2008 ANNUAL REPORT Ecotrust’s mission is to inspire fresh thinking that creates economic opportunity, social equity and environmental well-being. These days, there seems to be only one question... How do we fix our economy? We ask a different question: Is this the opportunity to restore our economy based on new principles? 2008 ANNUAL REPORT Principles such as regionally based energy, food, banking and building, all for the benefit of nature, and community. 2008 ANNUAL REPORT We believe it’s possible for everyone, even in hard times. But it requires us to do three things… 2008 ANNUAL REPORT Innovate. Invest. Inspire. A Crisis, and an Opportunity We founded Ecotrust nearly 20 years ago to help local communities achieve what author Jane Jacobs called a more “reliable prosperity.” To that end, we encouraged a new type of economic development that was more consistent with local culture and environmental restoration. We believed clues to success lay in ancient wisdom: the more diverse and L REPORT A intimate the connections between nature, economic well-being and community, the more resilient all three might be. We sought innovative ways to apply that wisdom, and then we invested. With ShoreBank, 2008 ANNU we started a new type of bank that prioritized community-building and stewardship of the environment in its lending. We started a forest ecosystem investment fund. We helped schools find fresh local food for students, repatriated traditional land to First Nations, supported local fishermen with financing, and restored salmon runs. We found designers and contractors with integrity to do a green rebuild of an old warehouse. Slowly, we leveraged $60 million in grants into $300 million in new capital for families, businesses and the environment from Alaska to California. Today, in the midst of a storm, we are testing our own persistence and resilience. Ecotrust’s 2008 growth was modest, a rate consistent with the biological growth of our native forests, but perhaps it shows resilience at a time when the S&P 500 lost more than a third of its value. Maybe it’s because we believe in investing in things we all need, more than what we want. We are investing in storing carbon in our forests, not releasing it. We are investing in local food production, not transporting food halfway around the world. We are investing in a healthy and creative place to work, and in our outstanding management team and staff. Local, living economies: Not everyone will embrace the model, but we know it’s profitable, better for the earth and better for local communities everywhere. Cecil Paul, a Haisla First Nation elder with whom we worked to protect the 800,000-acre Kitlope River watershed in British Columbia, once said that we are all building a magic canoe — a metaphor for a growing global village. Thank you for traveling with us. Cameron Healy, Chairman Spencer B. Beebe, President & Founder ECOTRUST >> 9 2008 Highlights FOOD & FARMS Ecotrust Food & Farms seeks to create a world of Creating Connections possibilities for flourishing farms, vibrant communities and We launched development of FoodHub, an online healthy eaters. Indeed, the three are inextricably linked. directory and marketplace that makes it easy and efficient for buyers and sellers of regional food to find one another Healthy Food, Healthy Kids and conduct business. We also witnessed broad adoption We lobbied legislators to place more healthy food in our of the Building Local Food Networks Toolkit, which region’s school lunchrooms, and we were selected by the enables communities across America to bring food National Farm to School Network to lead advocacy efforts producers and buyers face-to-face. in an eight-state region of the West. Community Engagement Greater Impact We worked with dozens of organizational partners in our We expanded the scope of our work and engaged effort to create a robust regional food system, and we preschool children for the first time through an agreement engaged over 350,000 in our region with the regular to bring regional food to Head Start programs. publication of Edible Portland. FISHERIES Ecotrust Fisheries works within coastal communities to Funding Coastal Communities help set policy, drive biological and economic research, Our North Pacific Fisheries Trust completed its first and finance commercial fisheries. $1 million in loans in Oregon and Alaska to community- based fisheries. The trust also helped launch a community Prevention vs. Recovery fisheries project in southeast Alaska — the Alaska Our team in Alaska — dedicated to preventing the fate of Sustainable Fisheries Trust. the lower 48 from reaching the great Copper River basin — launched a big-lever strategy for habitat conservation State of the Salmon (SOS) using the power of water reservations (rights). Our SOS team released research on sockeye salmon of the Organizations involved in the discussion included federal North Pacific; the result was the first international “red and state agencies, Alaska Native tribes, tribal nonprofits, listing” protection for salmonids. State of the Salmon also Alaska Native corporations, and Copper River stakeholders. launched three projects with state