Our Story
Origin
Where it all began
Eco-Markets Australia’s origins began with the development of Reef Credits.
In 2017, Reef Credits were developed as a market mechanism to attract greater investment into nature repair and incentivise landowners to improve water quality across Great Barrier Reef catchments. The scheme laid the foundations for Eco-Markets Australia and the environmental markets it administers today.
The journey
Independence built into our structure
Structural independence was established to bring rigour and trust to environmental market administration.
Beginning with an independent steering committee, Eco-Markets Australia was formally established with an independent Board and governance structure to administer the Reef Credit scheme. Since then, we have continued to strengthen our governance and market infrastructure to support growing participation and the development of new environmental markets.
The transition
Scaling markets for what comes next
As environmental markets mature, the infrastructure supporting them needs to evolve too.
Eco-Markets Australia is entering its next stage, evolving from pilot-scale nature credit markets towards a broader voluntary environmental markets platform. With world-class market infrastructure and integrated Water Quality and Biodiversity Standards, we’re building the foundations to support growing participation and emerging environmental markets.
In five years the company aims to be fully self-financing from market services with expanded environmental markets Internationally. High quality nature repair projects will be valued with a suite of ENVOMARK assured credits covering water quality, biodiversity uplift, carbon abatement and resource use efficiency. ENVOMARK Care for Country credits will provide new financial incentives and independence for cultural benefits to First Nations peoples.