HOW IT WORKS http://restoretheearth.org/ecometrics/ How it works The REF EcoMetrics™ Digital Platform is a digital system to track, forecast, and translate into monetary terms, the environmental, social, and financial value created by major forest and wetland ecosystem restoration projects in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley, 'North America’s Amazon.' Its purpose is to help corporate leaders see how their ecosystem restoration investments will create financial value for their organizations and the communities they serve, while also creating additional environmental and social value that accrues to communities and society at large. Social Return on Investment The EcoMetrics™ Digital Platform is based on a 'social return on investment' ('SROI') model that Restore the Earth developed specifically to forecast and measure the combined environmental, social, and financial returns derived from landscape-scale ecosystem restoration. The Platform accepts data inputs from on-the-ground field measurements, satellite remote sensing, ethnographic research, and published scientific and socioeconomic data. Future extensions include the development of big-data analytics capability to supplement ethnographic research and socioeconomic data; and improvements to the Platform’s remote-sensing capabilities. The Platform complies with the SROI criteria and assessment framework established by the international assurance body Social Value International (SVI), and has been certified as Accredited Software for producing SVI-compliant reports. The Platform’s self-documenting design ensures that peer reviewers and external stakeholders will be able to independently verify all value claims. Carbon and Water Accounting The Platform’s carbon accounting methodology complies with the industry–standard protocol developed by American Carbon Registry for carbon sequestration measurement, ensuring that offsets generated from projects managed using the Platform will not lose their value. In addition, Restore the Earth is in active negotiations to ensure that water-quality improvements measured via the Platform can be registered on all major water-quality exchanges. Social returns are measured in compliance with targets established in the UN Sustainable Development Goals and performance standards defined in the International Finance Corporation’s Sustainability Framework. Integrated Reporting The Platform’s reporting module was designed in compliance with the International Integrated Reporting Council’s Framework (IIRF), the emerging gold standard in international public company reporting. This framework provides a means for public corporations to provide a consolidated view of their environmental, social, and financial investments, liabilities, and assets, in a standardized form that allows investors to compare results across companies and industries. Platform reports employ the IIRF 'Six Capitals' format, which allow a public company shareholder or investor to see precisely how investments in ecosystem restoration result in increases in asset value for both the company and its external stakeholders. This level of disclosure ensures that corporations can meet their fiduciary duty to disclose material information about the impact of ecosystem services on their operations and the return on investment generated by making capital investments in the environment. ///////////////////////////// FOREST RESTORATION Forest ecosystems are ecological life-support systems. Forests provide the full suite of goods and services that are vital to human health, livelihood, culture and identity. They are our pantry, factory and storehouse as well as providing for wildlife habitat and diversity, water quantity and quality, carbon sequestration for clean air and scenic landscapes. Value created by restoring our forests’ critical natural assets can now be accounted for on businesses’ and society’s balance sheet. WETLAND RESTORATION Wetlands are the link between land and water providing important functions that benefit people and wildlife. Wetlands act like sponges; they trap flood waters, provide storm provide storm protection, recharge ground water and remove pollution. Plants found in wetlands help control water erosion, sequester carbon and provide fish and wildlife habitat. Wetlands are economic drivers of fishing, hunting, agriculture and recreation. WHAT IS LANDSCAPE SCALE RESTORATION? Landscape scale restoration is a holistic approach that integrates environmental, social and economic concerns within the restoration framework. Restoration traditionally focuses on relatively small projects that are easy to conceptualize, fund and deliver. To successfully restore ecosystems you need to ‘think big’ and restore degraded land at very large scales. Now, there is a powerful and growing movement towards landscape scale restoration that rebuilds ecological health and integrity providing benefits for both people and the environment. Landscape-scale restoration goes beyond a patchwork approach and knits together disconnected landscape elements, involving a collective of ecological habitats, communities, and land uses. It ensures habitat and communities are enhanced by the restoration, supporting a self-sustainable system. Landscape scale restoration is cost effective, highly impactful and takes a long term-perspective – generations, decades and centuries. What is the current scale of the renewable energy sector in the United States? From 'http://www.truevaluemetrics.org/DBpdfs/Energy/Wind/US-DOE-2015-Wind-Technologies-Market-Report-08162016.pdf' • Wind power additions surged in 2015, with 8,598 MW of new capacity added in the United States and $14.5 billion invested. Supported by favorable tax policy and other drivers, cumulative wind power capacity grew by 12%, bringing the total to 73,992 MW What GE is doing in the wind power sector? Sine 2002 GE has expanded in this sector and now offers a wide range of industrial scale systems https://www.gerenewableenergy.com/wind-energy/turbines.html

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