and provincial agencies to create more public understanding about salmon Community-Based Restoration populations in Alaska, British Columbia and Oregon. B.C.’s Skeena River is one of the world’s great ecosystem restoration opportunities. We worked with the Skeena Watershed Commission and published Skeena River Fish and Their Habitat, the first comprehensive description of salmon stock and habitats for the entire Skeena watershed. ECOTRUST >> 10 FORESTRY Ecotrust Forestry seeks to develop and shape new New Technology for Forest Management markets – primarily around carbon, biodiversity and We launched our Forest Carbon Toolkit, which helps tribal water – and practices forestry in a way that balances and Forest Stewardship Council-certified landowners, L REPORT restoration and job creation. among others, better understand the quantity and A potential value of the carbon stored in their forests. Creating Carbon Markets We joined the Western Climate Initiative discussion, where Informing and Inspiring seven U.S. states and four Canadian provinces are working We co-published Redefining Stewardship: Public Lands and to build the largest regional carbon cap-and-trade system Rural Communities in the Pacific Northwest, a booklet that 2008 ANNU in North America. We also worked to create protocols for promotes community-based stewardship projects that voluntary forest carbon markets. create long-term local jobs and restoration projects. Supporting Restoration We used $2 million in state and federal grants to fund 21 community-based watershed restoration projects where salmon recovery is likely. NATIVE Ecotrust Native programs support recognized native Cultural Engagement leaders and assist with community development, land We welcomed many of our region’s native leaders to repatriation and restoration initiatives. Ecotrust, and we joined them in their homes. We also supported and participated in cultural events throughout Tribal Development the region. We retooled our Ecotrust Award for Indigenous Leadership with an eye toward growing the network of native Technical Support leaders and creating new opportunities for local, regional, We provided service and consulting to tribes on and international impact. conservation real estate transactions, climate change science programs, and education and youth scholarship Forest and Watershed Consulting funding. We worked with the Yurok Tribe to assess a commercial forestland acquisition in the lower Klamath Basin. The effort is one of many that helped tribes assess market opportunities at the intersection of people, profit and planet. ECOTRUST >> 11 2008 Highlights KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS Ecotrust Knowledge Systems maintains a deep The Next Generation of Economics commitment to research while offering expertise in In order to change what is wrong with the economy, market assessment, policy analysis, and ecosystem we must change what is wrong with economics as it is management consulting. currently taught and practiced. Our Economics for Equity and the Environment (E3) network engaged economists Protecting Oceans and Communities to promote a vision of practical economics where the Through technology and consulting, we helped implement welfare of communities and the environment is considered more Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the North together, not apart. Central Coast region of California, and then we got to work in Southern California. The result: improved Technology & Web Innovation long-term viability for coastal communities, and more We received $50,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon protection for marine environments. Foundation for Open OceanMap, a marine mapping technology. Award judges such as Google’s Chief Internet Research Evangelist Vint Cerf said the technology has the potential Our team of analysts and researchers delivered a new to revolutionize marine planning as we know it. We also class of Web-enabled social learning tools that combine launched People and Place, which is part blog, part edited scientific rigor with social pragmatism. The goal: empower journal, and explores the big ideas that connect us all. communities with the latest in ecosystem management. THE BEST OF THE REST Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center Development We hosted more than 500 events for 83,000 people, and We set records for numbers of supporters and year-end 330,000 people visited our historic building. We took fundraising. Despite hard times, our supporters reached over part-time event management of the Center for deep in support of our mission. Architecture, and we worked with Walsh Construction to Communications apply Oregon tax credits toward a new PV (solar) system In 2008 we entered “Phase 2” of our communications on our roof. For our building and events staff, there was history. “Phase 1” was about honoring the hard work of the hardly a day of rest. people on the ground who were proving our concepts. Ecotrust Forest Management, Inc. Phase 2 is about sharing the results of that work with a Bettina von Hagen took the reins of our for-profit much broader national and international audience.