<aside> <img src="/icons/link_green.svg" alt="/icons/link_green.svg" width="40px" /> TABLE OF CONTENTS
<aside> <img src="/icons/link_green.svg" alt="/icons/link_green.svg" width="40px" /> PREVIOUS WORK
Our initial blog, which laid out our concept of an open source model to support municipalities in transitioning toward resilient urban forest management practices, and our strategy document, which provides more detail.
Our interim learning report provides an analysis of how we can overcome existing structural challenges to reach investment readiness for the long-term stewardship of Nature-based Solutions in cities.
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TreesAI provides a series of tools to help establish nature as a critical, and investable, part of urban infrastructure. Over the past two years, we’ve been building the TreesAI Pilot in Glasgow, Scotland.
Glasgow faces a series of interconnected social, environmental and economic challenges. The city is eager to explore a series of nature-based solutions, but is looking to overhaul NbS financing; shifting from sporadic cash injections towards a robust funding model.
By connecting green investors, to existing or potential projects, helping the city to better map and measure the impact of the projects, and encouraging citizens to participate in the co-creation of a more liveable Glasgow, we’re helping the city to meet its ambitious green infrastructural goals.
The report largely focuses on lessons and learnings from our work so far. So if you want to get into the details of our experience in Glasgow, click **here.**
We’re entering conversations with cities across the world. While every municipality faces a unique set of social, political, environmental, economic, and administrative challenges, the methodology section outlines some of the processes we feel are replicable elsewhere.
If you’re already familiar with TreesAI, you might want to skip straight to the **Next Steps** section to see what we’re planning over the coming years.
This report has been co-authored by Carlotta Conte-Billiant, Chloe Treger and Sofia Valentini. Special thanks to Thomas Theodore for editing and Arianna Smaron and JP King for design support, alongside the TreesAI team and our wonderful partners: Clyde Climate Forest; Glasgow City Council; FloodRe; Nationwide; SEPA and Scottish Water. This report was made possible thanks to the Investment Ready Nature Scotland (IRNS) Grant Scheme and our funders Esmee Fairbarn Foundation and NatureScot.
<aside> <img src="/icons/link_green.svg" alt="/icons/link_green.svg" width="40px" /> WHAT YOU’LL FIND IN THIS SECTION
Portfolio-Building as a Process
B | Developing a portfolio of NbS
Or head back to 🔗Quick Links
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Trees sequester carbon, but - when planted in the right places and at the right time - they stand to reduce flood-related risk while providing multiple social, economic and environmental benefits.
It’s currently estimated that there is an annual shortfall of about $700 billion required to safeguard our natural environment. With warming temperatures increasing UK flood damages 20% and 1 in 6 properties in England being at risk of flooding, it is increasingly vital that we revalue nature as a key part of urban infrastructure.
Across the world, cities are establishing ambitious green investment targets. Over the past two years, we’ve developed TreesAI to build the technological, engagement and investment infrastructures required to fund city-scale tree planting and maintenance through both product development and in-situ testing through a pilot.
In our Glasgow Pilot, “Stewards” include Glasgow City Council, Clyde Climate Forest, and The Metropolitan Glasgow Strategic Drainage Partnership. Throughout this report we will use the terms Sellers and Project Developers to signify these organisations.
“Beneficiaries” are those organisations which stand to benefit from the ecosystem services that nature provides and, therefore are involved in providing the **capital requirements. Our Glasgow Pilot includes water utilities, reinsurance companies, large property owners, the NHS, and various private and public organisations interested in investing in NbS projects. Throughout this report we will use the terms Beneficiaries, Outcome Buyers and Green Investors to signify these organisations.
So TreesAI is the “Intermediary”, but as well as connecting Stewards and Beneficiaries, we’re hoping to capture the previously untapped value generated by urban nature, to help justify further investment. Over the course of the project, we’ve aimed to persuade beneficiaries to place greater value on environmental services, while empowering Glasgow’s citizens to participate in a just and sustainable transition.
The TreesAI Model: Double-click to enlarge
Traditionally, Nature-based Solutions have been funded on a project-by-project ****basis. ****Howevere we have witnessed that many individual NbS projects are too small or piecemeal to attract substantial investment on their own.
TreesAI adopts a portfolio approach, financing a city-scale portfolio of NbS projects, to produce a diverse array of positive outcomes, and increase the likelihood of financial returns.
In Glasgow, the portfolio initially was aimed at reducing the risk of flooding, but due to challenges of taking a ‘flood-first’ approach we are now focusing on a place-based approach which addresses a range of urban challenges.
In order to shift from project to portfolio finance, TreesAI has designed a process to cluster together NbS projects within portfolios that help address various urban challenges, such as climate change mitigation, water management, land use, and urban development.
Each portfolio is comprised of a combination of projects that aim to lower a city’s strategic risks – for example, the original portfolio in Glasgow was focused on reducing the risk of flooding.
We hope the learnings and tools developed in the past years can aid local authorities to become more independent in the process of scaling the development of NbS projects through their long-term sustainable finance.
We have modified the GFI toolkit to finance city-scale portfolios. Our amended version includes a preparatory section (phase I to III) to structure NbS portfolios and highlights the importance of collaborative, catchment-level plans (phase 0) before projects can be scoped and aggregated. We’ve also added a final section (phase 9) for project development and monitoring.
