The Bright Green Paper

1. A letter from Sarah McCrum

Integrity Earth’s purpose is to unlock the mutual exchange of value for those who restore balance in our relationship with nature. We do that by rewarding farmers for regenerating nature.

I believe the people best placed to change the story of humanity are the people who produce our food. They have their hands in the soil, and every day they make decisions that either deplete or restore the living systems we all depend on.

When a farmer chooses regeneration, and keeps choosing it season after season, the results build on each other in ways science is only beginning to measure. Bright Greens are a way of recognising that work, and of paying the farmers who do it.

Every Bright Green is a statement: that nature has value, that farmers can be paid for restoring it, and that a different kind of economy, one that values wellbeing, is already being built.

This paper explains, as plainly as we can, what a Bright Green is, where your money goes, and what the risks are. If this matters to you, we invite you to take part.

With appreciation,

Sarah McCrum, Executive Chair, Integrity Earth

2. Living Value

When you walk across a regenerative farm and let the farmer show you what she or he considers significant there, the aliveness of the place is tangible. There is a sense of a place loved and cared for deeply, managed with energy, attention and responsibility, not only for the present but for future generations and for the wellbeing of the landscapes and the people who live on them. Everybody who has this experience is touched by it, because as human beings we recognise aliveness as true wellbeing. It acts as a signal of what matters.

The extraordinary thing is that whilst even a hardened city dweller will feel this after a few hours on a farm, our economy has remained largely blind to something that matters profoundly to all life on this planet.

When farmers make the decision to start regenerating nature, rather than extracting from it without heed to future cost, a relationship develops between them and the land and all the elements of that land: the animals, the plants, the microorganisms. Those farmers listen to nature the way new parents listen to their baby. They know that the way they manage their land has the power to transform the way we grow our food, how we interact with the landscapes we depend on, and ultimately how we live on this planet.

Integrity Earth was founded to bring this kind of care and responsibility into economic life, so that the extraordinary contribution these farmers make to all of us can be recognised and rewarded in ways that attract other farmers and the next generation into agriculture: the industry that manages more land on this planet than any other, and therefore holds the greatest potential to influence the aliveness and wellbeing of that land.

Making the invisible visible

This requires new infrastructure, because the economic systems through which value is recognised and exchanged have not yet been designed to see it. Throughout history, periods of profound economic change have emerged when societies developed new ways of recognising, measuring and exchanging value that had previously existed but remained largely invisible. The Industrial Revolution, modern financial markets and the Information Age each did this in their own way. In each case, the breakthrough was not the value itself. It was the infrastructure capable of making that value visible, trustworthy and exchangeable.

What we mean by Living Value

To make the growing wellbeing of ecosystems visible, with care and responsibility built in, we need to give a name to something that does not yet exist within our economic systems. We call it Living Value.

We will never be able to put a dollar value on the true contribution of natural systems to human life. That would be like trying to put a price on a human being. But we can recognise the value of nature to all of us, and we can create a system that rewards good management of the most fundamental asset on this planet.

Ecosystems are alive, dynamic and subject to conditions beyond the control of farmers: climate, weather, disasters, global markets. Living Value is the outcome of managing an ecosystem to increase its vitality and productivity. It is not a snapshot. It is a direction. A one-off ecological assessment tells you where something stands today. Living Value shows you where it is going. Farm production prices may fall; ecological improvement can keep going.

Once Living Value can be measured, and its direction observed through ongoing attention to what is happening on the ground, it can be recognised in what we call Living Assets. These may take many forms: biodiversity, reef and water credits, and forms that have not yet been developed. Bright Greens are among the first.

What matters is that everyone involved, from the farmers who create Living Value to the people and organisations who choose to participate in it, can trust that the value is real, alive and well managed. Trust requires infrastructure.

3. What a Bright Green is, and what it isn’t

A record of work already done

A Bright Green is a digital token that carries a permanent record of ecological improvement on a farm: rebuilt soil, returning native species, better water cycles and greater biodiversity. It records work that has already been done and assessed. It does not depend on anything happening in the future.

How tokens are measured

Bright Greens are measured in hectare-years: one hectare of land under regenerative management for one year. Each Bright Green represents one tenth of a hectare-year, so ten Bright Greens represent one hectare-year.

The Bright Greens on sale now were first issued under an earlier evaluation system, called PIE, which measured ecological improvement in PIE Points. PIE Points are not the same as hectare-years. We are now re-evaluating these producers under our new system, which measures in hectare-years. Section 10 explains how the two fit together.

