Sustainable Investing
By definition, Impact Investing, a subset of Socially Responsible Investing (SRI), is a venue that has a measurable and positive impact on environment and society but also generates compelling operational economic returns. Impact Investing is devoted to the conscious creation of social impact through investment. This is the essence of what SynSel represents.
The more common and much broader sustainable investment niche is called Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) - also referred to as Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG). This refers to the three central factors in measuring the sustainability of an investment in a company or business. Some SRI investors specifically avoid investments in alcohol, tobacco, weapons, fast foods, nuclear power, gambling and fossil fuels and other categories. The avoided sectors are discretionary and identified by the specific fund. In general, socially responsible investors encourage corporate practices that promote environmental stewardship, consumer protection, human rights, and diversity.
Environment: Each biorefinery is the means to combat climate change with up to a 95% reduction in greenhouse gases by displacing fossil fuels with renewable second-generation drop-in fuels while producing organic soil amendments as a byproduct. The supporting Environ Industrial Parks (EIP) provide an eco-friendly way to deal with data storage, agricultural needs via greenhouses and aquatic farming, alternative transportation fuels and waste mitigation with anaerobic digesters, heating and cooling with geothermal while creating electricity with waste heat, solar and electric.
Society: Each biorefinery creates jobs and stimulates the local economy, promotes energy security, sponsors fire and natural disasters resiliency, provides responsible alternatives to EVs, fosters community resilience and encourages the advancement of science and education. The supporting EIPs further facilitates community resiliency with on-site data storage, self-sustaining/on-site energy generation, growing agricultural food and fish and waste mitigation. Society benefits from stable versus “boom and bust” jobs associated with mining and commodities. Job and culture diversity is supported by the mix of white collar jobs along with farming, operating, maintenance, high-tech and supporting service jobs.
Current annual worldwide production of Second-Generation Biofuel (SGB-Fuel) is 1 billion liters, and demand continues to grow for this fuel. To meet the estimate demand in 2030, production must increase to 136 billion liters per year. Currently there are two plants producing SGB-Fuel in the US, and another nine across the world. To meet the increasing worldwide demand using just SynSel plants, 64 new SynSel plants need to be built per year through 2030.
Investment in Second-Generation biorefineries are a resilient and lucrative alternative to EVs, wind and solar for the Impact Investor. SGB-Fuels sell on the commodity markets to the highest bidder, while wind and solar sell electricity back to utility companies where the value is often set by the utility companies.
SynSel has opportunities for:
Property owners with property suited for a SynSel plant
Timberland owners & wood harvesters
Passionate local stakeholders with connections to the wood harvesting industry or project management
Fuel off-takes, refiners and blenders requiring blending stock to meet EPA RFS-2 RIN mandates
GFA Sponsors: impact investors and low-risk investors
SynSel has successfully achieved pre-construction and construction funding for all plants from a private lender in February 2017. A Good Faith Account (GFA) owner must be established for each plant to initiate the loan and facilitate the $300MM transfer of funds to SynSel to commence pre-construction and construction activities.
GFA Funding
SynSel’s business partner and financier has reserved funding for 100 bio-refineries in the US and Canada. To release the construction loan, a 25% project deposit fund is required. This project deposit fund is called a Good Faith Account (GFA). It is a fully-protected controlled transfer of funds that earns a better-than-market return.
The purpose of the GFA is not economical: it has no financial recourse on the project by means of lowering debt service, nor does it serve to share project funding risk with the GFA investor. The GFA is not collateral and no party has any recourse to the GFA except the GFA owner. Instead, the purpose of the GFA is to provide a means to finance a project with a limited commercial track record and to reduce the vetting process to capable developers (those capable of achieving the 25% GFA).
Targeted participants in SynSel GFAs include: pension funds, family offices, endowments, and special interest funds. These participants seek minimal-to-no risk investments that offer better-than-market returns.
A funded GFA unlocks the benefits of the Impact Investment: improved energy security, climate change stewardship, job creation, economic stimulation, community resiliency, and advancement of science and education.
Please contact us to learn more about GFA opportunities:
