At GreenCollar, being a ‘Profit for Purpose’ business means more than maintaining a coexistence between our environmental impact and our bottom line. For us, business strategy is entirely inextricable from our environmental and social goals, and they grow actively together.
GreenCollar’s strategy has seen us deliver around 50% of all Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) to the market and remain the largest supplier of ACCUs to the Australian government. With a 10-year contracted supply of ACCUs, GreenCollar stands to facilitate the sale of credits valued at more than $2 billion.
But the market mechanisms used at GreenCollar are precisely that – mechanisms. They’re tools; ways of maximising and measuring the environmental impact of our projects and most importantly, not what leads GreenCollar’s broader intent.
Our mission is to place real value on the environment, because the best way to solve complex issues is the put them on a balance sheet. And the best way to drive behaviour change is to incentive actions that deliver environmental benefits. Through our partnerships with land managers and Traditional Owners, we’ve helped to develop projects that deliver a both a profit for agricultural businesses and a suite of environmental benefits—all driven by our knowledge of the market.
GreenCollar currently works with land mangers on projects covering huge swathes of land, all of which is being used for agricultural production and environmental gain. We lead the market in delivering high- quality environmental returns for ACCUs, a strategy we have further developed into a Reef Credit system that serves to improve the quality of water flowing into the Great Barrier Reef. Next we’re looking to value biodiversity and tackle plastics, but these core profit drivers are just a portion of the change GreenCollar is driving through credit markets. Our greater purpose can be found in the additionalities built into each project. Biodiversity enhancement, soil and water quality improvement, and habitat preservation are all significant ways we’re leveraging the market to maximise our environmental impact.
But to be a Profit for Purpose organisation means our guiding principles of social and environmental best practice aren’t just measured in what we deliver externally, but how we operate internally. As well as constantly improving our best practice diversity, inclusion and wellbeing commitments, GreenCollar fosters a culture of learning and development – giving back to the people that give to us. Through our ‘Train the Trainer’ initiative, young managers are supported to grow within the business and environmental sectors. This focus on personal growth also drives mentorship programs, monthly leadership events and ultimately develops new ideas within the organisation.
As a highly successful business we can also attract talent to the sector, harnessing the type of thinking, skills and experience that’s needed to solve an immense problem like climate change and increase the speed of environmental progress.
Optimising environmental and social impacts through the market is a fast-developing space. At GreenCollar, we don’t see profit as a negation of altruistic aims, but a way to maximise the spread of that wealth, to our employees; to land managers; to regional communities; and to the planet.
