Corporate demand to achieve zero net emissions targets spurs new Greening Australia partnership with CBRE

Greening Australia has partnered with CBRE to increase its national land bank by 330,000ha to meet its 2030 impact goals as major corporates throw their weight behind efforts to tackle Australia’s biggest environmental challenges.

Fishery Beach, SA – Trim Photography

The appetite to invest in environmental offsets including carbon sequestered through large-scale tree plantings, has increased substantially amid corporate demand to achieve zero net emissions targets.

Greening Australia has consequently appointed CBRE’s Agribusiness team as its exclusive real estate services partner, with a target to source 330,000ha of land by 2030, via a combination of lease, licence or ownership.

Greening Australia CEO, Brendan Foran said, “The scale of the challenge means we need to leverage the best capabilities. CBRE will assist us in meeting our ambitious targets but also reward landholders for their role in improving the environment.”

Gondwana Link, WA

Greening Australia began conserving and restoring Australia’s landscapes in 1982. The new agreement with CBRE aligns with the organisation’s goal to solve complex environmental problems via a range of programs and projects – including a target to plant 500 million trees by 2030.

CBRE Agribusiness Associate Director Phil Melville said the appointment recognised CBRE’s extensive rural network as well as aligning with the firm’s own global commitment to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from both its own operations and the properties it manages for investors and occupiers.

“CBRE is committed to using its expertise, resources and market influence to help our clients reduce the emissions their properties generate and to applying best practices that improve the sustainability of our own operations,” Mr Melville said.

“Through this new partnership we can extend these efforts to help ensure Greening Australia achieves its targets to restore Australian landscapes and undertake environmental planting projects that provides tangible and long-lasting benefits. We see an opportunity to improve the environment and turn underperforming sections of properties into profit generating assets.”

Manalling Springs, WA – JC Filmbox Photography

Greening Australia has already put considerable runs on the board over the past 39 years, addressing environmental challenges such as biodiversity decline, threatened species and farm salinity whilst helping to boost agricultural productivity.

To continue these efforts, CBRE’s national Agribusiness team, including Mr Melville, directors Phil Schell, Shane McIntyre, Tom Burchell and Andrew Loughnan and Managing Director David Goodfellow, will assist in sourcing land across the country where Greening Australia will undertake the following:

• • Biodiversity projects
    • Restore productivity on un-arable / difficult areas to farm (gullies, waterways curves, challenging areas, hills, salt impacted areas etc.) where practicable
    • Explore opportunities to undertake biodiversity projects on farms for grant, co-investment or Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCU’s) generation

• • Carbon projects
    • Provide stable and consistent returns on more marginal areas of selected farms via the production of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCU’s).

• • General
    • Improve asset resilience to climate risk
    • Undertake integrated agriculture projects
    • Undertake trials with tangible, measurable and replicable results to enable optimisation and development of regenerative agriculture design.

Landholders can register their interest by contacting Greening Australia’s National Land Access Manager, Bryan Devine on bdevine@greeningaustralia.org.au or by visiting the Greening Australia LandPortal.