Soil Carbon Sequestration 101: read if you consume or sell anything that originated on a farm

Through this newsletter, I want to share ways in which we can regenerate nature and equity, within our generation. I’m not an expert on everything that is needed, but I am lucky enough to have friends who are experts in many areas that we all need to engage.

I asked my friend Josiah McClellan to explain Soil Carbon Sequestration on my newsletter in a very simple fashion.

If you consume food, clothes, shoes, skincare, household goods, or other items that depend on agriculture read on.

If you make, move or sell any of those goods, read on.

From Josiah McClellan :

Recent reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) make clear that there is no pathway to 1.5°C without removing carbon already in the atmosphere. And while we’ll need to optimize all the removal opportunities we can, one particular removal opportunity – sequestering carbon in agricultural soils – is especially resonant for organizations that want to combine their SDG13 impacts with co-benefits to SDGs 2, 6 and 15.

Soil carbon sequestration is part of the natural carbon cycle. Most of us learned in grade school about photosynthesis, which depends on plants taking in carbon dioxide from the air. Carbon can be stored in root systems, tree bark and trunks, leaves and branches. When plants die or their branches or leaves fall off, the carbon stored in them is either released into the atmosphere or absorbed into the soil.

Agricultural soils represent a unique opportunity for soil carbon sequestration. The areal expansion of agriculture and advancement of modern agricultural practices over the past several decades have contributed to the release of soil carbon into the atmosphere. Much of these losses can be re-sequestered through improved management systems: reducing soil disturbance by switching to low-till or no-till practices or planting perennial crops; changing planting schedules or rotations, incorporating cover crops or double crops; managed grazing of livestock; and applying compost or crop residues to fields. These types of management systems minimize soil disturbance, maximize plant diversity, and establish a continual live plant/root – all of which contribute to powering up the carbon cycle and sequestering more carbon in soil. And they possess significant co-benefits related to resilience, productivity, water and biodiversity.

When I joined a commodity checkoff (commodity checkoffs are programs that provide research and marketing to farmers of a particular commodity (e.g. soybean, corn, wheat) in the United States) many years ago to help build a sustainability program, I knew next to nothing about all of this. I was a corporate sustainability professional, a suburban New York kid, and greenhouse gas inventorying didn’t go much beyond stationery/mobile/process/fugitive emissions. I met trailblazing farmers who not only taught me about the power of soil to mitigate climate change, but showed me on their farms as we rode in the tractor planting cash crops into standing cover. Those relationships and experiences leave an indelible mark, and I’ve sought to champion soil carbon sequestration – and the farmers who steward it – in every greenhouse gas reduction strategy I’ve designed since.

Right now we’re having lively discussion about the specifics of carbon sequestration in agricultural soils – how much carbon can be sequestered, the rate at which it can be sequestered, the ability to confidently measure soil carbon gains over different time periods – and even livelier discussion about how to mobilize capital and technical assistance to support this work. Technology, research and industry are all being deployed to provide new and more informed perspectives on these topics, because we know that our shared mandate to keep warming under 1.5°C depends on us optimizing soil carbon.

For companies that have agricultural carbon in their Scope 3 boundaries – and that’s any company required to set a FLAG target (Forest, Land, Agriculture) through SBTi (Science Based Targets) – soil carbon sequestration represents a critical lever to decarbonize Scope 3. The scientific and agricultural community agree that there are agronomic and environmental benefits associated with rebuilding soil organic carbon, generating real supply chain resilience and co-benefits beyond just progress against a Scope 3 commitment.

In the United States, over the next several years, a significant infusion of capital in the form of USDA’s Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities will seek to scale up soil carbon sequestration in agriculture, with intentional focus on small and underserved producers. Similar programs in Australia,  Europe and India will do the same. The learnings from these efforts will inform corporate efforts in real time, improving the effectiveness of supply chain initiatives to sequester carbon and improving confidence in the results.

On one hand, soil carbon sequestration presents a tremendous opportunity to decarbonize supply chains that we’re only beginning to leverage. On another hand, it’s essential to any pathway to 1.5°C and we’re dangerously slow to activate it. Either way, it’s the right time to look at how soil carbon sequestration should be a part of corporate decarbonization strategies. Here are some practical steps that business and ESG leaders can take to add soil carbon sequestration to their portfolio:

• Evaluate if you’re required to set a FLAG target per the recent SBTi guidance. Soil carbon sequestration is an essential pathway to meeting FLAG targets.
• Engage with the Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities. Many CPG companies are already collaborating on these grants, and there are opportunities to engage moving forward.
• Expand your existing relationships with food banks. Food banks around the world are connected to local producers for fresh vegetables, dairy and protein products. Explore if there are opportunities to add natural climate solutions to the social and community benefits of working with hunger relief organizations.

-ends

Shared with gratitude to my friend Josiah McClellan .