Transaction of majority share in Australian carbon farming project developer heralds prosperous new era for South Pole Australia
After seven years of rapid growth, global sustainability solutions provider, South Pole, has sold its majority share in Climate Friendly to the Australian project developer.
With this transaction, South Pole Australia and Climate Friendly will pursue their sustainability business strategies independently, but remain united in their mission to combat climate change and reduce carbon emissions in Australia.
South Pole will continue to offer its full suite of sustainability services in Australia, where it is working with a growing number of Australian businesses, organisations and government authorities on their climate, carbon and energy solutions. These include measuring and offsetting emissions, renewable energy provision, supply chain services, and consultancy on climate-related risks and opportunities for investors and corporates.
"The turnaround and sale of Climate Friendly is an exciting milestone for South Pole's continuing development as a key player in the global sustainability space, and marks the completion of another successful incubation venture for us," says Renat Heuberger, CEO & Co-Founder, South Pole.
"We're very excited about this outcome and wish Climate Friendly all the best," says Tom Schroder, Director Marketing & Communications, South Pole and Director, South Pole Australia, "At the same time, we're looking forward to continuing our growth and success in the Australian market."
South Pole first invested in Climate Friendly with the purchase of Macquarie Bank's stake in the company in 2012, the same year that the global Kyoto Protocol to combat climate change expired. A year later, the Australian Government repealed its Emissions Trading Scheme.
Despite this difficult timing, the two companies managed to work together to expand Climate Friendly's operations, previously only active in the voluntary offsetting market, converting it into one of Australia's largest developers of farmland-based emission abatement today.
In 2016, the carbon and renewable energy certificate business of Climate Friendly was spun out into South Pole Australia Pty Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of the Swiss-based company that offers South Pole's full suite of sustainability services in Australia.
Like the successful sale of former South Pole subsidiary, climate data provider Climate Neutral Investments, to ISS Institutional Shareholder Service in June 2017, the sale of Climate Friendly is another successful exit from newly incubated sustainability companies by South Pole.
South Pole will remain active in the Australian Government's Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) market via its share in Natural Carbon, a developer of carbon farming and savanna burning projects in Australia.
Media contact
Nadia Kahkonen, Head of Communications, South Pole
n.kahkonen@southpole.com
+44 7383406808
