What we do
Building the first Nature Development Finance Institution
What’s an NDFI?
A Nature Development Finance Institution (NDFI) is a specialist bank that provides capital and technical assistance to companies, communities, and project developers to support Nature-based Solutions (NbS). Climate targets depend on these interventions - to avoid emissions from harvesting and extracting resources, reduce emissions from global commodity supply chains, and store carbon in new natural capital sinks. But NbS do so much more - securing clean water, sustaining landscapes, protecting biodiversity, and ensuring resilient local economies. New Leaf’s NDFI strategy builds on the proven Community Development Finance Institution (CDFI) model, which shows the power of patient, catalytic investment through public-private partnerships to achieve lasting impact at scale.
OUR SERVICES
Research
New Leaf prepares data-driven research and analysis to inform the NDFI strategy and advise clients on marketplace development, infrastructure, and field-building for NbS.
Evaluating financial parameters of native grass restoration on grazing areas in Missouri for a regional NDFI strategy.
Mapping the US reforestation context for investors with support from US Endowment for Forestry & Communities and The Rockefeller Foundation.
Investments
New Leaf designs new financing products to address funding gaps, and works with investors to evaluate and deploy thoughtful, catalytic capital into the restoration value chain.
Creating the Forest Inputs Resilience (FIR) Fund to channel flexible investment to US seedling, seed, labor, and related input suppliers.
Structuring a loan guarantee to allow restoration projects to pre-order slow-growth understory plant material in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas.
Projects
New Leaf develops a proprietary portfolio of projects and helps strengthen the pipeline of viable projects by connecting landowners and suppliers with expertise and capital.
Designing and implementing a 1,400 acre restoration and agroforestry project for degraded ranchland.
Piloting an ARR forest carbon project across small-scale landowners in CA in partnership with Point Blue Conservation Science and the Bella Vista Foundation.
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