Blacksheep Connects Landowners and Investors in Projects That Create Long-Term Stability for All
Amanda Wilson grew up in Waynesboro, Virginia, and earned her B.F.A in graphic design and religion from James Madison University in 2012. Throughout her early adult life, Wilson sought ways to integrate her political and environmental concerns into her career and life’s work. After completing a fellowship at a major performing arts center in Virginia, she traveled to Costa Rica to enrich her education and relationship with the natural world. Wilson stepped into a co-management role at VerdEnergia in 2014 and soon after founded Blacksheep, which connect investors with landowners in economically and environmentally exhausted areas.
Joshua Hughes grew up working in his family’s auto salvage business in Medford, Oregon. Through this work, he learned the real value of what many consider “waste.” In his early adulthood, he developed a secure recycling business in the Pacific Northwest. Hughes became politically active after 9/11 and soon left his office job to work as an activist and helped found a biofuels cooperative. In 2006, he relocated to Costa Rica and founded VerdEnergia, where he has acted as general manager since. Hughes founded the Shangri-Lanas forestry project and Blacksheep soon after.
Here are some highlights from the LIFT Economy interview with Wilson and Hughes:
- How Blacksheep was founded in large part as an act of resistance and community organizing through cooperative structures to protect the local watershed from extractive private industry.
- Their ethos around embedding themselves in the community and staying mindful so they do not repeat the harmful relationship that locals have historically had with private companies.
- A look into what it’s like to be regenerating damaged land in the jungle.
- How the Blacksheep team plans to share its knowledge and learnings on how to replicate similar models elsewhere in the world.
LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm with a mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.
B the Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.
Using Impact Investing to Regenerate Costa Rican Land was originally published in B The Change on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
