In 2024, LISC Jacksonville and community partners invested in the rejuvenation of Ribault Scenic Drive Park in Jacksonville, FL. The 1.36 acre park is one of the few places in the Lake Forest area where the community can recreate on the shoreline. Earth Economics found that LISC’s investment in promoting ecosystem services will create $3M in non-market benefits over 25 years, a return of $3.15 for each dollar invested.
Earth Economics and the Everglade Foundation conducted a science-based analysis of the broad economic value provided by Everglades ecosystems, highlighting key benefits for Floridians and underscoring the importance of natural capital in sustaining the region’s economy, environment, and quality of life.
In 2024, Earth Economics, supported the Ohio River Basin Alliance with a high-level valuation of the benefits created by natural ecosystems in the Ohio River Basin. The study found that the basin’s 68M acres of natural ecosystems produce at least $50B in annual benefits, and $1.17T in benefits over 30 years, discounted at at a 2-percent.
Last year, Earth Economics supported Bluewing Civil Consulting, Headway Environmental, and the Vermilion Soil and Water Conservation District with an analysis of ecosystem services values under alternatives for development of water control structures and levee systems in the Lower Vermillion Watershed, Louisiana.
The high quality-of-life in Santa Barbara County, CA grows from its great diversity of landscapes and waters. The county's open spaces generate at least $2.96B in value each year. Over a century, this amounts to an asset value of at least $138.9B, making conservation not just an environmental priority, but a smart economic investment in the county's future.
This year, Earth Economics partnered with Iroquois Valley Farmland REIT to produce an in-house Soil Health and Quality Valuation Tool to track the ecosystem services benefits produced by farms in their portfolio.
Earth Economics partnered with the Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District to estimate the value of the co-benefits supported by their green infrastructure incentives for businesses, developers, and homeowners. We found that a 1-acre of rain garden in Franklin County provides as much as $74,000 in co-benefits each year, and that every time a rain barrel is filled, it saves $1.21 in irrigation costs.
The Nez Perce Tribe is investigating natural carbon solutions to restore soil health, habitat, and sequester atmospheric greenhouse pollution. In August of 2023, Earth Economics partnered with the Tribe to analyze the Tribe’s options for participating in carbon markets as sellers of wetland-generated carbon credits.
Earth Economics worked with Green Compass to value their projects in DC’s Stormwater Retention Credit trading program. When fully established, seven sites will create $1.3M in benefits to local communities every year, delivering a return of $7.80 for every dollar invested. Investment by CDFIs and Green Banks in groups who merge sustainability and community goals (such as Green Compass) will accelerate the pace of GSI throughout the District, creating strong social and environmental benefits for residents.
Earth Economics worked the Staten Island Coalition for Wetlands and Forests (an Anthropocene Alliance member group) to quantify the value of forest and wetland losses on Staten Island. The fact sheet, “Valuing Forest and Wetland Loss on Staten Island,” shows the scale of forest and wetland losses on Staten Island, focusing on the ecosystem services lost from the destruction of the Graniteville wetland.
