Our mission is to protect and restore our environment for generations to come.
The problem
Our modern way of life is unsustainable.
That’s it in a nutshell.
We take more from the planet than we can afford, increasingly degrading its ability to support us and millions of other species.
To be sustainable (as defined way back in 1987 by a United Nations International Commission), is to have development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. We’re not living like this. We’re not putting nature at the centre of decision making.
The Global Footprint Network estimates Earth’s Overshoot Day to be August 1st, and Australia’s to be April 5th in 2024!
This means that here in Australia we have overshot the environment’s ability to sustainably support us by April, so all of the resources we use for the rest of the year are like dipping into our planetary savings. If everyone lived liked us we would need 3.8 planets to sustain us and, for the record, we only have one.
Put differently, if Earth’s history was squeezed into one year, modern humans have existed for 37 minutes, and in the last 0.2 seconds we have used up 1/3 of the Earth’s natural resources
(The World Counts)
This might be all a bit conceptual so let’s add some more colour.
According to the WWF Living Planet Report, global wildlife populations fell by 73% on average between 1970 and 2020 and as reported by UN Trade & Development 90% of the world’s fish stocks are either fully fished or unsustainably over-exploited.
Shockingly, the picture here in Australia is worse. We have the highest extinction rate across all species of any developed country in the world as reported by WWF.
And then, looming large, there’s climate change…
Needless to say, we have to turn this around.
Enough is enough.
Globally, only 5% of all philanthropic funding goes to the planet
Read more about our Foundation Strategy
There’s a lot of talk about doing the right thing for the environment. A lot of thinking and planning is generated by government, business and others. There are targets and conferences, but still carbon emissions increase and nature is further degraded. We’ve known about our most pressing environmental issues since the 1960s but still we kick the can down the street. Put simply, the scale of the action being taken is dwarfed by the scale of the problem.
That’s why the GreenPay Foundation is focused on practical action today.
We do this in two ways:
By supporting charitable organisations who are taking practical steps to solve specific environmental issues today, and;
By investing in the most inspiring entrepreneurs building long-term solutions that solve challenges related to climate change, biodiversity loss, sustainable food production, material circularity and other pressing environmental concerns.
Our Advisory Board
These are the people tasked with ensuring that every Foundation dollar has the maximum impact it can have.
Rachel is the CEO of Bush Heritage Australia, an independent not-for-profit that buys and manages land, and partners with Aboriginal people to conserve our country.
Prior to joining Bush Heritage Australia, Rachel was the Chief Conservation Officer at WWF-Australia, was an Advisor to the Federal Government's Threatened Species Commissioner and was the Director of Wildlife Conservation and Science for Zoos Victoria.
In addition to advising numerous industry boards, Rachel is past President of the International Zoo Educators Association and former Chair of the Centre for Sustainability Leadership.
Rachel has developed award winning programs that have tackled conservation and sustainability issues both locally and globally, including the Don’t Palm Us Off campaign influencing the procurement and labelling of palm oil within Australia and abroad.
Rachel was awarded Sustainability Leader of the year by WME (2010) and was profiled in Melbourne’s Top 100 most influential people through The Age newspaper (2011). In 2016, the Australian Geographic Magazine listed Rachel amongst Australia’s Top 30 conservationists. In 2018 Rachel’s contribution to conservation and gender equity in the workplace was recognised when she was awarded a position on the Top 50 Women in the Victorian Public Service by the Institute of Public Administration Australia.
Distinguished Professor Michelle Leishman is an internationally recognised plant ecologist with expertise in plant invasion biology, climate change impacts and adaptation, plant conservation, and urban greening. She leads a research group in the School of Natural Sciences at Macquarie University and is Director of MQ’s Smart Green Cities Research Centre and the Australian Harmony Centre for Ecosystem Futures.
Michelle has played a critical role in understanding and managing threats from invasive plant species and pathogens that threaten iconic ecological communities in Australia. She has worked extensively with government and industry to facilitate climate change adaptation, with much of her research being translated to effective on-ground and policy advice for practitioners, land managers and government.
She is the recipient of the NSW Royal Society 2020 Clarke Medal – Botany, the NSW Premier’s Prize for Excellence in Biological Sciences, was named as the Journal of Ecology’s 2021 Eminent Ecologist, and is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW and the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.
She was previously a Trustee of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, a Director of Bush Heritage Australia and a member of the expert panel for the statutory review of the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act. She is currently a member of the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Advisory Panel and a Councillor of the Biodiversity Council Australia.
As the Head of Regenerative Country at WWF-Australia, Darren leads a significant component of the Conservation program, including the protection and restoration of forests in eastern Australia, improving the conservation status of wildlife in Australia and Asia-Pacific, supporting the aspirations of Indigenous and local communities to restore and regenerate nature, and advocating for an end to native forest logging in Australia.
WWF-Australia projects are delivered through partnerships with universities, government agencies, other environmental organisations, community groups, and by empowering Indigenous communities and ranger groups to play an active role in conservation actions.
Darren is an ecologist by trade and studied at the Queensland University of Technology and James Cook University. He has over 25 years' experience in wildlife conservation, environmental impact assessment, Indigenous education and land management, and the development of environmental and water policies.
Darren is most at home in the bush and is an avid birdwatcher and bushwalker.
Glenn is the CEO and Co-Founder of GreenPay, a payment processor that donates 50% of their profits to the planet.
Prior to founding GreenPay, Glenn established Alberts Impact Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund with a focus on investing in start-up companies solving environmental sustainability challenges, such as sustainable food and water, circular economy and the transition to a renewable energy future.
Concurrently Glenn was the founding Chief Marketing Officer at Amber Electric, a disruptive energy company unlocking the value of renewable energy for everyone, by enabling battery and EV owners to optimise the value of their assets.
Previously Glenn was a board member at the Centre for Sustainability Leadership, an organisation with a mission to get young people who care about a sustainable future into positions of influence to make positive change.
Earlier in his career Glenn consulted to Sustainability Victoria and was the Corporate Sustainability Manager at NAB, responsible for articulating the bank’s sustainability strategy and reporting.
Prior to 2007, Glenn’s ‘first career’ involved working for leading advertising agencies and global FMCG companies.
Glenn’s focus is now on delinking human progress with the destruction of our natural environment by harnessing the power of commerce for good.
