Ruston Smith: Rebalance Earth’s goal is to establish nature as a mainstream investment theme
Rebalance Earth – the UK-based asset manager pioneering investment in nature as critical infrastructure, has appointed Ruston Smith as chair of the board.
Smith has more than 40 years in the pension fund and investment industry including experience of chairing large pension funds, asset managers and private market companies.
His appointment comes shortly after the West Yorkshire Pension Fund committed £25m to the cornerstone portfolio of Rebalance Earth's forthcoming nature-based infrastructure fund.
Smith commented: "Investors are increasingly focused on managing physical climate risk – nature-based infrastructure offers a practical, credible way to do that whilst delivering long-term, risk-adjusted returns.
"Rebalance Earth has built a thoughtful, scalable model that aligns with both fiduciary duty and investment discipline. I'm proud to join at this exciting moment."
Rob Gardner is the chief executive and co-founder of Rebalance Earth. He said: "Ruston and I have collaborated on several projects related to financial wellbeing and investment, and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to work together on climate and Nature initiatives.
"I have always respected his clear thinking and commitment to long-term value creation for pension fund members. His appointment marks a significant milestone for us. With Ruston as chair, we are prepared to deliver a top-tier platform that meets the needs of asset owners while helping to restore and protect nature on a large scale in the British Isles."
Rebalance Earth's fund aims to deliver long-term, outcome-based cashflows by restoring natural infrastructure such as rivers, wetlands, and peatlands to provide measurable ecosystem services including flood risk reduction, water quality improvement, biodiversity uplift, and carbon storage.
The asset manager said its forthcoming cornerstone fund is built to sit within real assets, place-based or impact allocations and is aligned with regulatory frameworks including Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
Rebalance Earth said the fund would enable institutional capital to support UK-based nature restoration – projects it said would reduce risk and enhance resilience for local communities and infrastructure.
Mission-driven
Ruston Smith said it was "an incredible opportunity" for him to become chair of Rebalance Earth – saying the organisation was both "commercially grounded" and "mission-driven", being focused on tackling one of the UK's most overlooked and understated systemic risks – the loss of nature as critical infrastructure.
Speaking to Professional Pensions, Smith said: "The UK is among the world's most nature-depleted nations and yet our economy is so dependent on healthy ecosystems to manage flooding, secure water and underpin food production – which, over decades of industrialisation, have been changed and left to deteriorate with the impact and consequences now clear to see.
"What attracted me was the opportunity to build a business that delivers long-term, competitive returns whilst improving the resilience of the very environment that underpins our national productivity. It's also great fun and highly motivating to be part of this energetic and passionate team."
Smith said he believed Rebalance Earth is doing something no one else in the UK market is currently doing in quite the same way.
He explained: "The cornerstone fund targets attractive long-term net returns which are generated from reducing physical flood risk, protecting communities, improving supply chain stability – and ultimately improving retirement outcomes for pension savers.
"This type of investment provides diversification from global equity, bond and property markets as well as acting as a hedge in portfolios against big systemic risks of climate change and nature loss."
Smith explained that Rebalance Earth was the largest dedicated nature-based fund manager focused on the UK – adding the firm's projects were science-led and delivered multi-dimensional value: economic, environmental and social.
He said: "They reduce future liabilities, protect local infrastructure and generate benefits that members and stakeholders can actually see."
Smith added: "Our ‘source-to-sea' model links inland water retention, biodiversity corridors and coastal protection so interconnected risks are met with interconnected solutions. For pension schemes this means genuine portfolio diversification – inflation-linked, largely uncorrelated returns plus a natural hedge against the physical climate risks threatening conventional assets."
Repairing and restoring
Smith said nature-based solutions are science-led projects that repair natural infrastructure — rivers, floodplains, wetlands — to reduce risks that directly impact people, communities and businesses.
He explained: "When buildings or roads have structural problems, we fix them. Just look at how many cones are on our motorways! This means the buildings don't collapse and the roads can continue to be used. However, this doesn't extend to our natural systems which means we have a huge amount of natural infrastructure that needs repairing and restoring.
"Floods, water stress and ecosystem failure all cause financial loss and disruption. Between 2016 and 2019, the UK government estimated over £700m in the cost of flood damage in England and Wales. That number is rising as disasters grow more frequent and severe."
Smith pointed towards a 2025 report by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and the University of Exeter – Planetary Solvency: Finding our balance with nature – which warned that global GDP could shrink by as much as 50% between 2070 and 2090 due to cascading climate and nature system failures.
He said Rebalance Earth direct funds towards science-led projects such as peatland rewetting, watershed repair or coastal restoration which can deliver measurable ecosystem services, biodiversity net gain units and carbon credits.
Smith said: "For example, a single sphagnum moss plant can hold twenty-six times its weight in water – slowing flood peaks downstream. By restoring sphagnum-rich peatlands we let nature shoulder part of our flood-management bill – where corporates, insurers and local authorities are prepared to pay for risk reduction."
Strong investor appetite
Smith said Rebalance Earth's cornerstone portfolio had already attracted £25m of seed capital from the West Yorkshire Pension Fund – adding that investor appetite was strong, especially among pension schemes looking for long term performance with tangible social and environmental impact.
He said the fund is targeting around 10% net internal rate of return over 15 years by investing in restoration of nature and promoting UK businesses to invest in the restoration of UK nature and infrastructure.
Smith said investor capital would fund hands-on restoration, rigorous monitoring and local engagement – something he said would lower flood risk, boost biodiversity, create green jobs and support levelling-up in rural areas.
He explained: "What excites me the most is how well Rebalance Earth's approach aligns with the needs of long-term asset owners like defined benefit and defined contribution pension schemes – whether own trust or master trust – and particularly with Local Government Pension Fund (LGPS) schemes, which have a mandate to deliver strong returns and to support their local communities."
Smith added that nature-based solutions (NBS) were more than just a sustainability story for institutional investors.
He said: "NBS are first and foremost a resilience and continuity play. By stabilising the ecosystems the economy relies on - water, land, biodiversity - investors cut climate exposure, enhance diversification, deliver good returns and meet their fiduciary duties.
"This is not about ticking ESG boxes - it's about ensuring portfolios can perform effectively in an increasingly volatile world."
Mainstream investment theme
Smith concluded saying that Rebalance Earth's goal was to "establish nature as a mainstream investment theme" alongside infrastructure and real estate.
He said: "Over the next two decades we plan to scale catchment-wide projects across the British Isles, with a later opportunity to expand internationally, so pension capital not only funds retirement but also protects water supplies, reduces flood damage and regenerates ecosystems.
"If we succeed, Rebalance Earth will be more than a fund manager. Working together with pension funds and asset owners, it will be a catalyst for a resilient, nature-positive economy – one where investors actively reduce systemic risk and communities thrive because the ecosystems around them have been restored."
