Boulder, CO, December 2023 – Virridy, a global leader in innovative environmental and public health solutions, has received a $500,000 multi-year grant from the Walton Family Foundation to advance transformative watershed management programs by researching the potential for carbon finance innovations in the Mississippi River Basin.
"This initiative represents a major step forward for integrating carbon finance into watershed restoration," said Alex Johnson, Virridy's Chief Strategy Officer. "This should be catalytic for environmental resilience and climate change mitigation efforts here in the US, especially those focused on regional water quality issues."
Virridy is set to initiate a comprehensive pilot project to help scale conservation activities that address critical water quality challenges in the Mississippi River Basin. Virridy plans to demonstrate how funding from the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) can be accessed to redirect planned investments from 'gray infrastructure' improvements over to 'green infrastructure' conservation practices that have demonstrable water quality benefits.
Central to this initiative is a series of collaborative engagements and outreach efforts that will build the capacity of regional watershed leaders to use carbon finance in scaling and accelerating watershed restoration.
Multiyear funding will allow Virridy to initiate several local pilot programs within the Mississippi River Basin. These pilots are designed to test and demonstrate the application and effectiveness of carbon-catalyzed watershed restoration in improving water quality and regional resiliency.
"This initiative will not only demonstrate a new tool for scaling watershed management programs, it exemplifies how economic incentives can be aligned with environmental goals," said Johnson.
About the Walton Family Foundation
The Walton Family Foundation is, at its core, a family-led foundation. Three generations of the descendants of founders Sam and Helen Walton work together to lead the foundation and create access to opportunity for people and communities. They work in three areas: improving K-12 education, protecting rivers and oceans and the communities they support, and investing in their home region of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta. Learn more at waltonfamilyfoundation.org.