The St. Croix Institute™ and LICO2e™ (GBC) – dba ‘Locally Invested Carbon Offsets’ – as a MN Public Benefit Corporation, are proud to be a formal partners to the National Indian Carbon Coalition (NICC) and its mission to provide services to Tribal Nations, Alaska Native Villages & Corporations, and Indigenous Communities across the country, as well as the First Nations of Canada. Our partnership was established in 2017 and has evolved to be the single most important focus and long term commitment for our Founder, Dr. Kelly Cain.

Dr. Cain serves as contractual Senior Program and Policy Strategist for NICC.

His primary duties include:

• Federal and state legislation and policy review of proposed and/or pending decisions, with recommendations for language change to the benefit of Tribal Nations interest and commitment to energy efficiency, self-sufficiency, security, and sovereignty, as well national leadership to decarbonization based on the Paris Accord; Draft document preparation, narrative and data reviews, and grant writing for NICC projects, and its strategic stakeholders and partners;
• Provide research, analysis, recommendations, and ‘dot connecting’ to maximize synergistic opportunities; Stakeholder communication and management for development of Tribal energy, decarbonization, and carbon offset development projects, and the workforce development opportunities inherent in each; More specifically, Kelly is currently responsible as Project Manager for NICC’s:
  • 2021 USDA NRCS Conservation Improvement Grant to develop a web-based Tribal Carbon & Co-BenefitmTool (TC&CBT) for identifying and measuring the ‘co-benefits’ associated with carbon sequestration (forest, grassland, soils, and blue carbon), projects on Tribal lands. TC&CBT is a robust GIS platform and database that will allow Tribal leaders, their staff, and Tribal citizens to visually see and understand the quantity and quality of their natural resource assets and ecosystem services, and thus the potential for positive socio-cultural and economic impact. Central to this model is the rewriting of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from a North American Tribal perspective and the individual assignment of all carbon and co-benefit metrics to each of these goals. The TC&CBT and SDG metrics framework are customized to the identity and unique circumstances of each of the 574 sovereign Tribal Nations. It is soon to be featured on the NREL Tribal Energy Atlas (Tribal Energy Atlas | Department of Energy) and launch of the stand-alone app on NICC’s server (tribalcobenefits.com);
  • Tribal Reforestation Initiative (in cooperation with American Forests), in which tribal nations can access the nursery establishment expertise, workforce training, start-up funds, and long-term management assistance necessary to develop successful tribally-owned tree and understory nurseries. Nursery establishment is a unique opportunity for tribal nations to combine traditional ecological knowledge with the best available science and technologies to help overcome the ongoing national seedling shortage and develop sustainable tribal economies and associated workforce that lead to life-long technical and professional careers for Tribal members. NICC is engaged with a tribal nation, as well as a Native Hawaiian non-profit organization to develop a tree nurseries with a focus on tree species that are traditionally and culturally important to those regions;
  • TICO2e™ Carbon Calculator & Funding Portal (TiCO2e™ Travel Calculator) development, marketing, and licensing as a highly effective capital development fundraising mechanism for Tribal and non-Tribal communities and organizations who are committed to broad energy efficiency and decarbonization plans, but in need to financial resources to carry those plans to fruition; and New project conceptualization, planning, design, implementation, tracking, reporting, and support as needed.