Stephen Nolan, executive co-ordinator Green IFSC, with Ciaran Kelly, CEO, Celestial Green Ventures, and Brendan Bruen, director of Financial Services Ireland and a member of the Green IFSC Steering Group
Celestial Green Ventures, a Dublin-based sustainable forestry development company, is preparing to create 30 new jobs, as a result of the global growth in green investments.
Ireland’s Green IFSC initiative has welcomed the news.
Celestial Green Ventures develops REDD+ forestry projects from which carbon offsets are produced and subsequently traded.
In 2010, the company listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. It has a paid-up share capital of €10.1m with an authorised share capital of €23.7m. Celestial Green Ventures is now also considering listing on the Enterprise Securities Market (ESM) of the Irish Stock Exchange.
Right now, Celestial Green Ventures has 17 project areas in and around the Amazonian region of Brazil. In total, this equates to around 20m hectares to which the company owns the carbon credit rights.
Jobs on way in 2012 and 2013
CEO Ciaran Kelly confirmed that Celestial Green Ventures will be starting its recruitment drive in April by visiting the universities that are running specialist energy finance courses.
He said Celestial Green Ventures is likely to recruit 10 new staff this year, with an additional 20 in 2013.
Celestial Green Ventures itself, which is based on Dublin’s St Stephen’s Green, already employs 15 people, eight of whom are based in Ireland, with the remaining seven operating from its offices in Spain, Malaysia and Brazil.
The Green IFSC said this afternoon that the company is one of a growing number of specialist sustainable finance companies operating from Ireland with a focus on ‘green’ investments.
Kelly said he has always been interested in sustainability from a business point of view.
“What we wanted to accomplish was to, firstly, quantify the value of a living forest; then, by putting in place mechanisms to measure the amount of carbon sequestered and structures that would avoid deforestation and degradation, protect its unique biodiversity,” he said.
Ireland – centre of financing global green economy
Kelly also spoke highly of the Green IFSC initiative, which is aiming to place Ireland right at the epicentre of financing the global green economy. The Green IFSC is also investing in third-level sustainability education.
“The reason we can expand our operations in Ireland and hire suitably qualified graduates is due to the Green IFSC initiative, which is ensuring that Ireland has the required quantity and quality of graduates to support the significant growth in green financial services,” he said.
Green finance education
Stephen Nolan, executive co-ordinator of the Green IFSC initiative, said Celestial Green Ventures is an excellent example of why it is so important for Ireland to be at the forefront of the development of educational programmes for green finance.
“Ensuring the skills and talent is here in Ireland will mean that, as this sector continues to grow rapidly, Ireland will be the obvious choice for green sustainable finance companies and asset managers to base their business,” explained Nolan.
He added that, in the past six months alone, the Green IFSC initiative, in partnership with Summit Finuas, had facilitated some €600,000 for specific environmental finance courses.
Courses here in Ireland targeting clean tech
Back in September, Dublin City University (DCU) announced Ireland’s first post-graduate course in sustainable finance. Then, in January, University College Dublin launched a master’s degree in energy and environmental finance. The Institute of Bankers has also created a new diploma in green energy management and finance.
The aim is to upskill people in green finance and also to target graduates who want to delve into the whole clean-tech area.
“That talent base we have across all those different sectors in the IFSC can be fully geared towards meeting the future demands of the green economy. We’re trying to supplement that talent base with specific green finance and carbon management education. What’s interesting is that these courses are driven by industry,” said Nolan.