What a Bright Green is not

• Not an investment or financial product. You should not buy Bright Greens expecting a profit, an income or a higher resale price.
• Not a carbon credit. A Bright Green is not a carbon credit, a carbon offset or an ACCU. You can’t use it to offset emissions or to make carbon-neutral claims. Bright Greens recognise biodiversity and other ecological improvements, not carbon.
• No rights over land. A Bright Green gives you no rights at all over any farm or property.
• No share in Integrity Earth. It gives you no ownership of, or vote in, Integrity Earth, and no right to any payment from us or from producers.

4. Case study: Moora Plains

Andrew and Meagan Lawrie have farmed Moora Plains for more than 25 years. What they have built is the result of one decision applied consistently across the whole property: rotational recovery grazing, no chemical intervention, steady reduction of inputs, and rest periods long enough for native grasses to rebuild root systems and seed banks.

The results are visible from satellite, measurable in the soil, and documented in the return of species not recorded on this country for decades.

Moora Plains at a glance

Location

Fitzroy Basin, Central Queensland

Area

Approximately 3,442 hectares under regenerative management

Enterprise

Cattle trading

In practice since

2000 (more than 25 years)

Signal Set score

71 / 100, Tier 2 (Enhanced)

Signal trend

All signals improving or holding; none declining

Scores by story

What’s happening on the land

Nature recovering. Native grasses, habitat corridors, waterway fencing, and indicator species including raptors and frogs. A 2020 Queensland Trust for Nature survey set a baseline ecosystem condition score of 47/100 for the restoration zone, projected to reach 77/100 with planned works such as koala and greater glider corridors, gilgai and wetland rehabilitation, and native planting. Two EPBC-listed Vulnerable species are present and being actively managed for: Dichanthium setosum, a grass listed as Vulnerable under the EPBC Act 1999, and the Ornamental Snake, also listed as Vulnerable.

System compounding. Ground cover held through the 2019 drought, the driest year since about 1965. Maia platform data shows 299mm of rolling rainfall that year, recovery periods extended to 116 days and a yield floor of 81 SDH. By 2023, yields had recovered to 159 SDH, the peak for the decade. The 2026 flood is being documented as it happens.

Living economy. No synthetic nitrogen. Tick pour-on chemical reduced to under 10% of former use. Two bulldozers on the property in 2000 have not been used in many years. Invasive species management remains an area of attention.

Trust and capability. Ten years of digital records on the Maia grazing platform, rainfall records from about 1965, and long-running photo monitoring points. Succession to the next generation is under way.

The evidence behind the scores

This is the first Signal Set assessment of Moora Plains, and the method will keep improving. Future assessments will show whether signals are improving, holding or declining, and why. The full scorecard is in Appendix A.

5. Where your money goes

For every sale, we pay 72.5% of the net proceeds to the producers in the pool. For the Bright Greens on sale now, this is shared equally among all participating producers. We do this by buying PIE Points from them. We hold the PIE Points we buy, and they will never be reused or turned into new tokens. The remaining 27.5% covers the cost of evaluation, the platform and its technology, and developing our evaluation method.

Net proceeds means the amount you pay, less the transaction costs of that sale, such as payment processing fees, currency conversion fees and any GST.

An example

This example is for illustration only. Actual transaction costs vary with how you pay and in what currency. If you buy in Australia, GST is added on top of the price; it goes to the tax office and is not part of the proceeds.

How producers use the money

Payments go into the farming business as payment for work already done. Producers may use them for further regenerative work, to support cash flow through the seasons, or to help with succession to the next generation. Because the payments aren’t tied to cattle or crop prices, they can help steady a farm’s income when commodity markets swing. How much any producer receives depends on how many Bright Greens are sold. Once every producer in the pool has been evaluated under our new system, we intend to share payments according to each producer’s evaluation scores rather than equally.

Producers are only paid when we sell Bright Greens. If you later sell or give your tokens to someone else, no producer receives anything from that.

6. Why nature’s value matters

Markets have learned to put a price on carbon, but carbon is only a small part of what healthy land provides. Clean water, fertile soil, pollination, habitat and resilience to drought and flood are largely unpriced.

Researchers have estimated what these “ecosystem services” from grasslands are worth to society each year:

The wider context

Recognition of nature’s value is growing. The Nature Repair Market Act 2023 set up Australia’s first legal framework for biodiversity certificates, and international frameworks such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) are bringing nature into business reporting.

