Earth Security was founded in 2011 by Alejandro Litovsky with one ambition: to catalyse a shift in investment and economic decision-makers to make natural assets – and the stability of our planet’s life-support systems – a central focus in global investment.  

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Since our inception we have been at the forefront of innovation and systems design in partnership with international investors, governments and organisations to collectively explore new ways of unlocking the value of nature-based assets.

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2011

Earth Security is founded after bringing together a collaboration of banks, credit-rating agencies and ecological scientists. This leads to a world first UN-backed initiative to factor environmental data into sovereign credit analyses. Our founder, in collaboration with the Stockholm-based Tällberg Foundation, leads a trip of global investors, organisations and conservationists to the Ecuadorean Amazon, to study the proposed world’s first oil-for-nature sovereign finance deal. Earth Security seeks new pathways to mobilise the global financial system to recognise the value of the Amazon rainforest.

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2012

At the UN Principles for Responsible Investment Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Earth Security convenes a strategic discussion between banks, including HSBC and Sumitomo Mitsui, and the Brazilian Space Agency. The proposition is how the rainfall-generating capacity of the Amazon could be factored into investment portfolios. We convene the 'resilient cities action lab' in Brazil bringing together 40 leaders from finance, business and government funds across Latin America to explore financing partnerships for the ecological regeneration of cities to reduce climate risks.

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2013

We launch the Earth Security Index at the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Supported by the BMW foundation, AVINA Stiftung and the Joffe Trust, the framework aggregates comparable ecological and economic data from every country in the world. It allows us to create forward-looking scenarios based on the interdependence of countries’ natural resources and climate change, and demonstrates how investors and governments can support sustainable investment models that address the social, environmental and governance pressures of different regions of the world.

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2014

We develop a strategic partnership with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) to further develop and apply our foresight analysis to bridge action between the private sector and development institutions. We organise and facilitate a series of high-level retreats with the BMW Foundation, in strategic locations across Europe, China and other emerging markets where senior leaders from business, finance and diplomacy use Earth Security’s analysis to devise new models of collaboration on key development issues. The Earth Security Index is launched at the Munich Security Conference, the world’s most important forum shaping geopolitical trends.

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2015

Earth Security works with the UK’s Prosperity Fund in Indonesia and India. In Indonesia, we engage the local banking sector to define pathways for the local financing of sustainable palm oil. In India, we partner with Indian insurance bodies to mobilise climate solutions as India deregulates its insurance sector. We launch our annual report with a keynote by Jeffrey Sachs at Willis (now Willis Towers Watson), the global insurance leader in the City of London. This is followed by a session co-hosted with SDC at the UN Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa, on how countries can work with private finance on the sustainable development agenda.

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2016

We identify and mobilise innovative actions for global companies to contribute to the governance of transboundary aquifers, working with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. We conceive and broker a partnership between the global brewery SABMiller (now AB InBev) and UN’s Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme, which monitors progress on transboundary water management, to support open data on groundwater resources in key regions of the world. We partner with SABMiller to develop a framework, piloted with its subsidiary in Colombia, which is used by companies around the world to align their business with local UN Sustainable Development Goals.

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2017

We provide global asset managers and industry networks with a data-driven framework to align investment portfolios with the UN SDGs. Our founder launches it with a keynote at HSBC’s Sustainable Finance Forum in New York with over 100 fund managers. We work with the International Chamber of Commerce and WBCSD to shape the agenda of business on the SDGs. We partner with the German Ministry of the Environment (BMUB) and launch an innovative programme in the Philippines to mobilise the financial and business community to support and finance nature-based climate adaptation.

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2018

We engage banks and investment funds to identify practical ways for private finance to support transboundary water cooperation in water-stressed regions. A report in collaboration with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) identifies opportunities for the finance sector to more actively contribute to the goals of water diplomacy, including through the creation of ‘Blue Peace Bonds’. These strategic opportunities for finance are taken forward by the Blue Peace Initiative. We partner with the UN Capital Development Fund and work SDC to support the creation of a municipal finance programme, an infrastructure investment strategy that promotes water cooperation across regional basins.

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2019

We focus on the large-scale financing of climate solutions that are below the radar for the finance sector. The spotlight is on rice: the main staple food for 3.5 billion people, where climate change will hit global food security hardest. Rice uses 40% of all the water that is used in agriculture and emits 10% of global methane emissions. We bring together banks, companies and experts and develop a financing strategy, which includes a ‘rice bond’, alongside other proposals that can be deployed at scale. This is launched at the COP25 climate summit in Madrid in partnership with the UN Sustainable Rice Platform and WBCSD, who embed our financing blueprints into their global programmes.

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2020

We launch our Financing Earth's Assets programme to provide data-driven innovative financing proposals for banks, investors, DFIs and governments to work together on scaling investment in nature's capital. In collaboration with HSBC, UBS Optimus Foundation, and SDC, we create a financing blueprint to guide investment in mangroves, linking the value of this nature-based solution to the adaptation of cities across the tropical belt of the planet. We work with CDC Group, the UK's Development Finance Institution, to identify the investment value of nature, and its integration into investment portfolios and assets in sectors like energy, infrastructure and agriculture. We launch a programme in the Philippines that brings together local mayors from climate vulnerable municipalities, local and international insurance companies and banks to co-create innovative nature-based financing mechanisms that realise the economic value of coastal ecosystems.

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2021

We partner with HSBC Australia to develop the framework for Earth Security's Mangrove Bond concept in Australia. At Temasek's inaugural Philanthropy Asia Summit, Earth Security and UBS announce their partnership to develop The M40 Initiative, to catalyse the financing of mangrove ecosystems on a global scale. We convene over 300 leaders from public and private finance to discuss our Blended Financing Playbook for Nature-based Solutions proposing practical steps to scale private-public financing partnerships. At COP26, Earth Security is named as one of the 10 winners of The Global Environment Facility’sprestigious Challenge Program for Adaptation Innovation to develop solutions for the private sector to invest in nature-based climate resilience in least developed countries.

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