A new business venture could help to create jobs, entice young Bermudians back to the island and help to fund crucial environmental projects.

Karen Nagel is in the process of launching Triangle Carbon Strategies, a firm that will work with local environmental projects to develop the methodology for biodiversity credits that, once available, can be bought by businesses as part of their environmental, social and governance strategy.

When the credits are available, the money raised by the sale of certificates would lead to continued funding for local projects in seagrass and coral restoration and preservation.

If the idea takes off, other local environmental schemes will get funding in a move Mrs Nagel believes will create a variety of jobs, from scientific research to administration, to driving boats and creating and running a website and in technology.

“The vision is clear to me and I know we need it. And I know there's a need for these smaller projects,” she said.

“Bermuda has been the sandbox for so many financial innovations and it could be the sandbox for this as well.”

Mrs Nagel said Triangle would set up, test and run the scheme’s platform that would generate the credits, to be sold via an independent and audited registry, distribute funds, do all the administrative work for the different environmental schemes and create and run a website.

"It takes away some of the administrative burden that people involved in the projects would otherwise have to do, so freeing up their time. Yes, they'll have to send us a report on what they're doing, but they don't have to worry about all the other stuff.

“It’s also about economies of scale. You’ve got the people on the platform doing the admin and highlighting what they are doing rather than each project having to hire somebody.”

Initially, Mrs Nagel wants to raise $5 million over five years and insists the money raised must not be instead of a firm’s charitable donations.

“The majority of funds will go to two projects over five years so they can restore coral and seagrass and the rest of the funds raised will support the platform so we can hire staff to establish a website to host, monitor, verify the projects' progress and to work with those projects to develop the biodiversity methodology.

“It will take up to five years to see any credits from this work and once the credits are available, initially from restoration, we can sell them. The investors will get a return by way of pre-funded credits when available and they can show the investment on their financials.”

Mrs Nagel added: “It wouldn't go as a profit to me, it would go to running the platform. I want the investors to be involved with this as well to see that we are transparent.”

She believes that the idea could help to entice qualified Bermudians back to work on the projects being funded.

“We want Bermudian scientists. I think what Carika Weldon is doing is remarkable and I see so many young scientists who’ve done all these internships at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and they've done great degrees and they can't work in their chosen field.

“They can come back, they can help with these kinds of projects.”

Mrs Nagel added: “And from this, I would hope that there'd be other ideas. People would then say, ‘well, how about we do that biodiversity project’?

“I'm hoping it will snowball. But this is a way to start small, helping ourselves locally.”

She said she has spoken to reinsurance companies about the idea, adding: “They're really interested in it, but they're not moving fast. It's slow.

“They see it's different, but they don't see the need for it just yet. Or they know that they've got more important things to do at the moment, which you can understand as business is busy, but nature can't wait.”

• Karen Nagel is speaking at the first of a new Eco Lunch & Learn series hosted by the Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce and Bermuda College on October 26, at the College’s Athene Room