From liability to asset: Transform your carbon footprint

A new agriculture technology startup wanted to understand the market position and size for its product. Additionally, the startup wanted to evaluate methods and next steps to monetize the carbon reductions and removals associated with its product.

As part of the engagement, we:

• Assessed the relative market position and addressable market
• Validated the carbon impact associated with the client’s product by conducting a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) for beef and dairy applications
• Projected the product’s carbon commercialization opportunity through development of a scenario-based model
• Developed recommendations on carbon monetization pathways to generate high-quality insets or offsets

Our validation enabled the client to credibly claim the potential carbon impact of its product, which could reduce nearly two metric tons of CO₂e per head of beef or dairy cattle (annualized) from an average industry baseline. This translates to potentially reducing the emissions intensity of milk by nearly 25%. The client is also equipped with a clear understanding of the opportunities to generate additional revenue from those carbon emission reductions.

Companies are beginning to create new businesses from carbon reductions and removals. A financial services company aimed to become the leading provider of credible carbon credits. However, it lacked a centralized means for managing its carbon asset inventory.

As part of the engagement, we:

• Gathered key requirements based on the client’s current state and ideal future state
• Aggregated and validated data from existing client systems into a single source of truth
• Created a net-new carbon asset management solution with end-to-end traceability through a seamless user interface

This carbon asset management solution equipped the client with the data necessary to drive carbon asset transparency and prove to potential buyers that the client’s carbon assets are legitimate and have a story. This can increase revenue opportunity, as the more data-rich the carbon assets are, the more potential buyers are willing to pay.

Historically, this major protein processor had not used environmental, social, and governance (ESG) to drive sales. It wanted to become a company that could credibly claim and market its products as sustainable and/or climate neutral. This was an ambitious goal not only because some of those products are typically only considered as unsustainable, but also because it would require incentivizing the adoption of climate-smart crop cultivation practices across multiple product value chains.

As part of the engagement, we:

• Developed a detailed model with academic and NGO partners to find a verifiable and credible way to manage the client’s claims and calculations while considering the costs associated with these investments
• Created a complex ROI strategy of how the client can decarbonize its protein value chains and reach its commodity-level and net-zero emissions reduction targets
• Helped the client successfully apply for a multimillion-dollar USDA grant to scale its sustainable value chain initiatives and provide value back to farmers, ranchers, and producers

We helped the client substantiate its sustainability claims so that the client will be able to command price premiums for its sustainable products and make meaningful progress against its commodity-level and net-zero targets. A portion of the USDA grant money will be used to help the program launch, but most of the money will support farmers, ranchers, and producers in transitioning their fields and herds to more sustainable practices.

A large retailer set ambitious goals to protect and restore nature by addressing its impacts on the land and oceans from which it sources its products. However, there were not any existing nature footprint methodologies or standards that the client could use. The client needed a custom measurement framework and guidance to credibly calculate and report on its nature impact.

As part of the engagement, we:

• Created a framework to determine what actions taken by the client or actors in its supply chain would be deemed credible and count toward the client’s spatial nature goals
• Established and verified agricultural, agroforestry, aquaculture, and fishing practices that reduce harm to the surrounding environment
• Developed methodologies for accounting for progress toward nature aspirations

We worked with leading NGOs and academic partners to establish a playbook of verifiable agricultural, agroforestry, aquaculture, and fishing practices for 13 different land- and ocean-based commodities that could legitimately conserve, manage, and/or restore the client’s surrounding environment. The client could credibly account for its impact on acreage and seascapes.