The Power of Partnership in Uncertain Times

By Mark Lambert, Director of Agriculture at Quantified Ventures

Like you, we’ve been searching for good news these past few months amongst our collective feelings of anxiety and uncertainty. The acts of generosity and goodwill demonstrated as our communities come together even as they are forced into isolation has given us all comfort. While the Quantified Ventures team has retreated to the confines of our respective home offices, we continue the hard work of advancing solutions for some of our most intractable social and environmental challenges. 

Last week, we were thrilled to take the search for good news into our own hands with the announcement of the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund launch, the result of much hard work, dedication and a healthy dash of stubbornness from the Quantified Ventures team and our partners at the Iowa Soybean Association. 

We believe the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund will lead a transformation in the scale at which sustainable agricultural practices are implemented across the country. This year, we are working with an exceptional group of Iowa farmers to support the implementation of more sustainable farming practices, like cover crops and reduced tillage, across 10,000 acres. Plans are underway for a significant expansion to new acres, new states and new practices in 2021 and beyond, and we will have exciting news to share about these developments in the coming months.

The Fund is an example of the new outcomes-based financing strategies Quantified Ventures has added to its repertoire to complement the Environmental Impact Bond, which it pioneered in the stormwater sector in 2016. Critical to the success of all this work is the coordination of multiple “payors” - typically a diverse group of beneficiaries that would not otherwise interact in the normal course of business - that collectively pay for the social or environmental outcomes produced by the project. Stacking payors within a single transaction is challenging work, requiring consensus building, behavior change and rigorous financial analysis. What this process often yields, however, is impact far beyond the sum of its parts. 

In Iowa, one of the nation’s vanguard agricultural states, fertilizer and nutrient runoff from farms have contributed to severe water quality issues, threatening drinking water supplies, increasing water treatment costs and limiting recreational opportunities. An analysis of this issue reveals the breadth of stakeholders that contribute to and are impacted by water quality impairment, including citizens, municipalities, water utilities, and state agencies. Accordingly, any project aiming to address water quality requires the recruitment of a similarly broad set of partners. 

Perhaps the most important success of the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund thus far has been in convening a diverse group of partners, most notably municipal wastewater utilities and large agricultural supply chain companies. In Iowa, water and wastewater utilities face significant investment requirements to meet the goals of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy. At the same time, our Fund partner Cargill recently committed to a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions across their global supply chain. Both of these objectives can be met through the implementation of the sustainable agriculture practices the Fund works with farmers to implement. By combining these unique partners - municipal wastewater utilities and agribusinesses - within a single transaction, the Fund leverages the strengths of each to achieve a shared objective. It represents a small but timely lesson in the importance of building strong and diverse partnerships to solve difficult challenges. 

As the current social and economic realities force us further into isolation, we think it’s helpful to remember the power of collaboration and coordination. Drastic measures are being taken across the world by disparate groups that rarely have occasion to interact. If there is a positive to be found in this crisis, we hope it is that we are stronger when we work together, and that when we do, we can realize tremendous impact.