At Davos 2026, Canopy and its partners presented a $2 billion blended finance blueprint to utilize recycled textiles and agricultural residues in packaging – a move helped to cut down on carbon emissions.
Canopy co-hosted the forum alongside No. 17 Foundation and Tsao Pao Chee Group. Together, they united industry experts, investors, and philanthropists to discuss the mobilization of a $2 billion investment.
One outcome is a blended finance platform to help phase out high-carbon, wood-dependent products in favour of ‘next-generation’ alternatives. While it will be designed for deployment in India, it is set to be replicated elsewhere and further a global initiative to mobilize $78 billion into global infrastructure for next-generation materials by 2033.
The finance architecture sets out to de-risk early investments, attract institutional capital, and establish 1.5 million tonnes of packaging, paper, and textile production capacity in India – utilizing resources like recycled textiles and agricultural residues.
Current finance flows have been calculated at $200 billion, which is thought to be one-third of the necessary funding to achieve climate, biodiversity, and land degradation targets by 2030. Additionally, scaling the shift to next-generation materials in India is projected to require $13–15 billion in investment.
With a $2 billion investment programme, Canopy and its partners aim to boost market confidence, accumulate private capital with catalytic investors and public finance, and drive ‘impactful’ project pipelines.
It also hopes to strengthen India’s industrial competitiveness by creating new income opportunities for rural communities, as well as reducing input volatility – helping producers meet increasing demand for lower-impact and traceable inputs – and improving air quality.
For example, diverting agricultural waste is hoped to reduce seasonal air pollution in Delhi while supporting rural income and mill modernization.
“This is the moment to reimagine how capital flows to climate solutions at scale,” said Nicole Rycroft, founder and executive director of Canopy. “The blended finance model that we’re unveiling today will lay the foundation for replacing high-carbon forest fibre in global paper, packaging, and textile supply chains, while establishing a finance blueprint that can be replicated in other key markets.
“If we want to transform high-impact global commodity sectors at the pace required, we need finance models that share both risk and reward with the market — and that can scale across borders. Investors and brands here today are helping build exactly that.”
Looking ahead, Canopy plans to secure partners for exploring anchor capital and future offtake agreements.
“With these targeted structures in place, we can drive the investment needed to turn waste into high-value and circular everyday commodities,” added Zoë Caron, strategic lead for Global Investments at Canopy. “Many agricultural residues are still being burned on the fields, when we know they can be used more sustainably, cutting air pollution and scaling a sustainable supply chain for paper, packaging, and textiles.”
At last year’s Davos event, NBCo presented its ‘disappearing’ fibre-based bottle. This package was designed to be up to 99% recyclable and biodegradable in the natural environment, and sought to become a replacement for conventional plastic bottles.
Rajesh Khosla, CEO of AGI Greenpac Limited, has since spoken to Packaging Europe about the changing outlook for the production and consumption of packaging in India. He discussed the growing consumer preference for compostable, paper-based, and recycled glass packaging formats, and anticipated that the evolution of technology and national policy would influence packaging design going forward.
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