An environmental and economic win-win.

Soil Carbon markets

Soil carbon markets allow companies, governments, and consumers to purchase carbon offsets from agricultural producers in return for ecosystem services and sequestration outcomes. There has been significant recent interest from the private and public sectors in such mechanisms, with multiple new market development efforts (e.g. Ecosystem Services Market Consortium, Indigo Carbon, Nori, etc.) as well as public soil conservation programs underway (e.g. California Healthy Soils Program, USDA/NRCS Conservation Innovation Trials and the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, etc.). To this end, a 2018 Noble Research Institute report estimated the U.S. demand for soil carbon offsets at 190 million tonnes CO₂-eq, at a value of $5.2 billion. Given the additional co-benefits associated with increasing soil carbon, soil carbon markets offer great potential for an environmental and economic win-win. Currently, however, the cost for a single gold standard dry combustion measurement (~$10-25/sample) is often similar to the price for a sequestered tonne of carbon, ultimately limiting sample density and challenging scalability (prices vary, but multiple markets target a price of ~$10-20/tonne CO₂-eq). To fully unlock this potential at scale, we need a cost-effective and accurate way to measure changes in carbon over time. This will facilitate more robust market function, increased value being passed on to growers, faster learning cycles regarding what practices are most effective in different contexts, higher confidence in measurement and verification protocols, and ultimately, increased adoption of regenerative practices.