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Focus Areas

Nature

Healthy Planet, Healthy People

Inspired by Lyda Hill's lifelong respect for nature, we are committed to the inextricable link between human and planetary health. We support people, programs, and technologies making ecosystems more resilient. We champion bold solutions to protect our natural environment and scientific innovation and discovery to secure the future health of people and the planet.

Current Themes

A few of the themes we are exploring within the nature portfolio:

Revitalizing Water Ecosystems

Scaling freshwater solutions, including conservation, infrastructure development, and access to clean water.

Climate Resilience

Enhancing ecosystem resilience, implementing natural climate solutions, and reducing emissions, such as through methane leak reduction and wildfire resiliency.

Public Green Space

At community, city, state, and national levels, preserving and expanding park access to cultivate healthy and flourishing communities for the future.

Land Conservation

Protecting ecosystems, promoting biodiversity, and ensuring responsible landscape stewardship, primarily in Texas and Colorado.

Select Portfolio Examples

TOGETHER WE CAN DO MORE

A closer look at a few projects

Water Finance Exchange

Aging infrastructure and underinvestment in capital projects has led to a lack of safe drinking water and rapidly rising costs across communities. This crisis disproportionately impacts small, rural, and disadvantaged communities, which are often unable to access traditional sources of capital and support for sustainable water infrastructure solutions.
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The Nature Conservancy – Blue Bonds

In 2015, Lyda gave a catalytic grant to The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to support the world’s first debt conversion for marine conservation and climate change adaptation in Seychelles. TNC facilitated a $30 million debt swap with the Seychelles government to create a science-based ocean management plan for the nation.
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Prime Coalition

Climate change will significantly impact our lives, from living conditions to food production. While entrepreneurs are pioneering new solutions to address the climate crisis, the capital available for early stage companies isn’t always the right fit. For example, many venture investors hesitate to fund technologies that will take many years to test and scale.
Read more

Palmer Land Conservancy

Water scarcity is one of the most pressing public health, economic, and community issues of our time in the Western United States. The traditional approach to finding water for growing cities has been through municipal “buy-and-dry” purchases of agricultural water rights, which have detrimental outcomes to the people and rural communities left in the wake of these purchases.
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Salo Sciences – Mountain West Forest Observatory

To power scalable solutions for wildfire and climate change, we need comprehensive & current data on our forests that are not currently available. The Forest Observatory is a high-resolution forest monitoring system that measures and tracks drivers of wildfires across the entire western United States. The platform offers detailed, cutting-edge maps of forest structure, fuel loads, tree height, canopy cover, wildfire probability, and predicted wildfire intensity across the region.
Read more

Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) – Methane / MiQ

Oil and gas make up over 20 billion tons (Gt) of life-cycle emissions each year, which is over half of human-made emissions. The oil and gas sector accounts for 25% of methane emissions worldwide and offers the best opportunities for near-term emissions reductions. Most operators have insufficient climate intelligence or motivation to rapidly cut their emissions. As a result, responsible oil and gas operators are not duly recognized or rewarded, while poor performers with irresponsible emissions are not disincentivized.
Read more

The Water Foundation – Texas Wellspring Fund

Texas is facing compounding threats to a resilient water future in the state, including a booming and urbanizing population, historically severe and frequent drought and flooding, ongoing water quality and infrastructure challenges, and the exacerbating impacts of climate change. Decades of underinvestment in water infrastructure have led to increasing line breaks and boil water notices, with more than a million Texans lacking access to clean, safe drinking water.
Read more

Water Finance Exchange

Nature

Aging infrastructure and underinvestment in capital projects has led to a lack of safe drinking water and rapidly rising costs across communities. This crisis disproportionately impacts small, rural, and disadvantaged communities, which are often unable to access traditional sources of capital and support for sustainable water infrastructure solutions.

Intervention

Lyda Hill Philanthropies provided seed funding to enable the launch of the Water Finance Exchange (“WFX”), an organization that seeks to ensure that neutral, third-party expertise is available to small and underserved communities in need of ground up water solutions. WFX works alongside communities to reach sustainable water solutions, add administrative capacity to access available funding and national expertise, and remove roadblocks that prevent projects from launching.

