with an open mind and a combination of "hustle muscle" and "life-force energy."

Especially if you care about helping to secure a world worth living in.