About

Mission:

Our mission is to accelerate the growth and sustainable development of the clean / circular / sustainable economy through collaboration, collecting and disseminating knowledge of best practices, building the sector’s private investment capacity and profitability, education and facilitation along the value chain.

Resources | Education | Community

Resources – RIF partners with a private family office investor through In3 Capital Partners to provide access to highly advantageous project capital focused primarily on renewables.  In addition, we work with asset managers and gatekeepers of various forms of debt and equity project finance, tax credits/equities, bridge lenders, development finance institutions (US DFC, WB Group’s IFC or regional development banks) as well as other, alternative, non-bank financing.  Start here

Education – RIF co-founder Daniel Robin is a former adjunct professor and management consultant, taking pride in making sure all stakeholders have the tools and knowledge they need to succeed.  RIF regularly co-hosts events geared toward career advancement, skill-building opportunities, and sharing industry best practices.  More

Community – “We succeed together or not at all.” Some highly effective professionals are admittedly an “acquired taste” (take some getting used to), but we strongly believe that the mission of solving major sustainability problems must outweigh the petty differences we sometimes encounter along the way, especially when they’re born of ideologies, religious beliefs, cultural, racial or ethnic differences, political biases, or other prejudices.  Our common values and priorities (human needs like peace, abundance & fairness, communication & learning, science/reason, humility, risk-taking, integrity/honesty, fun/laughter/enjoyment …) are just too important to let any surface-level personalities get in the way.

Strategy:  RIF enables its community members to make innovate, collaborate, and share best practices for investing and prospering in the circular and sustainable economy, and to influence others to do the same via face-to-face meetings, virtual meetings (post-COVID norm), roundtable discussions, innovation and investment forums, alternative investment structures and vehicles (across an ever-evolving ecosystem built around filling gaps or solving real-world issues for companies seeking to gain access to funding resources, challenges with reaching scale without bypassing necessary due diligence, dealing with solving the risk/reward conundrum with greenfield projects, and many others. We bring together impact investors and developers and other stakeholders to deepen their collective impact.

Who do we serve?  We provide private investors, accelerators, entrepreneurs and impact communities with access to capital partners/dealflow, attractive debt instruments (asset-backed, mezzanine, bridge, etc.), training, events and advisory services that build investments and business models delivering measurable double- and triple-bottom-line returns.

1. Sector Focus
   1. Renewable Energy & Materials:  solar, wind, small hydro, and geothermal; renewable fuels (renewable or biodiesel and ethanol, A-1 Jet fuel, gasoline, etc.); waste conversion (pyrolysis and gasification, methane capture/biogas via anaerobic digestion; combined heat and power (CHP), process heat, waste-to-value (biomaterials, biochar, recovered carbon black, biopolymers, or green chemicals); food processing and botanical extracts; marine-related solutions such wave and tidal power
   2. Renewable Resources, such as water-related solutions including municipal water, water filtration/purification.
   3. Energy storage and efficiency such as battery energy storage solutions (BESS) or LED lighting-as-a-service.
   4. Regenerative Agriculture — from grass-fed cattle to ecorestoration, few other strategies manage to not just reduce carbon emissions but actually sequester more carbon than they generate through practices like no-till agriculture, managed grazing, and “climate-smart” water use.
      

      Note that some projects use a “biorefinery” approach combining food, energy, water, and materials.  Together, these “renewables” help us diversify feedstocks, decreasing dependence on fossil petroleum, reducing carbon displacement, preparing a clean energy future and heading toward climate change mitigation or even reversal.

2. Project Finance:  Reviewing and developing investments in specific projects, in contrast to investments in technology ventures or startup technology companies.* (see note, below)
3. Learning Opportunities/Workshops:  How to structure and pitch deals, how to originate and de-risk projects, innovation case studies, understanding renewables markets and their drivers, contracts and incentives (such as power purchase agreements or feed-in tariffs), key financial metrics for equity vs. debt financing, industry-standards for ratios & net margins, sample termsheets, pitch practice (such as dealing with diverse investor questions), and more.
4. Structuring Transactions:  Developing renewables project investment criteria and deal structures, such as senior or subordinated debt, revenue contracts, joint venture partnerships, public-private partnerships, lease structures, and in developing and emerging markets, these structures are often combined with various types of insurance (e.g., performance wraps, or political risk insurance) and loan guarantees.

* What’s the difference between venture and project finance?  Fundamentally, most projects use proven technologies, a separate Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), and funds are used primarily for the project’s tangible assets, not labor or other forms of working capital.
Read technical article on this, our original RE project finance whitepaper (PDF) or see current investment criteria for further background and assumptions.

We invite you to attend one of our events. For more information, contact us.