About Ecotrust
How We Work
The challenges of the 21st century are immense, but at Ecotrust we believe that true wellbeing is possible. To get there, we need radical transformation of current institutions — those ways of living from banking to building, from transportation to tree harvesting, that dominate our lives.
We see urgency in building up an economy that restores nature and invests in people. And we believe the way to build that economy is through bold experimentation in the bioregion we call home — the Pacific Northwest. We are continually creating and supporting new businesses, nonprofits, alliances, networks and programs that build wellbeing in nature and community and deliver economic prosperity. The industrial economic model that’s reigned for the last 300 years simply can’t last. It’s time for a more natural model of development. At Ecotrust, we believe the new economy starts here — in our backyards, communities, cities and regions.
Mission
Ecotrust's mission is to inspire fresh thinking that creates economic opportunity, social equity and environmental wellbeing. Our goal is to foster a natural model of development that creates more resilient communities, economies, and ecosystems here and around the world.
Role
Ecotrust’s role is to innovate, invest and inspire in ways that create wellbeing for people and the places they live. We are:
- An incubator for social enterprise, designed to identify and test deep innovation;
- A capital vehicle for investing in promising innovations, both to prove concepts and to scale them.
- A growing constellation of public, private, for-profit and nonprofit organizations designed to inspire change around the world.
Initiatives
Consulting
Fisheries
Food & Farms
Forests and Ecosystems Services
Knowledge Systems
Marine Consulting Initiatives
Native Programs
Natural Capital Fund
Whole Watershed Restoration Initiative
History
The history of Ecotrust is a story of innovation, adaptation and evolution. A committed group of individuals led by Spencer Beebe founded Ecotrust in 1991 in Portland. Previously, Beebe co-founded Conservation International and served as the president of The Nature Conservancy International. Beebe and his colleagues started Ecotrust with the goal of bringing to America the best sustainability and conservation ideas emerging around the world. The organization’s mission has evolved into an ambitious one: we want to lead an American economic revolution by deploying new business models that build economic, social and environmental wellbeing. In that pursuit of wellbeing, we have been at the cutting edge of efforts to creatively deploy knowledge, technology and capital. Much of it has been covered in the press, in our own monthly chronicles, and, comprehensively, in Spencer Beebe’s autobiographical account, Cache: Creating Natural Economies. But the measure of success is on the ground, where we’ve been making steady headway to create lasting change.
Our Impact
- Leveraging $80 million of grants and investments to create $500 million in capital for the people, communities and businesses of the West Coast, from Alaska to California.
- Investing $50 million in New Markets Tax Credits from the U.S. Treasury Department into depressed rural communities, with the goal of bringing jobs and long-term health to communities and forests.
- Building Food Hub, a dynamic online marketplace for local and regional food buyers and sellers, from California to Alaska.
- Developing the Community Fisheries Network to support local fishermen nationwide.
- Designing marine planning platforms for the state of California, one of which accommodated over 20,000 protected area proposals from citizens and allowed the state to successfully forge 52 final protected zones. Our marine planning work earned Ecotrust and partners the inaugural U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution’s “Innovation in Technology and Environmental Conflict Resolution” Award in 2010 and a coveted Tech Award in 2011.
- Mapping the coastal temperate rainforest of North America (spanning mid-Alaska to northern California), leading to its recognition as the largest forest of its type in the world.
- Working with the Haisla First Nation to establish the 800,000-acre Kitlope Heritage Conservancy in British Columbia, protecting perhaps the largest intact watershed of coastal temperate rainforest in the world.
- Publishing more than 25 books and hundreds of research papers and documents.
- Launching Ecotrust Forests LLC, one of the world's first forest ecosystem investment fund, now with thousands of acres under management on the West Coast.
- Co-founding the world's first environmental bank ShoreBank Pacific (now One PacificCoast Bank) and Shorebank Enterprise Cascadia.
- Creating the North Pacific Fisheries Trust, a $6 million fund leveraged by community-based fishermen in Oregon, Washington and Alaska to buy catch shares and make capital improvements.
- Completing America's first LEED-certified-gold historic building renovation, the Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center in Portland, Oregon.
- Launching and managing a targeted salmon habitat investment program, the Whole Watershed Restoration Initiative, for state and federal agencies working in the Northwest.
- Building a network of America's most important indigenous leaders, and recognizing them each year through the Ecotrust Indigenous Leadership Awards.
- Creating a Vivid Picture of sustainable agriculture in California, the first statewide, holistic assessment of agriculture in the world based on social, economic and environmental principles.