7. What you receive

With every purchase

• Bright Green tokens delivered to your wallet.
• Membership of Bright Green Circles, our buyer community.
• Monthly updates as producers join the pool and new evaluations are completed.
• Invitations to monthly live conversations Sarah hosts with economists, ecologists and regenerative farming practitioners.

With purchases of 1,000 tokens (US$4,000) or more

• A dedicated conversation with Sarah and other members of the Integrity Earth team or leading practitioners about the topics you’re most curious about in regeneration, wellbeing and the economy.

These community benefits are offered at our discretion and may change. They are not rights attached to the tokens.

What you don’t receive

• Any right to income, profit, interest or a share of Integrity Earth’s earnings.
• Any right to have us buy back your tokens.
• Any ownership or control of the PIE NFT or PIE Certificate linked to your tokens.
• Any vote or say in how Integrity Earth or the pool is run.

8. The price, and how to buy

How the price is set

We set the price of Bright Greens. It is currently US$4.00 per token. We chose this price to put producers first and keep Bright Greens accessible. It is not a valuation of the ecological work or of the token.

We may change the price for future sales. A change in our price does not mean a Bright Green you already hold is worth more or less, and you may not be able to sell it at any price (see section 13).

If you pay in another currency, the website shows the current equivalent.

GST

For buyers in Australia, GST is added on top of the price. Buyers outside Australia don’t pay Australian GST.

How to buy

1. Go to https://integrityearth.net/brightgreens, which has current pricing and all the documents mentioned in this paper.
2. Choose how many tokens.
3. Pay by card or contact us to be invoiced. No crypto experience is needed. You will be issued a wallet on payment. If you already use Ethereum, you can connect your own wallet instead.
4. Identity checks. We may ask you to confirm your identity or where your funds came from before we complete your order.
5. Receive your tokens. Once payment is confirmed, your tokens are delivered to your wallet, and you receive a confirmation of your purchase.

Refunds

We don’t give refunds if you change your mind. Your rights under the Australian Consumer Law still apply. If we decline your order, we refund you in full.

9. Where we’re heading

Integrity Earth exists to reward farmers for regenerating nature.

More ways to recognise regeneration

Regeneration creates many kinds of living value: healthy soil, cleaner water, returning wildlife, farms that are resilient through drought and flood. Bright Greens recognise the ecological outcomes of that work beyond carbon. Over time, we expect to offer other kinds of ecological assets serving the same purpose: making sure the farmers who restore nature are rewarded for it. Whatever we add will be built on the same foundations of trust, transparency and coherence.

Pools and individual farms

We will continue to develop pools of farmers. We also expect to offer Bright Greens from individual farms, for buyers who want to connect with a particular place. We will share the details once the first round of evaluations is complete. Whichever farm or pool they come from, every Bright Green stays interchangeable one for one with every other, while carrying the evaluation record of the land it comes from.

Built for scrutiny from the start

We have built Integrity Earth with the most demanding buyers in mind. Our evaluation system draws on independent evidence, including satellite data, soil tests, ecological surveys and years of farm records, and it is being built towards the standard of institutional due diligence. Every Bright Green is recorded on a public blockchain, where anyone can see it. We are now taking the next steps towards independent verification: a calibration panel, accredited verification and academic peer review of our method. We do this because the people restoring nature deserve a record that the most rigorous organisations can rely on.

For people who care, and for institutions

Today, Bright Greens are bought by people who care deeply about nature and want to see farmers rewarded for restoring it. That won’t change: we intend Bright Greens always to be available to them.

We also plan to offer Bright Greens and other ecological assets to institutions: organisations with nature-positive commitments, land stewardship goals and sustainability reporting obligations. When institutions recognise the value of regeneration, more of it can be rewarded, on more land, for more farmers.

10. How Bright Greens work today

Where Bright Greens came from

Bright Greens began at LOVE TO Be Bright Green (Bright Green Mutual), as an early expression of a simple conviction: that nature’s value deserves to be recognised, and that ordinary people should be able to take part in restoring it. People responded: over A$507,000 of Bright Greens were bought by people around the world.

Integrity Earth is a continuation of that work, not a fresh start. Five of our six board members served on the board of LOVE TO Be Bright Green, our team was part of it, and every producer in our pool was a LOVE TO Be Bright Green producer. We took on the unsold Bright Greens because we knew the work behind them, much of it our own, and we wanted to see it recognised and carried forward.

