Australian Ethical Awards Grants for Climate and Tech Solutions

Australian Ethical has, a “responsible investment and fastest-growing super fund manager” with over $6 billion in Funds Under Management (FUM), has awarded $500,000 to fund climate and tech solutions in its inaugural 2021 Visionary Grants. The funding was made via the philanthropic entity the Australian Ethical Foundation.

John McMurdo, CEO and MD of Australian Ethical, said that with the recent announcements at COP26, nations have come together to make clean technologies and sustainable solutions attractive options:

“We applaud this commitment, however we also believe that continued public and private collaboration is needed to accelerate the uptake, scale, and impact of these technologies. For this reason, our Visionary Grants have largely focused on climate-tech solutions this year, and we could not be more proud of the exciting innovations presented by organisations like CQU, Climate KIC, Original Power, and the Seabin Foundation.”

The list of recipients are as follows:

Accounting for Nature ($80,000) will help establish an online environmental accounting technology platform that organisations can use to import remote sensing and field data; create and verify an environmental account; link this account to carbon offsets (e.g. carbon offset unit registries); and once certified by Accounting for Nature Ltd, export this environmental account data into Xero (or other software package) to align financial reporting data with carbon and environmental accounting metrics.

The Nature Conservancy ($50,000) will establish and pilot a Blue Carbon Covenant Fund to protect, restore and recover coastal blue carbon sinks on private land across South-East Queensland. It will target eligible wetlands, saltmarsh and swamps to deliver aggregate benefits. As an Australian first, the project allows private investors to support wetland restoration and capture blue carbon, through carbon credits, with proceeds provided to the environment.

Climateworks ($50,000) will establish the Net Zero Infrastructure Alliance (NZIA) to draw government and industry together, creating an influential and collaborative platform with a shared purpose to shape and implement an ambitious infrastructure plan that supports our whole nation’s systems-wide transition to net zero.

Original Power ($80,000) is improving energy security for First Nations communities in the Northern Territory, by replacing the reliance on expensive and polluting diesel-fired power with a distributed energy micro-grid utilising new solar and battery storage, and wireless distribution of electricity credit to all homes.

Climate KIC ($80,000) is building the world’s first technology platform to run an Integrated Ocean Energy Marketplace, designed to address the lack of market demand for ocean energy in the ‘Blue Economy’ (coastal businesses, communities, and industries).

Central Queensland University ($90,000) will reseed over 20 hectares of seagrass within the Port of Gladstone using UAVs (drones) for targeted seed dispersal, demonstrating a new method of seagrass restoration that is scalable across Australia.

Seabin Foundation ($40,000) will install the first Seabin 6.0 Data Monitoring Unit (DMU) in Sydney Harbour, to collect marine debris 24/7 and provide important data about ocean pollutants.

Opportunity International Australia ($30,000) will build an evidence base and best practice guidance to enable locally-led climate adaptation for some of the most vulnerable and underserved communities, first in Indonesia and then globally. By leveraging Opportunity International Australia’s trusted microfinance network, the project will build a better understanding of client vulnerabilities and needs, enabling improved financial products, additional training, and other services to provide a robust pathway out of poverty for over one million families in Indonesia.

Australian Ethical is also an investor in Main Sequence, the venture capital fund founded by CSIRO, which invests in a wide variety of deep tech or science-based start-ups seeking to solve some of the world’s biggest problems, including decarbonisation.

Each year, Australian Ethical donates 10 percent of its profits to the Australian Ethical Foundation to create environmental and social impact in Australia and overseas, amounting to over $6 million to date.



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