Impact

Since WFX launched, they have worked across multiple states and multiple communities to provide technical assistance and financial planning assistance. Presidio County was one of WFX’s first clients and sought to implement a regional water and wastewater infrastructure strategy. WFX organized a capital plan with input from a steering committee representing all county regions. This regional collaboration received preliminary funding of $12.6 million from the Texas Water Development Board. These regional solutions allow for efficient and cost-effective centralized management of decentralized facilities.

Impact Factors
  • Systems Change
  • Catalytic
  • Collaborative
  • Scalable

Learn more about Water Finance Exchange




The Nature Conservancy – Blue Bonds

Nature

In 2015, Lyda gave a catalytic grant to The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to support the world’s first debt conversion for marine conservation and climate change adaptation in Seychelles. TNC facilitated a $30 million debt swap with the Seychelles government to create a science-based ocean management plan for the nation.

Intervention

The Seychelles agreed to designate 30% of its 100-million-acre exclusive economic zone as new marine protection areas. TNC helped to establish the Seychelles Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust (SeyCCAT) as an independent, public-private trust fund to manage the debt swap.

Impact

Catalyzed by the success of the first ever Blue Bond in the Seychelles, TNC launched its Blue Bond initiative on the TED Audacious Project stage. Philanthropists, including Lyda Hill Philanthropies, raised $38.5M to help 20 countries restructure their national debt, place 30% (up from 0.04%) of their oceans under permanent protection, as Seychelles demonstrated, and ensure benefit to the local populations through tourism, fisheries, and other sustainable activities. The success of this project has unlocked $1 billion for future conservation, climate resilience, and sustainable development across TNC Nature Bonds projects in Belize, Barbados, Gabon, The Bahamas, and Ecuador. By protecting reefs and fish populations, the project strengthens the fishing and tourism industries, which together employ 45% of the Seychelles workforce. 

Impact Factors
  • Systems Change
  • Catalytic
  • Transformative
  • Enabling Public Investment
  • Scalable

Learn more about The Nature Conservancy




Prime Coalition

Nature

Climate change will significantly impact our lives, from living conditions to food production. While entrepreneurs are pioneering new solutions to address the climate crisis, the capital available for early stage companies isn’t always the right fit. For example, many venture investors hesitate to fund technologies that will take many years to test and scale.

Intervention

Prime Coalition was established to bridge these financing gaps and mis-fits. In 2018, Prime Coalition created the Prime Impact Fund to deploy 100% catalytic capital—investment capital that is patient, risk-tolerant, and flexible—to invest in climate relevant, technology-based solutions. Lyda Hill Philanthropies was an early investor in the $50M fund and has worked closely with their team through supporting their general operations and being part of their Early Climate Infrastructure Funder Group.

Impact

In Q4 2021, Prime Impact Fund made its 16th and final investment and now actively manages a full portfolio of companies across a wide variety of sectors, each with significant gigaton-scale emissions reduction potential.

Impact Factors
  • Systems Change
  • Collaborative
  • Scalable

Learn more about Prime Coalition




Palmer Land Conservancy

Nature

Water scarcity is one of the most pressing public health, economic, and community issues of our time in the Western United States. The traditional approach to finding water for growing cities has been through municipal “buy-and-dry” purchases of agricultural water rights, which have detrimental outcomes to the people and rural communities left in the wake of these purchases.

Intervention

Catalyst seed funding by Lyda Hill Philanthropies in Palmer Land Conservancy’s Bessemer Farmland Conservation Project in Pueblo County, Colorado, will support the development of a new model for water-sharing solutions and agricultural conservation – one that optimizes the use of limited water resources, allows for municipal growth, and safeguards Pueblo’s agricultural culture and economy. Ultimately, the tools and solutions developed through the project may be replicated in other communities throughout the water-scarce American West.

Impact

The project is on track to maintain 2,000 acres of Pueblo County’s best production land that is set to fallow as a result of Pueblo Water’s acquisition of water rights. The project is establishing a voluntary water exchange framework using market-based mechanisms to facilitate the exchange of water from less productive farmland to critical production areas. Less productive ground will then be responsibly restored to achieve positive environmental outcomes that will restore riparian corridors and enhance water quality.

