Manitoba launches Green Impact Bond for organics

A Green Impact Bond being launched by the Manitoba government aims to reduce organic waste going to landfills.

Sarah Guillemard, conservation and climate minister and Rochelle Squires, family minister, said the unique $1-million Green Impact Bond will support projects that help divert organic waste, create green jobs and reduce greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. Innovative NRG, a Manitoba waste-to-energy company, has been chosen as the Green Impact Bond service provider.

“We need to take steps to prolong the lifespan of our landfills and this Green Impact Bond provides a great opportunity to reduce organic waste while growing Manitoba’s green economy,” Guillemard said. “By reducing organics in our landfills, we lower the production of methane and create new, clean-growth job opportunities.”

The Green Impact Bond is a finance tool to fund impact-driven projects, enabling the government to rapidly innovate and implement new solutions for organic waste and GHG emissions while sharing risks with the private sector. The tool brings the public, private, non-profit and charitable sectors together to develop innovative solutions to complex problems that have not been solved by one sector alone, the government said.

Through the Green Impact Bond, a service provider is to meet agreed-upon outcomes for organic waste diversion, job creation and GHG reduction. Investors will provide up-front funding to the service provider. A third-party evaluator will determine whether the outcomes have been met and the return on investment to be paid by the province.

“Manitoba is open for business and looking for investors to collaboratively develop innovative solutions alongside non-profit groups, community organizations and our government,” Squires said. “Through the Green Impact Bond, investors have opportunities to earn returns of up to 8 percent on their investments over the lives of the projects while driving system change and supporting scalable solutions.”

The government said waste and landfills account for 3.3 percent of Manitoba’s annual GHG emissions. Manitoba’s landfills are approaching capacity and by some estimates, about 40 percent of their waste is organic material.

Innovative NRG will use its patented and proprietary innovative technology, branded as Rapid Organic Conversion (ROC), to process organic waste such as animal byproducts and waste-water sludge through a gasification process. The ROC technology is a made-in-Manitoba innovative, clean-tech solution that vaporizes carbon-based waste material.

Thermal energy released in the process is captured and can heat buildings or water for industrial uses, thereby reducing the use of fossil fuels. Waste-to-energy can be appropriate for materials that do not have landfill diversion options such as recycling. Innovative NRG’s waste diversion units will be installed in the rural municipalities of Cartier and Rossburn, as well as in the town of Carman.

“Our ROC innovation represents a leap forward in reducing GHG emissions and costs, disrupting the existing centralized waste landfill disposal system by locating ROC plants at commercial operations sites to recover their waste energy profitably,” said Del Dunford, CEO of Innovative NRG. “By eliminating the need to transport waste to landfills, we eliminate the cost and GHG emissions from transportation and landfilling, and take advantage of a renewable energy resource for economic development in remote and northern Manitoba communities.”

The government said the concept of impact investment is growing globally. The Green Impact Bond creates a unique investment opportunity for those committed to driving environmental change. Organizations can now support transformational work while investing at competitive rates in Manitoba, Squires said.

You can find more information by emailing dir-sio@gov.mb.ca and by visiting www.manitoba.ca/sio.

 

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