October 17, 2022

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Formed in partnership with Wyuna’s co-founder and CEO Steve Green, alternative investment firm GreenPoint Partners announced the establishment of Wyuna Regenerative Agriculture (Wyuna), an Australian regenerative farming platform looking to build a portfolio of 500,000 acres of grazing assets in the country. 

Founded in 2019 in New York by Chris Green, former global head of real estate with Macquarie Capital for 16 years, GreenPoint Capital stated that it invests “at the intersection of real assets, technology, and sustainability”, and is supported by backing from strategic real asset operators, pension funds, family offices, and industry veterans who collectively own or manage over $500 billion in global real assets.

Wyuna currently controls a portfolio of 100,000 acres, and is seeking to expand its holdings by making investments in pastoral properties in Australia that incorporate direct, nature-based carbon removal projects that are supported by grazing activities seeking to improve biodiversity.

As part of its goal to implement regenerative agricultural practices across its portfolio, measures would include “responsive” and sustainable grazing, improved land management to encourage natural ecosystem regeneration, promote wildlife, and habitat conservation, and the deployment of technology.

Steve Green, co-founder and CEO of Wyuna, said, “Wyuna represents an incredible opportunity to support land regeneration, sustainable food production, and land-based solutions to remove carbon from the atmosphere by bringing together a dedicated team of farmers, investors, and sustainability experts.”

A target is in place to raise in excess of AUD$100 million, but Wyuna is being launched with existing anchor investments of AUD$30 million each from Australia’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) and Goodman Group, along with commitments from Wyuna and GreenPoint. 

“The Wyuna platform is an important demonstration of GreenPoint’s focus on creating decarbonization solutions via our underlying assets and the businesses in which we invest,” said Green.

“We are delighted to work with the CEFC to leverage their extensive relationships and experience to maximize sustainability outcomes across all aspects of our operations,” he added.

The positive regenerative effects fostered through Wyuna will be additive and measurable over time, generating the ability for the projects to generate carbon credits. Eventually, over a period of 25 years, the portfolio as a whole is anticipated to support more than 10 million tons of high-quality carbon credits under the Australian Clean Energy Regulator’s Australian Carbon Credits Unit (ACCU) regime.

This endeavor on the part of CEFC reflects a recent announcement by the bank of its strategic plan to “aggressively expand” into sustainable agriculture through partnerships with the country’s top asset managers.

This agenda has been reinforced and solidified by the ratification of the Climate Change Bill and the re-addressed and strengthened carbon emissions reduction goals on the part of the government, easing the risk profile of such a decarbonization investment mandate. 

“As Australia’s ‘green bank’, the CEFC invests to catalyze private sector capital into clean energy and emissions reduction projects, fill market gaps and help develop new markets to drive decarbonization across the economy,” commented Ian Learmonth, CEO, CEFC.

“We are pleased to be working with Wyuna, GreenPoint and Goodman Group in demonstrating the potential of negative emissions activities. The investment vehicle will show how primary producers can tap into the growing demand for carbon credits as investors and businesses pursue increasingly ambitious sustainability goals.”

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

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