Impact Factors
  • Catalytic
  • Transformative
  • Collaborative
  • Systems Change

Learn more about Palmer Land Conservancy 




Salo Sciences – Mountain West Forest Observatory

Nature

To power scalable solutions for wildfire and climate change, we need comprehensive & current data on our forests that are not currently available. The Forest Observatory is a high-resolution forest monitoring system that measures and tracks drivers of wildfires across the entire western United States. The platform offers detailed, cutting-edge maps of forest structure, fuel loads, tree height, canopy cover, wildfire probability, and predicted wildfire intensity across the region.

Intervention

Lyda Hill Philanthropies believed there was a need to expand the Forest Observatory platform to the rest of the Mountain West region and provide seed funding to create a free public good tool that will support the wildfire work across industries.

Impact

To grow the platform, Lyda Hill Philanthropies convened a group of Colorado funders to raise the remaining funds needed to implement the full scope of the project, mapping across the entire Mountain West region and the addition of new data and insights, such as future-focused ecological data. In 2023, Planet Labs acquired Salo Sciences, which will grow the platform as a tool for good.

Impact Factors
  • Catalytic
  • Others Can’t or Won’t

Learn more about SALO Sciences




Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) – Methane / MiQ

Nature

Oil and gas make up over 20 billion tons (Gt) of life-cycle emissions each year, which is over half of human-made emissions. The oil and gas sector accounts for 25% of methane emissions worldwide and offers the best opportunities for near-term emissions reductions. Most operators have insufficient climate intelligence or motivation to rapidly cut their emissions. As a result, responsible oil and gas operators are not duly recognized or rewarded, while poor performers with irresponsible emissions are not disincentivized.

Intervention

Lyda Hill Philanthropies provided a seed grant to RMI to launch their Texas Methane Leak Elimination project, seeking to accelerate the transition to a low-leakage, climate-responsible natural gas supply chain. Cementing awareness and commitment to action by the Texas oil and gas industry, RMI is working with industry to establish the global standard for industry protocols and rules that define low-emissions gas.

Impact

RMI built the first-of-its-kind Climate Action Engine (CAE) that contains and visualizes all oil and gas records in Texas, emissions records, and satellite and flyover data. The platform informs operators, buyers, regulators, and investors on the state of flaring in the Permian. Additionally, RMI publicly launched their nonprofit spin-out MiQ, which is providing a first-of-its-kind, open-source, voluntary differentiated gas production standards for the entire supply chain. MiQ is now certifying 20% of US production – equivalent to 1,000 LNG cargoes – and major producers are scaling their involvement in certification.

Impact Factors
  • Catalytic
  • Evidence-based and Actionable Data
  • Systemic Change
  • Others Can’t or Won’t

Learn more about RMI – Methane/MiQ




The Water Foundation – Texas Wellspring Fund

Nature

Texas is facing compounding threats to a resilient water future in the state, including a booming and urbanizing population, historically severe and frequent drought and flooding, ongoing water quality and infrastructure challenges, and the exacerbating impacts of climate change. Decades of underinvestment in water infrastructure have led to increasing line breaks and boil water notices, with more than a million Texans lacking access to clean, safe drinking water.

Intervention

To address these challenges, the Lyda Hill Philanthropies team worked with the Water Foundation and the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation to create the Texas Wellspring Fund, a pooled philanthropic fund to support a resilient water future in Texas, so that both communities and nature can thrive.

Impact

As a funder collaborative with large and small, local and national funders contributing, Wellspring offers a landscape view and provides connective tissue across philanthropic and nonprofit strategies. Done well, this becomes a ‘virtuous cycle’ that both expands collaboration among funders supporting work in Texas and yields greater efficiencies, accelerating the adoption of vital water solutions led by grantees.

Impact Factors
  • Others Can’t or Won’t
  • Catalytic
  • Collaborative

Learn more about The Water Foundation- Texas Wellspring Fund