The Bright Greens on sale now come from the batches of two of these producers. Each one carries its original PIE Certificate, which is fixed and will never change.

The producer pool

We are building a pool of 12 to 13 producers across Australia, all of them former LOVE TO Be Bright Green producers with an earlier PIE evaluation. The money from every sale is shared among all producers in the pool, not only the two whose tokens are being sold.

One continuous system

Bright Greens are one continuous system, now moving from its first version to its second.

• Version 1. The Bright Greens on sale now were issued under LOVE TO Be Bright Green’s evaluation system, PIE, which measured ecological improvement in PIE Points. PIE Points are not the same as hectare-years.
• Version 2. We are now evaluating every producer in the pool with our new evaluation system, the Signal Set, which measures in hectare-years. When the evaluations are complete, we plan to issue version 2 Bright Greens, offered under a new, separate agreement.
• Interchangeable, one for one. We treat every Bright Green, whichever version it is, as one tenth of a hectare-year of regeneration, and all Bright Greens are interchangeable one for one. Version 1 tokens are brought into this measure as each producer’s new evaluation is completed.
• How payments are shared. For version 1 Bright Greens, payments are shared equally among all participating producers. For version 2, we intend to share them according to each producer’s Signal Set scores.
• No double counting. When we pay a producer from a sale, we buy PIE Points from them. We hold these PIE Points, and they will never be reused or turned into new tokens. When their new evaluation is complete, whatever we have already paid them is deducted from its value, so the same ecological work is never paid for twice.
• If a property’s condition declines. If a future evaluation shows a property’s ecological condition has declined, we will reduce the number of Bright Greens issued against that property, by withdrawing unsold tokens or issuing fewer in future. Tokens you have already bought are never taken back. We are still designing how this will work.
• The new evaluations don’t change the PIE Certificate attached to any Bright Green you buy.

11. How the ecological work is evaluated

The PIE system (version 1): the tokens on sale now

PIE stands for Producer Investment Evaluation. It is the framework LOVE TO Be Bright Green used to measure and score the ecological improvement a producer had achieved on the land they manage. Each producer’s score was recorded on a PIE Scorecard as PIE Points, and the evidence behind it is held in a PIE Certificate attached to each batch of tokens.

• PIE scores are historical and fixed. We do not run new PIE evaluations or revise existing scores.
• PIE scores were assessments made by LOVE TO Be Bright Green’s evaluators. They have not been independently audited.
• LOVE TO Growth Management, which carried out PIE evaluations, no longer provides them, so no new PIE Points can be created.

The Signal Set (version 2): how we evaluate from now on

We have developed a new evaluation method, the Integrity Earth Regenerative Investment Signal Set. It scores a property on a set of signals grouped into five “stories of recovery”, each scored from 0 to 100 with a trend direction, the type of evidence behind it, and a confidence level. Farmers receive a report called the Regenerative Landscape Co-benefit Evidence Record (IE-RLCER).

Scores draw on evidence from independent sources, such as satellite data, farm management platforms, soil tests and ecological surveys, and are weighted towards measured data over what the producer reports. The scores themselves are assessed by Integrity Earth’s Lead Evaluator. They are not yet independently audited.

Our plans for independent verification

Independent verification is a priority for us. We intend to:

• set up a Signal Calibration Panel to score properties separately, so we can check our scoring is consistent. It will include farmers, buyers and others affected by this work, as well as independent experts. Its membership is still being worked out;
• engage a JAS-ANZ-accredited verifier; and
• seek academic peer review of the Signal Set method.

These are plans, not commitments with fixed dates. We will report progress in updates to this paper.

12. The technology

The blockchain

Bright Greens exist on the Ethereum blockchain, a public network where transactions are recorded permanently and anyone can view them.

Two linked records

• The Bright Green tokens (ERC-20 standard). These are the tokens you buy. They are interchangeable with each other when bought and sold.
• The PIE NFT (ERC-1155 standard). A unique record that holds the PIE Certificate for a batch of tokens: the evaluation evidence created when the tokens were minted, with identifying details removed.

A structure we call a Trust Bucket links each token to the PIE Certificate of the batch it was minted in. A single batch can contain many thousands of tokens, all sharing one certificate. That’s why we describe Bright Greens as semi-fungible: every token is interchangeable one for one with every other, while each one carries the evaluation record of its batch, which anyone can view on the blockchain.

