Good Growth Partnership

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Launched in 2017, the Good Growth Partnership works across the supply chain of soy, beef and palm oil to reduce deforestation and advance sustainable development.

The Partnership is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and its implementation partners are the International Finance Corporation, Conservation International, UN Environment Programme and governments from Paraguay, Brazil and Liberia. Furthermore, the Partnership directly interacts with some of the largest commodities manufacturers in the world – for example, Unilever, Cargill and PepsiCo.183 The core of its mandate is to catalyse a transition to more sustainable supply chains.184 It does so by supporting policy development that ensure suitable land is used for production, and not areas that are high in biodiversity. It also facilitates investment and market-based incentives for sustainable production, analysing how banks identify and manage deforestation-related risk in their commodity portfolios. Additionally, the partnership supports market awareness for deforestation and provides capacity-building for sustainable land-use practices.185

An example is the partnership’s assistance to ten central and western African countries in participating in the Tropical Forest Alliance 2020 Africa Palm Oil Initiative.

183 ‘Financing Sustainable Land Use: Unlocking Business Opportunities in Sustainable Land Use with Blended Finance’. 2018. Kois Investment, the Business & Sustainable Development Commission and the Blended Finance Taskforce. https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/679693_bc261b1e91914e76b14f0cac70344cb9.pdf.

184 Good Growth Partnership 2018. Year One Highlights. Available: http://goodgrowthpartnership.com/wp-content/uploads/Good-Growth-Partnership-Highlights-Year-One.pdf

185 Good Growth Partnership 2018. Year One Highlights. Available: http://goodgrowthpartnership.com/wp-content/uploads/Good-Growth-Partnership-Highlights-Year-One.pdf

STAKEHOLDERS:

Global Environment Facility; UNDP; IFC; Conservation International; WWF; UNEP, Proforest; ISEAL Alliance; Stockholm Environment Institute; Brazilian Foundation for Sustainable Development; Sociedade Rural Brasileira

Katapult Ocean

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Katapult Ocean is an accelerator aimed at scaling companies that have a positive impact on the ocean. Through its work, it seeks to develop the sustainable ocean economy and advance the 2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Katapult Ocean invests in start-ups that have a direct or indirect impact on advancing the UN SDGs – in particular, SDG 14: Life Below Water. This includes several ocean-related sectors including transportation, ocean health, fisheries, aquaculture, energy and new frontiers (e.g. technology, robotics, industrial hardware, etc.).186 Once accepted in Katapult Ocean’s accelerator program, startups enjoy a three-month long training program focused on growth, investor readiness, leadership development, scalability and networking. This includes access to subject matter experts, business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors and exposure to pilot customers, testing and data analytics. Additionally, Katapult Ocean invests between $150,000 and $300,000 into the accelerator start-ups, in exchange for around 8percent in equity shares.187 Start-ups in the Katapult Ocean “ecosystem” also benefit from a mentor network of over 100 people.188

As of the beginning of 2020, Katapult Ocean has raised about $4 million from a diverse set of investors including family officers, businesses and a pension fund.189 Since its inception in 2018 with its founding partner WWF, Katapult Ocean’s partner ecosystem has expanded to over 50 organizations, including Amazon Web Services, the World Bank, China Blue Sustainability Institute, McKinsey & Company, Hurtigruten and ABB.190

Katapult Ocean has made 32 investments into companies spanning 17 countries and four continents.191 Examples include Oceanium, a Scottish company creating bio packaging materials from seaweed; Saathi, an Indian company developing eco-friendly hygiene products; Undersea, a Portuguese realtime water data monitoring company; and ATLAN Space, a Moroccan technology company that produces drones and uses Artificial Intelligence to monitor pollution, track marine life and combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.192

186 ‘The Blue World Perspective’. 2019. Katapult Ocean. https://katapultocean.com/blueworldperspective/.

187 ‘Financing the Ocean Technologies of Tomorrow’. 2020. World Ocean Initiative (blog). 24 March 2020. https://www.woi.economist.com/financing-the-ocean-technologies-of-tomorrow/.

188 ‘Mentors’. n.d. Katapult Ocean. Accessed 26 October 2020. https://katapultocean.com/mentors/.

189 ‘Financing the Ocean Technologies of Tomorrow’. 2020. World Ocean Initiative (blog). 24 March 2020. https://www.woi.economist.com/financing-the-ocean-technologies-of-tomorrow/.

