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Environmental markets project developer GreenCollar has made a strategic investment in fellow Sydney-based sustainability-focused advisory firm EnergyLink Services with a view to capitalise on the growing push to decarbonise the agribusiness sector.
B Corp-certified GreenCollar, a profit-for-purpose organisation that collaborates in carbon, water quality, biodiversity and plastics markets, has taken a 30 per cent interest in EnergyLink Services following a close working relationship over many years.
“It made perfect sense to streamline our operations so clients can come to one organisation to develop comprehensive on-farm decarbonisation strategies that maximise value while improving biodiversity, carbon stock and maintaining or increasing productivity,” says GreenCollar’s chief strategy officer Pierre Josset.
“For example, our new partnership will be able to cover everything from emissions baselining to assessment for reduction in energy and carbon footprints, carbon revenue potential, project development, decarbonisation strategy and implementation plans, action plans for opportunities and monitoring and verification of energy savings.”
Financial details of the investment have not been disclosed, but EnergyLink founder and CEO Philip Link says the companies are aligned in their ambition to decarbonise the world.
“This convergence of our organisations means we can build on our values-driven approach to prepare businesses for the low-carbon and nature-led transition by maximising EnergyLink’s engineering and GreenCollar’s environmental market and finance expertise,” says Link.
“This partnership means we can better assist sectors including heavy industry, food and beverage and manufacturing, by providing end-to-end services leveraging an array of environmental services, markets and products.”
Link is an environmental economist who says he recognised early in his career that it would take engineers and scientists to solve the world’s carbon problem and that lawyers, bankers and financiers would enable them.
After working for the likes of engineering consultancies GHD Group and Sinclair Knight Merz, he founded EnergyLink Services in 2018.
His experience includes leading teams of engineering experts to deliver energy assessments in sectors such as water treatment, wastewater and manufacturing. He founded EnergyLink aiming to convert the findings of his studies into projects.
EnergyLink’s team currently comprises 12 highly skilled chemical, mechanical, environmental, process, renewable energy, civil engineers in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.
LinkServices’s collaboration with GreenCollar is gearing to step up services for the agribusiness sector.
Link notes that that farmers want to get a better understand of identifying and calculating the Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse emissions associated with their operations – a trend largely driven by the buyers of their products, such as supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths and industry groups such as Meat and Livestock Australia.
“Many farmers are understandably worried about what this means for their business but they are also having the benefits of ‘carbon market’ participation promoted to them,” says Link.
“Both GreenCollar and EnergyLink Services have deep experience and expertise in the agriculture sector which, when combined, means we can supply a one-stop set of services that address the overall objective of decarbonisation and carbon market participation.”
Josset says the new investment provides significant advantages for each of the partners.
“Both our organisations will be able to expand our market reach and increase our level of service delivery, plus we will be able to invest in and design technology solutions to support decarbonisation plans,” he says.
The Sydney-based GreenCollar, which was founded in 2011, is Australia’s largest environmental markets developer and investor.
The group works with landowners and managers throughout Australia to develop projects that create commercial opportunities by generating environmental credits, while caring for the environment.
GreenCollar’s management team was fundamental in helping to establish Australia’s carbon market framework, as well as Queensland’s Reef Credit program.
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