Pollinate: Land Betterment and Land Betterment Exchange in Action
By: LBX Editorial Team
Looking at Land Betterment’s Pollinate apiary operations in central Indiana, it would be easy to forget that only a short time ago the land that now supports hundreds of bee colonies was left for dead, abandoned by fossil fuel companies after they exhausted coal deposits.
Now, Land Betterment, through its brand Pollinate, is bringing new meaning to sustainable development and upcycling land. Land Betterment has, at this point, become synonymous with revolutionary environmental solutions, having already harnessed the power of green crypto to jumpstart a land remediation rush while also finding a verifiable and scalable means to award corporate carbon offsets.
With Pollinate, Land Betterment has created yet another win-win-win scenario that benefits the environment, community and economy.
But let’s rewind…all that from a bunch of bees?! Yes, bees are really important, not just for the environment but also for humanity—we are an agriculture-dependent population and bees are a core component of viable agriculture. No bees, no food. They also produce essential items like honey and wax, both of which are in way more products than you realize.
Despite their centrality to ecosystems and economies, however, bees’ long-term survival is in peril as every year more and more species die off, owing to diseases, parasites, pesticides and the destruction of their natural food supply.
Yet, in central Indiana, on now pristine land, Kristie Slone, who heads the Pollinate team for Land Betterment sees a solution: “Creating sustainable bee habitats are vital to bringing back vibrant ecosystems in the region, especially on land scarred by prior thermal coal mining…We are able to utilize the vast lands being reclaimed to feed the bee colonies while also speeding up the healing process of the impaired lands.”
A Look Back: Fighting the Blight
Before Land Betterment secured the acreage for Pollinate apiaries, it was an environmental wreck, left for dead by coal mining companies that found it more cost efficient to simply walk away from the land than to clean it up.
This unfortunate reality results from the negative incentive enforcement model of U.S. environmental regulations—essentially, it’s cheaper for fossil fuel operations to face a fine and surrender their surety bond than it is to restore the environment to its previous state.
Coal mining leaves behind an unholy mess of pollution, stripping the land of life and robbing people of potable water. With nobody assuming responsibility for land, the communities around it suffer; in its twilight, coal mining doesn’t just destroy the environment, it’s a community killer, stripping entire areas of the jobs upon which they have come to depend.
In coal mining’s wake, there are no birds, no bees, no flowers or trees. But that’s all before Land Betterment and Pollinate arrive.
Owing to the power of green crypto and sheer ingenuity, Land Betterment–through its Land Betterment Exchange (LBX) brand– long ago found a way to promote sustainable development on rehabilitated former coal mining properties. Favoring land remediation—literally returning the land to its previous state—Land Betterment has turned one industry’s trash into a treasure trove of sustainable development and entrepreneurship.
Bees, with their mighty environmental and economic power, are one such treasure trove.
Pollinate: From Pollution to Pollen
For Pollinate, impacted lands are ideal homes for apiaries, where bees can help bring local plant life and agriculture back from the brink. And what better place to rehabilitate an insect population decimated by environmental decay than in a formerly decimated, rehabilitated environment?
Without Land Betterment, this land would to this day remain uninhabitable, unusable and undesirable. Yet, through land remediation and some creative thinking, it isn’t merely rehabilitated, it is thriving.
For example, on August 26, 2022, the Royalty Management Corporation acquired the rights to 50 beehives in its apiary partnership with Pollinate. The honey produced in these beehives will be used to manufacture alcohol in Land Betterment’s central-Indiana distillery, Coal Craft Spirits, and RMC will share in the profits from this venture.
Here, we see Land Betterment’s full reach and complete circle of rehabilitation for the environment, economy and community. Honey, produced by bees on former coal mining land in central Indiana, will be used to make alcohol at a local distillery, providing new economic opportunities for a community left behind by the coal mining industry. The bees, as part of their natural life course, help to further rehabilitate formerly blighted lands by promoting local plant life and agriculture.
Slone said it best: “It seems that there is not that many win-win-win scenarios in the world but Pollinate feels like the wins keep racking up given our unique, vast land access, protected areas and environmental and ecological benefits.”
Growing the Building Blocks of Life on Land Left for Dead
It’s true, there may not be that many win-win-win scenarios in this world, but with Land Betterment sustainable development brands like Pollinate, Betterment Harvests, and ekō Solutions there are more and more every day.
These sustainable development projects form an important link in Land Betterment’s land remediation chain, taking vast tracts of land and, with the help of environmental experts, bringing them to a state that can support life, community, and entrepreneurship.
Along the way, Land Betterment and its brands create win-win-win scenarios for environmental experts focused on land remediation, corporations looking for scalable and verifiable carbon offsets, and local community members looking for opportunities beyond the fossil fuel industry.
Whether it's raising bees, distilling alcohol, training local populations for green jobs, or housing natural disaster victims, Land Betterment continues to uncover mutually beneficial ways to accelerate environmental rehabilitation and improve people’s daily lives.
Learn more and get involved!
About Land Betterment Exchange - LBX
The Land Betterment Exchange process enables corporations and sponsors needing carbon offsets to achieve their carbon neutral plan to keep their funds local benefiting their community and environment while still acquiring highly valuable, traceable and verifiable carbon offsets. LBX will work with sponsors to match them with projects that will be tracked using the LBX blockchain technology while also providing time elapsed documentation, imagery and videos of the property being remediation and revegetation. LBX works to incorporate its sponsors’ brand into the environmental remediation and bring the community together with the sponsors as they help to do good by the region and environment. LBX is keeping it local in the United States. Land Betterment Exchange has engaged Land Betterment Corporation as its token and carbon offset issuance partner to ensure that integrity of the token and carbon offset issuance process is adhered to. Land Betterment Corporation and Land Betterment Exchange both firmly believe that with real solutions it is possible for restoration of impacted areas to live side-by-side long term employment, while building sustainable and safe surroundings for communities and our planet. For more information visit www.thisislbx.com or connect with the Company on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
About Land Betterment Corporation
Land Betterment Corporation, an Indiana Benefit Corporation and Pending B-Corp, is an environmental solutions company focused on fostering a positive impact through upcycling former coal mining sites to create sustainable community development and job creation. The Company utilizes a complete solution-based lifecycle program to restore and rehabilitate the environment and revitalize communities in need of change and opportunity. Land Betterment accomplishes this by identifying un-reclaimed, run-down and neglected coal mining sites, fixing the environment through reclamation and remediation, and then repurposing the land to support a sustainable business that serves the community. For more information visit landbetterment.com or connect with the Company on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other important factors that could cause the Company’s actual results, performance, or achievements or industry results to differ materially from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Land Betterment Corporation’s control. The words “believes”, “may”, “will”, “should”, “would”, “could”, “continue”, “seeks”, “anticipates”, “plans”, “expects”, “intends”, “estimates”, or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. Any forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date of this release. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update or supplement any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. The Company cannot assure you that the projected results or events will be achieved.
Company Contacts:
Mark LaVerghetta
317.537.0492 ext. 0
Chief Governance Officer, Corporate Finance
info@landbetterment.com
Stephanie Conzelman
207.205.0790
Stakeholder Engagement Director
info@landbetterment.com