190 ‘Ecosystem and Founding Partners’. n.d. Katapult Ocean. Accessed 26 October 2020. https://katapultocean.com/ecosystem/.

191 ecoSPEARS. 2020. ‘Norwegian Group Katapult Ocean Invests in EcoSPEARS Environmental Startup With NASA Clean Water Technology’. CISION PR Newswire. 14 October 2020. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/norwegian-group-katapult-ocean-invests-in-ecospears-environmental-startup-with-nasa-clean-water-technology-301151743.html.

192 ‘Portfolio’. n.d. Katapult Ocean. Accessed 26 October 2020. https://katapultocean.com/portfolio/.

STAKEHOLDERS:

WWF (founding partner)

One Acre Fund

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The One Acre Fund assists rural, sub-Saharan African farmers with financing, distribution, training and market facilitation. Through its work, it aims to empower rural farmers and lift them out of poverty.

The fund offers farmers flexible repayment schemes, providing high-quality seeds that are financed on credit. The repayment schemes allow farmers to adjust their payment depending on different crop cycles, overcoming an inherent risk of being unable to pay back within rigid loan repayment timeframes. Furthermore, farmers receive training throughout the season on sustainable agriculture techniques. Once the crop is grown, the One Acre Fund helps to facilitate market access for farmers by providing information on market fluctuations so that they can time crop sales to maximise profits.193

30 percent of One Acre Fund is financed through grant payments, with recent funding coming from the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and the Global Innovation Fund (2017), and 70percent of One Acre Fund’s expenses are financed via the farmer loan repayments scheme. For every $1 invested by the fund, the farmer produces $3.16 in extra income (averaged over three years).194 As of 2019, the One Acre Fund worked with over 1 million farmer families across six countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and employed 8,280 full-time staff.195 Farmers, who enrol in the programme for three years, typically experience a $96 additional farm profit – an average 44 percent increase in income.196

193 ‘Farmers First’. n.d. One Acre Fund. https://oneacrefund.org/what-we-do/farmers-first/.

194 One Acre Fund, 2018. Impact. [online]. Available: 30th September 2019. Available: https://oneacrefund.org/2018-annual-report/

195 ‘Our Impact’. n.d. One Acre Fund. Accessed 20 September 2020. https://oneacrefund.org/impact/.

196 ‘One Million Farmers Served’. n.d. One Acre Fund. Accessed 20 September 2020. https://oneacrefund.org/2019-annual-report/.

STAKEHOLDERS:

N/A

Partnerships for Forests

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Partnership for Forests (P4F) is an eight-year incubation programme managed by Palladium and SYSTEMIQ funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Partnership for Forests’ goal is reducing deforestation by supporting regenerative business models such as (i.) “standing forest” models that generate immediate revenues, e.g. through the low-impact harvest of products such as nuts and resins or the delivery of ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration and conversation credits; (ii.) “Agriculture production-protection” models that produce deforestation free products and generate increased revenues per hectare, whilst reducing costs through reduced inputs, and the utilisation of increasingly sophisticated precision-farming techniques; (iii.) “value from forest regrowth” models that can generate multiple, parallel cash flows – as diverse as bioplastics and biochar - from different plant species, which are particularly suited to local conditions.

In 2020, P4F has mobilized over £244m in private investment, forged 67 forests focused partnerships, worked with 24 commodities, and increased the sustainable use of 1.1m hectares of land in 17 countries.197 Example projects include Adum Banso Sustainable Oil Palm pilot, which aims to transform the palm oil sector in Ghana, producing replicable and scalable produce and protect models for communities in the area.; COOPAVAM, where P4F supports the sustainable collection and commercialisation of Brazil Nuts to protect forests and improve livelihoods in the Amazon; and the PT Bumiampo Investama Sejahtera, where P4F supports the development of a 638 hectare, 80percent community-owned, Kemiri Sunan biofuel plantation on degraded lands in Flores, Indonesia.198

197 ‘In Numbers’. n.d. Partnerships For Forests. Accessed 20 September 2020.

198 ‘About Partnerships for Forests’. n.d. Partnerships For Forests. https://partnershipsforforests.com/about/.

STAKEHOLDERS:

UK Department for International Development; UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy; Palladium; SYSTEMIQ