IMPACT awards judges chose Australia-headquartered New Forests as their 'asset manager of the year' in the mid-size category. One of the leading managers of nature assets globally, it has around AUD11.7 billion ($7.5 billion) in assets under management across four million hectares.
Over the past year or so, the asset manager has had a considerable impact in several areas and launched several initiatives and some of its activity has focused on its agriculture investment vehicle, New Agriculture. The vehicle was launched in 2022 following the acquisition of Lawson Grains from Macquarie Asset Management. In November 2023, New Agriculture and investment partner AIMCo announced the acquisition of a three million-hectare property in Western Australia.
New Forests has also further accelerated the sustainable management of its wider portfolio, claiming to have removed 920,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in the last year through its forestry assets.
It also made a major commitment to biodiversity by transferring Trinity Headwaters – an 11,000 acre northern California property within its 265,000 Klamath Forest estate – to non-profit organisations. The move aimed to deliver permanent conservation of the area's biodiversity and around 44 rare species.
Alongside commercial forestry and agricultural assets, New Forests is also involved in both compliance and voluntary carbon markets. In the US forestry sector alone, it has developed 24 offset projects and sold over 19 million compliance carbon offsets in the last year, for around $240 million.
Jo Saleeba, global head of sustainability and impact, said: "Creating tangible impacts across the environment and communities where we operate has been the foundation of our business for close to 20 years.
"Our Africa and Asia forestry strategies have been designed with impact objectives focusing on climate change mitigation, community and livelihoods, and biodiversity conservation."
She added: "It's been pleasing to see institutional investors increasingly recognising that achieving impact does not come at the expense of financial performance."
