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GLPF
Home > Current
Interests > Market
Mechanisms
Using Market
Mechanisms for Environmental Improvement
The Fund has supported a variety of projects that test how
to create ecological wealth for the Great Lakes basin ecosystem
by harnessing the power of markets.
A market is where two or more parties come together and exchange
items of lower value for ones of higher value. Markets are
powerful because each participant-both the buyer and the seller-are
better off after the transaction than they were beforehand.
Because of the win-win nature of the transactions, markets
seem to emerge spontaneously and flourish. The Fund wishes
to test the notion that the Great Lakes basin ecosystem can
benefit from certain transactions among willing buyers and
sellers.
Market mechanisms that may be applied to improve the health
of the ecosystem include trading systems, assurance systems
and insurance systems. These mechanisms produce ecological
quality, for example, by seeking low cost restoration opportunities
or by pooling the financial risks, if any, associated with
practices that benefit the Great Lakes ecosystem. Over time,
these market mechanisms will make the true costs and benefits
of ecosystem restoration increasingly transparent.
The Fund's current interests in market-based approaches includes:
- To identify, demonstrate and test the most promising market
mechanisms for improving the health of the Great Lakes basin
ecosystem.
- To build the techniques, methods and practices to: attribute
value to beneficial ecological goods and/or services; commoditize
or securitize that value; and, allow those securities to
be traded in an open market, or market-like exchange.
- To identify, capture and share the value of ecologically
beneficial business practices within the marketplace for
financial capital.
The Fund recognizes that grant-making can only play a limited
role in influencing the creation and operations of markets.
Our interest and involvement in this area is evolving and
the investments we make will be selective. Potential programming,
through grants or other mechanisms, might include projects
that:
- Identify, create, and support new business models that
simultaneously enhance the ecologic and economic health
of the Great Lakes basin.
- Engage the financial services industry in improving the
health of the Great Lakes ecosystem.
- Develop the first set of metrics that determine what good
a company is doing for the Great Lakes ecosystem and an
investment program for rewarding those business practices
with financial capital.
See Application Process to review
our general funding guidelines
and instructions for preproposal
submission, including the required cover sheet.
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