Good Growth
Value chains for nature
Challenge
Biodiversity and natural environments are under threat.
But product supply chains, no matter how 'sustainable' they are, cause havoc in these landscapes by creating a monoculture. Business sees nature as a resource from which to extract.
How to redesign this system to create value for nature, not take from it?
Regenerative pathways
We develop a long term plan with each landscape that restores the natural balance in each landscape. We agree the targets and then ensure that the financial risk is shifted from the people in the landscape to us, the value chain people.
That means we can create clear value for the role of the people in the landscape as custodians of the landscape.
What we do
We work in the landscape to work out what needs to change. Typically this means introducing multiple diverse income streams from a multiplicity of materials that are in balance with nature - shifting from a monoculture.
We then develop value chains for those materials - "good" commodities that create value for nature.
Often this means working with ignored or undervalued materials such as yak wool, or coarse sheep wool, in order to create income that is not dependent on one commodity.
What next
The Good Growth model is now rolling out in select places in the rangelands of Mongolia, where it is especially directed at reducing the dependency on cashmere goats as a source of income.
In 2023 we are extending our focus into forest ecosystems to design and build the first value chains for indigenous communities living in forests: coffee, honey, cacao, shea.