SquareBySquare

Get Your Own Square Of Rainforest Land... Keep it, gift it or reinvest it. From as little as $250. Invest now: www.squarebysquare.org #conservationland #proptech #valueinvesting #realestate #startup

Yesterday, our founder and CEO, Henk Kleynhans spoke about climate positive actions like transitioning to plant-based diets at a Humans For Good meet up, fielding questions from the audience about his reasoning behind these. It was, in fact, a deeper dive into the data and math behind our individual consumption choices and carbon footprints that is a key part of our origin story. We felt that our lifestyle and shopping choices weren't enough to make the difference we want to see in our lifetimes, so we've come up with a new model... SquareBySquare democratises conservation land ownership, addressing the climate crisis ~ and by extension, climate anxiety ~ by empowering anyone to buy as little as one square metre of conservation land, so that collectively we can protect critical areas from deforestation. Launching soon... #naturalcapitalvalue #endnativeforestlogging #plantbased #naturepositiveactions #conservationproptech #koalasnotcoal #thirtybythirty

Did you know? "In Melbourne, the average size of a new house is 241 square meters – about twice the size of a typical German home and three times larger than those in the United Kingdom. Have we truly considered the impact of these oversized homes on carbon emissions?" In the numbers game of protecting conservation land at the same rate as urban development, policy changes promoting the construction of smaller, more efficient homes seem an obvious solution. This Op-Ed featured in The Fifth Estate recommends developing housing into greenfield areas (undeveloped lands that provide essential ecological functions). While crucial for biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and water filtration, all natural land is not equal, and when evaluating development projects or land use changes, the inherent value of these greenfields must be quantified. This ensures that benefits provided by natural ecosystems are not overlooked in favour of short-term economic gains, which is the current status quo especially in the case of deforestation, which occurs at an alarming rate in Australia, with 5 MCG's worth of native forest being logged in Victoria every day!! As a conservation proptech, SquareBySquare is calling for a shift in how we value land and nature in economic terms. By adopting a metrics-driven approach, we seek to foster a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness between human prosperity and environmental health. This perspective aims to create policies that not only support economic development - as in this vision proposed here by Geoff Alexander from Melton City Council for urban development without the sprawl - but also protect the natural landscapes that sustain life. Read more about the policy submission for "Plan for Victoria" here: https://lnkd.in/g_N2DsAi #greenfield #conservationland #deforestation #urbandevelopment #policy #proptech

#ClimateChange is the Story of our Time" but can it have a happy ending and how much can we participate in shaping the narrative? Meryl Streep is one of several movie and music professionals advocating for conscious Storytelling in a new PSA to inspire and guide the entertainment industry to be tackle sustainability on and off screen. If you work in the industry, and want to see what role you can play in making it more sustainable, go here:  https://lnkd.in/eHe2zkS9 The Sustainable Entertainment Alliance is a consortium of the world’s leading film, television and streaming companies and other entertainment industry stakeholders dedicated to  reducing the environmental impact of our industry while inspiring a sustainable future onscreen. #filmindustry #sustainabilitystorytelling #greenproductionguide

And just like that, a year of connecting, learning, pivoting, traveling and pitching with the support of the REACH Australia team has come to an end! Thanks to our mentors Tom Ellis Ebonnie Schravemade Peter Schravemade for guiding our founder Henk Kleynhans and to our fellow graduates Arcanite GXE Erin Living Technologies Milk Chocolate® Property Leesy FLK it over Agent Profit Planner and THEODORE for walking this journey with us. As Tom says, "The journey's just begun!" Watch this (rainforest) space... #proptech #accelerator #investing #mentorship #fundraising #networking #conservationstartup

Being a nature custodian is something Indigenous People can offer invaluable guidance on, and celebrating Australia’s indigenous heritage should be a gift we leave to future generations, along with healthy native forests and biodiversity. Integral to SquareBySquare's rollout is ensuring that Indigenous People get access to (their) land to for cultural practices, and a platform for sharing (with compensation and respect) knowledge to help local communities be sustainable in ways that does not conflict with a world view that sees nature and man as interdependent. #indigenouspeople #climatepositive #landmanagement #landstewardship

A panel on "Giving Nature a Seat at the Board Table" at SXSW Sydney amplifies the urgent wake up call to organisations to account for nature in our business plans 🌿 ... At SquareBySquare we're on a mission to unlock the natural capital value of nature, in order to protect it. #conservationstartup #sustainability #proptech

What happens to native forests globally, will impact all of us. Make sure you lobby for politicians and policies that protect these habitats critical for survival. #climateontheballot

On our way to becoming a household name... Hey Google... please offset my energy use today with an equal measure of #naturepositive action. #tinysquaresbigimpact

Looking forward to meeting all the other social and environmental impact entrepreneurs... Our founder Henk Kleynhans will be there in person and Ingi Deutschländer tuning in from South Africa. Both of us have experience in running NPOs and policy lobbying, and if anything makes a difference in ensuring sustainability for startups (and impact), it's a move away from the donor / fundraising model and changing boards of traditional NPO strategy, and towards the social enterprise model Shout out to Social Enterprise Australia for making it possible for so many of us to attend SXSW Sydney #socialenterprise #sustainability #socialchange #environmentalchange #sxsw