The Earth Partners LPBrodhead, Wisconsin, United States

The Earth Partners LP grew out of a partnership with Brinkman & Associates Reforestation, a leading Canadian silviculture and forest management company, and Applied Ecological Services, a leading US-based ecological restoration company. Over the years, the company has built a team with unique expertise and experience across the development cycle (fiber, design, finance, own & operate) in order to execute large-scale land restoration and bioenergy projects:

Project development, delivery, & operations

Plant design & engineering – Experience originating, designing, optimizing, and operating multiple biomass, biofuel, and densified fuel plants. Our ability to value-engineer conventional approaches allows more cost-effective and rapid project deployment with improved uptime and safety performance.
Project & construction management – Experience managing renewable energy construction projects beginning-to-end, demonstrating safe and timely project delivery.
Contract negotiation & administration – Experience negotiating and managing numerous off-takes and partnership agreements with large energy and industrial counterparties, as well as over $750 million in engineering, vendor, and construction contracts.
Project finance and acquisitions – Experience structuring and financing over $30 billion in transactions, including large-scale renewable energy projects and tax-exempt infrastructure.

Feedstock, fiber, & logistics

Fiber assessment – Experience assessing fiber inventories and creating risk-adjusted portfolio procurement strategy including secure vs. at-risk supplies, indexation regimes, mixed duration contract terms, pulp wood vs. residual sourcing, assessments of current and potential competitive forces, and stand classifications (i.e., age, soil, ownership)
Logistics optimization – Economic and GIS modeling around transport and logistics, including network analysis to calculate drive-time radii to optimize the site location based on transportation costs for feedstock relative to transport costs from the plant to the port
Contractor management – Experience assessing and managing multiple forest-based contractors including harvesting, replanting, and hauling counterparties
Partner company support – Ability to leverage the experience of Brinkman & Associates, a demonstrated leader in forest management for several decades, managing fiber operations of over 500,000 tonnes per year on over one million hectares.

The Earth Partners LP is a land management and bioenergy company developing next-generation projects to restore marginal and degraded lands. Our unique “land and fiber” approach finds hidden value and risk mitigation opportunities in feedstock procurement for bioenergy projects—an approach the company has termed conservation biomass. The company works across diverse ecosystems, including degraded rangelands and grasslands, diseased forests, and improved management of plantation forests. The Earth Partners LP aims to become a major global feedstock and bioenergy producer, enabling some of the largest privately-funded land restoration projects in the world.

Key information about the company:

Two operating, revenue-generating businesses, and assets and projects under development in 5 states
Rapidly growing and expanding, 30+ employees and 4 regional offices
Experience across the bioenergy development cycle (fiber, design, finance, own & operate), including expertise in GIS mapping & land screening, procurement, harvesting & chipping, pelleting engineering & operations, project financing and structuring, and sustainability and ecology
Operating partnership with two established companies, Brinkman & Associates and Applied Ecological Services, that provide technical expertise and operational support
Nearly one million acres of land under long-term contract
Long-term investor group, Vision Ridge Partners, with interest in and capacity for funding The Earth Partners LP’s projects
Strong policy capability with on-going affiliations with government, NGOs, and local communities

Conservation Biomass

The Earth Partners LP’s primary business model for financing the restoration of degraded and marginal lands is called conservation biomass (see factsheet for more information). Land degradation is a severe, widespread, and growing global challenge. By some estimates over a quarter of land worldwide has become degraded, including loss of topsoil and soil nutrients, loss of wildlife habitat and biodiversity, and impairment of important ecosystem functions and ability to support agriculture. In a world where the population will grow to 9 billion by 2050 and demand for sustainable food, bioenergy, and recreation is increasing rapidly, hundreds of millions of acres will be needed globally for food and energy production.

Large-scale, market-driven solutions to restoring and maintaining land health are needed. The Earth Partners LP has developed a first-of-its kind business model for restoring degraded and marginal land called conservation biomass, producing non-food biomass in ways that generate tangible land restoration benefits, including:

Improved soil quality and health
Reduced soil erosion
Improved plant and wildlife diversity
Improved water quality and infiltration
Reduced wildfire risks
Improved soil carbon sequestration potential (see TEP-developed VCS soil carbon methodology)
Enhanced value for landowners
The Earth Partners is implementing its conservation biomass program in several ecosystems:

Management of woody, invasive brush in Southwestern rangelands, with a focus in New Mexico and Texas.
Establishment of native perennial grasses on marginal lands in the historical coastal prairie region of the Gulf Coast, with a focus on Louisiana.
Forest management of mountain pine beetle infested lands in the Western US.