Nature’s Return on Investment
If nature is financed from private and institutional sources, how do investors get their capital back and obtain competitive market returns?
The reality is that nature has always generated substantial private returns. In Toronto, the most expensive real estate is located in the areas abundant with natural assets: Lawrence Park, High Park, Waterfront, Moore Park / Rosedale, Forrest Hill. Every smart real estate developer knows that a residential tower generates superior rates if the tenants walk to a beautiful, well maintained, safe park across the street. Same logic for office properties and retail plazas. Land developers’ entire business models ran on purchasing industrial land and then waiting for investment into nature to take place that makes the neighbourhood attractive and livable and leads to rezoning and density permits, making their land invaluable.
Ombrello Solutions set out 12 months ago on an investigative research with a goal to demonstrate the Hard Math behind nature’s return on investment from developers perspective. We focused on one of Canada’s most impressive and extensive projects for urban nature: Toronto PortLands. We asked one question: what does $1.5 billion in public investment unlocked in terms of private real estate value?
Here is the conclusion: nine property owners paid collectively $77mil for their lands. Today, subject to zoning change, these lands are worth $3.4billion. Once developed according to the submitted applications, their asset value becomes $13.5billion. In 2036 these properties will be worth $24.8 billion. That translates into 3,264% return for developers.
Research Brief # 1 substantiates our argument and demonstrates exactly how this value was generated.
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Canada needs to invest in nature as infrastructure
In spring 2026 Canada announced $25-billion Canada Strong Fund, designed to seed key infrastructure projects whose goal is to ensure prosperity and sovereignty for the future generations. Nature should be seen as part of the core infrastructure. From the capital allocation perspective, nature finance could be structured akin to traditional infrastructure investments: high upfront capital, and fixed returns over a long-term period. Equally, investing in Canada’s vast natural assets would attract global capital, which over long-term is looking for countries that have mitigated the cascading risks of biodiversity loss. This in turn would enhance the performance of the contemplated grey infrastructure projects, creating higher returns for all Canadians.
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Parks+
What if every neighbourhood in Canada has a Park that brings community together, preserves biodiversity and integrates nature solutions for climate resilience? In addition, what if those parks are owned by Community themselves so they could govern them as well as redistribute the financial gains these parks bring to all the private stakeholders? This is what Parks + proposes. It is an initial design proposal for Community Endowment Funds – new ownership and governance mechanisms for Parks+. It is also a blueprint what what Canadian urban parks could look like everywhere.
TMU Ecological Design Lab, and TMU Masters of Urban Development, which collectively produced this report for Ombrello Solutions.
Click here to download the Parks+ Report
Introduction to Civic Assets
Canadian cities are breaming with Civic Infrastructure. Every neighbourhood contains cherished civic assets that bring joy and value. But what are Civic Assets? What makes them unique and vital? This report provides exaplanations and showcases examples from around the world.