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Three Cairns Group
Three Cairns Group deploys catalytic climate capital from San Francisco and New York, co-founding the LEAF Coalition to build carbon market infrastructure.
Three Cairns Group
Three Cairns Group is a single-family office with a concentrated mandate at the intersection of climate change, carbon markets, and sustainable development. Operating from San Francisco and New York, the firm structures its activities across investment, philanthropy, and policy engagement, reflecting a view that climate is a systems challenge requiring blended capital. The office does not publicly disclose its founding year or the identity of its principals, but its grantmaking and investment signatures have appeared in initiatives linked to tropical forest conservation, regenerative agriculture, and carbon removal technologies. The firm deploys capital across venture-stage climate technology, project finance for nature-based carbon solutions, and select fund commitments. Asset classes include early-stage venture, real assets tied to reforestation and soil carbon, and carbon credit offtake agreements. Three Cairns has backed organizations advancing measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) infrastructure for carbon markets and supported the launch of the LEAF Coalition, a public-private initiative mobilizing large-scale finance for tropical forest protection. Geographic focus spans the United States, Brazil, and Southeast Asia. Team size and total deployment remain undisclosed. The office maintains dual coastal presences. Its most visible adjacent initiative is Three Cairns Group's role as a founding partner in the LEAF Coalition, announced in April 2021, which pooled commitments from governments and corporations to purchase verified emissions reductions at scale. The structure suggests a lean team operating through strategic partnerships and outsourced diligence rather than a large in-house investment staff. What distinguishes Three Cairns Group is its commitment to demand-side carbon market creation — deploying catalytic capital to underwrite offtake agreements and build market infrastructure rather than simply allocating to climate funds. This posture places it closer to a market-maker than a conventional allocator, using the family-office structure to bridge philanthropic patience with commercial discipline in emerging environmental asset classes.
General information
Firm type
Single Family Office
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
San Francisco
Corporate office
San Francisco, CA, United States
Additional offices
New York, NY, United States
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
What is the LEAF Coalition and what was Three Cairns Group's role in it?
The LEAF (Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest finance) Coalition launched in April 2021 as a public-private initiative to mobilize at least $1 billion for tropical forest conservation through jurisdictional-scale carbon credit purchases. Three Cairns Group served as a founding partner alongside Emergent, the coalition's coordinator, and early sovereign buyers including the United States, United Kingdom, and Norway. The mechanism commits corporate and government buyers to purchase verified emissions reductions at a floor price, creating demand certainty that enables host countries to invest in forest protection programs.
How does Three Cairns Group blend philanthropy with investment?
The office uses philanthropic capital to underwrite market infrastructure — such as carbon measurement protocols, project feasibility studies, and policy engagement — that makes subsequent commercial investments viable. This catalytic approach allows grant dollars to reduce early-stage risk in environmental markets where commercial capital remains scarce. Market-rate investments then flow into the ventures, project developers, and fund structures that emerge from that groundwork, particularly in reforestation, regenerative agriculture, and carbon removal technologies.
Which geographies does Three Cairns Group focus on?
Known geographic priorities include the United States, Brazil, and Southeast Asia. Brazil's Amazon region has been a particular focus through the LEAF Coalition and related tropical forest conservation efforts. The US presence spans both investment and policy engagement, while Southeast Asia exposure connects to deforestation-linked carbon credit generation and regenerative land-use projects.
Does Three Cairns Group invest through funds or make direct investments?
The office employs a mix of direct investments, fund commitments, and carbon offtake agreements. Direct activity concentrates on early-stage climate technology companies and project-level investments in nature-based solutions. Fund commitments appear selective and aligned with the MRV and carbon removal thesis. The offtake agreements — forward purchases of future carbon credits from large-scale forest protection programs — represent its most distinctive capital deployment tool, functioning as demand underwriting rather than traditional principal investing.
Who are the principals behind Three Cairns Group?
Three Cairns Group does not publicly disclose the identity of its founding family or principals. The office operates without a public-facing website with team biographies or investor communications typical of family offices seeking co-investors. This suggests a single-family structure with a closed architecture and an intentional low profile, consistent with family offices that prioritize mission-aligned deployment over brand visibility in the climate philanthropy and investment ecosystem.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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