Commercial, Energy Efficiency, GHG Emissions - January 31, 2024
Microsoft Adds Soil Carbon Storage Credits
Microsoft signed an agreement to receive soil carbon drawdown credits.
The agreement, signed with Grassroots Carbon, marks Microsoft’s first investment in carbon credits generated from regeneratively managed grasslands.
The benefits of improving soil health extend to enhanced water storage, erosion prevention, and improved grasslands ecology. The investment in carbon credits also directly supports ranchers, who receive most of the profit of the credits, in implementing regenerative land management practices.
In the U.S., 41% of U.S. grassland is used for livestock grazing and has the capacity to sequester over 500 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. However, 95% of that grassland is managed conventionally, depleting soil carbon.
Grassroots Carbon seeks to help in the conversion to regenerative practices by creating opportunities for land managers to earn income from carbon storage, based on rigorous 1-meter deep measurement, third-party verification, and certification of carbon removal and storage.
"Supporting high-quality soil carbon credit solutions is part of Microsoft's carbon removal strategy," said Phil Goodman, director, carbon removal portfolio, Microsoft, in a statement. "This project with Grassroots Carbon utilizes PastureMap, a measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) software that improves grassland management in the US by incentivizing ranchers' transition to rotational grazing. Microsoft is excited to work with Grassroots Carbon to advance the soil carbon market through MRV innovations and the production of large data sets of soil carbon and ecological data."
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