Earlier this year, building off the idea of Environmental Arbitrage, Odd’s Creek began researching environmental impact bonds as an innovative method for catalyzing investment in conservation finance. Through this work, we have developed the concept of a Conservation Exchange.
Through our research, we developed the understanding that despite significant demand for conservation finance investments, such opportunities are difficult to evaluate and finance.
We believe the development of a standard evaluation method for conservation finance opportunities will catalyze conservation finance deal flow.
In our effort to bridge financial and natural capital, we developed Odd’s Creek Exchange (OddX), a market-based exchange listing conservation finance opportunities. Through standard evaluation, OddX will lower financing costs compared to one-off evaluations. By operating a marketplace, OddX will allow institutional investors with larger funds to invest in an aggregated set of opportunities.
Each opportunity will be evaluated for its risk-adjusted rate of return and total financing amount. For example:
Opportunity: Logi River Streambank Stabilization
Sponsor: Logi Rivershed Association
Category: Water
Assessed ROI: 2.5%
Term: 10 years
Total Amount: $300,000
Amount Financed: $236,000
Over the past few months, we’ve discussed this concept with professionals in conservation, investment, technology, and research. We’re sharing it here because we can’t build this alone. Below is the business plan for OddX as written in January 2018 with minor modifications for publishing in November 2018.
Please read through the Problem Statement and Unique Solution - if you find it interesting, comment below, or better, share this post with your colleagues.
If you or someone you know is interested in funding or participating in this work, have them email info@oddscreek.org or donate.