Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan invests $250M in GreenCollar, a Sydney-based carbon credits developer.
KKR invested earlier to acquire a 49% stake of the company through a $100 million investment back in April 2020.
Ontario Teachers’ estimated $250M investment will give them 33% ownership.
Ontario Teachers’ and KKR have paired together before joining a $5.2 billion acquisition deal for Spark Infrastructure.
GreenCollar’s business model is simple: enter a partnership with land managers – and develop land-based environmental projects that cover carbon, water, nature, and plastics.
Many of their projects protect forests and restore the land. GreenCollar also helps land managers with outcomes, regulatory approvals, auditing, monitoring, and reports.
The generated carbon credits are then sold on behalf of land managers to first and secondary markets.
Between improved verification methods, high-quality offsets, and a global standard set through COP26, the carbon credit industry continues to expand. Many experts expect the global carbon market to reach $100 billion by 2030.
With such success in Australia, it is only natural for GreenCollar to take the next step internationally. They have been looking at projects spanning West Africa, the Pacific, South-East Asia, and Southern Africa, including forest protection, plastic recovery, and cookstove projects.
GreenCollar started a little over ten years ago – founded by James Schultz and Lewis Tyndale.
It accounts for nearly half of the carbon market in Australia — delivering over $800 million in revenue to land managers through 200 projects spanning about 25 million acres.
Ontario Teachers’ is one of the world’s biggest pension funds, with Assets Under Management (AUM) of ~ $320 Billion.
Ontario Teachers’ have put 2025 and 2030 targets in place to ultimately achieve net-zero investment activity by 2050. This move is undoubtedly making good on their promise.
With this partnership, it appears that net-zero goals for Ontario Teachers’ are well within reach.