Token freezes

The Trust Bucket lets us temporarily block the transfer of a token, for example to fix a technical problem or correct an error in its records. A freeze doesn’t affect your ownership, and we lift it once the issue is resolved. The Token Sale Terms explain this in full.

Tokens are certified periodically (certification requirements are set by the board), to confirm that the number of tokens in circulation doesn’t exceed what has been evaluated. The current Certifier is Sarah McCrum, Executive Chair of Integrity Earth. If certification expires, transfers are paused until it is completed

Environmental impact of the blockchain

Ethereum uses a “proof of stake” system to validate transactions. It uses far less energy than the “proof of work” system used by Bitcoin, which Ethereum stopped using in 2022.

Token details

13. Risks

Please consider these risks carefully before you buy. Only spend money you can afford to lose.

About the tokens

• You may not get your money back. Think of your purchase as payment for ecological work already done, not as money you can recover. Bright Greens are not listed on any exchange, and there is no market where you can sell them. If you ever want to sell, you may get less than you paid, or nothing at all. The PIE Certificate attached to your tokens doesn’t change either way.
• Our price can change. We set the price for new sales, and it may change in future.
• Transfers may be limited. A token freeze can temporarily stop you transferring a token.

About the evaluations

• PIE scores are unaudited and fixed. They were made by LOVE TO Be Bright Green’s evaluators, were not independently audited, and will not be updated even if the land changes.
• Signal Set scores are not yet independent. They are assessed by our own evaluator and are not yet independently audited.
• The land can change. Droughts, floods, fire, or changes in management or ownership could affect a property. This doesn’t change the record attached to your tokens.
• The pool will change. Producers may join or leave, which changes who is paid from future sales.

About Integrity Earth

• We are a young company. If we stop operating, your tokens stay in your wallet, but the website, updates, community benefits and support may end.
• Plans may not happen. Our plans for independent verification, new evaluations and future tokens may be delayed, changed or abandoned.

About the technology

• Transactions are permanent. Blockchain transactions can’t be reversed. If you send tokens to the wrong address, they are gone.
• Lost keys mean lost tokens. If you lose access to your wallet or its private key, nobody, including us, can recover your tokens.
• Security. Hacking, software faults and scams are real risks with any blockchain.

Legal and regulatory

• Rules may change. Laws on digital tokens are developing in Australia, the EU and elsewhere. New rules could affect whether or how Bright Greens can be sold, held or transferred.
• Tax. You are responsible for any tax on buying, holding or transferring Bright Greens.

14. If you already hold Bright Greens

If you bought Bright Greens from LOVE TO Be Bright Green, your tokens are unaffected. They still carry their PIE Certificates, and today’s Token Sale Terms don’t change the terms under which you bought them. Integrity Earth took on LOVE TO Be Bright Green’s unsold tokens so that Bright Greens can continue to be offered and producers can continue to be paid.

15. About Integrity Earth

Legal name

Integrity Earth Pty Ltd

ACN

693 432 254

Registered address

Level 17, HWT Tower, 40 City Road, Southbank VIC 3006, Australia

Website

https://integrityearth.net/

Contact

connect@integrityearth.net

Directors

• Sarah McCrum
• Thomas White
• Michael Dontschuk
• Pam Keirns
• Monica Vandenberg
• Andrew Lawrie

Our team and partners

Partners

CarbonLink, established in 2007 by Terry McCosker, has helped Australian farmers with carbon sequestration and soil improvement for nearly two decades. RCS Australia has provided regenerative agriculture education, coaching and advisory services since 1985.

16. Legal information

The Token Sale Terms

Your purchase is governed by the Bright Green Token Sale Terms, available on our website. If this paper and the terms differ, the terms apply.

Australia

We don’t offer Bright Greens as a financial product, and nothing in this paper is financial, legal or tax advice. Please get your own advice if you need it.

European Union

We offer Bright Greens in the EU in a way that is exempt from the requirement to publish a crypto-asset white paper under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 (MiCA), because our offer stays within at least one of MiCA’s limits: fewer than 150 buyers in each EU country, or less than €1,000,000 in total sales in any 12 months. Before we go beyond both limits, we will prepare a full MiCA white paper. This paper is not a crypto-asset white paper under MiCA, and it has not been notified to, or approved by, any EU authority.

Updates to this paper

We will update this paper as producers join the pool, new evaluations are completed and our plans progress. The version date is shown on the cover. Earlier versions are available on request.