Can You Change the Future?

What is EBF?

The Ecological Benefits Framework (EBF) is a new paradigm. It provides a foundational architecture to radically transform global carbon and ecological benefits markets both by increasing transparency, trust, quality, and equity and by accelerating the coordinated delivery of positive financial and environmental impacts.

By developing a shared framework, EBF can create alignment across public and private sectors to support the rapid deployment of strategic capital for activities that create measurable, life-affirming ecological impacts. The unprecedented coordination of financial markets, UN agencies, NGOs, companies, and philanthropic interests will bring attention to—and help create—a shared pathway for accelerated solutions.

What is EBF?

Today, 30% of all plant and animal species are on the edge of extinction, and almost half of all rainforests have vanished. Rising CO2 levels put humanity in peril of catastrophic changes by 2040. But can we change the future?

When our environment is healthy and regenerative, nature can provide a wealth of ecological and economic benefits that are fundamental to our well-being and the sustainability of our planet. While climate change has put the spotlight on removing carbon from our atmosphere, we have other equally pressing concerns. Biodiversity loss, water scarcity, air pollution, and desertification all present opportunities to solve the larger problem.

To meet these challenges we must develop a common framework to support and fund activities that create positive impacts, unlocking the full spectrum of ecological benefits: air, water, soil, biodiversity, carbon, and equity. Each plays a central—and interconnected—role in restoring natural systems.

Why do we need a common framework for ecological benefits?

We need to move out of the Age of Extraction and enter the Age of Regeneration. Over the past 12,000 years, human history has borne witness to the unyielding pursuit of resources through extractive, one-way practices. The repercussions of this Age of Extraction are everywhere: biodiversity collapse, species loss, water scarcity, barren topsoils, unbreathable air, climate change, and the threat of worsening living conditions for hundreds of millions of humans.

Everything is interconnected. What we previously viewed as isolated existential threats are instead the stark indicators of a highly interdependent ecosystem operating beyond its natural boundaries, resulting in potentially irreversible catastrophic consequences, in both human and economic terms.

We need to rethink our relationship with the natural world. We need to reorient ourselves. This starts by moving away from the current mindset of doing less harm, shifting instead to a focus on positive outcomes – to doing more good. This new approach will help us collectively and concertedly align our efforts to achieve the largest positive impacts possible in the realm of air, water, soil, biodiversity, carbon, and equity. The richness and complexity of this activity needs clearer, more accessible and useful definitions and an organizational framework.

Is EBF a data standard or a certification?

Neither. It is a set of definitions and agreements. Taken together, they form a playbook. Bluetooth is a technology standard. It’s a wireless communication protocol (or digital handshake) that allows any bluetooth-enabled device (e.g., a cell phone) to communicate to similarly enabled devices (e.g., refrigerators, headphones, televisions, light bulbs, etc.) regardless of manufacturer, brand, or model.

Creating the Bluetooth standard has greatly simplified both the development and widespread adoption of interoperable technologies, as well as the human progress and benefits the technology brings. This universal compatibility is the value of standardization.

A shared framework for ecological benefits can provide similar outcomes, allowing greater alignment, connectivity, and collective action by creating a system for measurable positive impacts between conservation projects, carbon markets, ESG reporting, government policy, and the work of global corporations and philanthropies committed to sustainability.

Is this framework for ecological benefits designed to replace carbon markets?

No, it is an expansion.

The compliance and voluntary carbon markets serve valuable roles by helping interested parties reach their stated objectives related to sustainability – from ESG, to compliance, to business and financial goals – while also contributing to the fight against climate change. However, when considered holistically, carbon is part of larger natural systems that include air, water, soil, biodiversity, and equity.

True markets emerge when high numbers of buyers see value in a high volume and diversity of well-defined, widely-understood new products, services, and nature-based benefits that align with their missions or goals. The recent surge of interest in credit markets for biodiversity and water will be followed by similarly intensifying interest in those for soil and air quality, and equity.

By creating a shared, standardized way of understanding these products and by building holistic frameworks that convey product attributes and value, we can build a dynamic marketplace with dramatically higher levels of trust, transparency, and value for both buyers and sellers.

Can the operational efficiency and scale of carbon markets improve by incorporating a shared framework for ecological benefits?

Projects and claims placed on carbon markets are rewarded for activities that reduce, eliminate, or avoid the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere. But GHG emission reductions are not the only benefit happening. Air quality may also improve. Biodiversity may increase. The quality of life in impacted communities may improve for people living in impacted communities.

These additional benefits—while important—have only anecdotal value, as there is no way to formally capture and measure them within the current formulation of carbon markets.

As any gambler knows, this leaves money on the table. Structuring new markets to capture positive impacts beyond carbon will untap new revenue streams for carbon project developers and will provide buyers with an increased inventory of projects that support the attributes they care about most.