Ontario Teachers’ joins KKR as an investor in GreenCollar

Investment positions GreenCollar for continued global growth

Media release:  GreenCollar is pleased to welcome Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers’) as a new long-term investor to back the company’s ambitious growth aspirations and commitment to delivering positive environmental impact at scale. With this latest investment, Ontario Teachers’ joins KKR’s Global Impact Fund as a significant shareholder in the company. Other terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Ontario Teachers’ is one of the world’s largest pension plans with ~$227.7 billion in net assets. The plan focuses on shaping a better future for the people, places and communities where it invests, including a commitment to have net zero greenhouse gas emissions across its portfolio by 2050. In September this year, it set industry-leading interim reduction targets: to reduce portfolio carbon emissions intensity by 45% by 2025 and 67% by 2030, compared to a 2019 baseline.

Ontario Teachers’ Natural Resources group, which is part of the Infrastructure and Natural Resources department, already has significant experience investing in the agriculture, timberland and seafood sectors, including in Australia where it has a large agriculture portfolio. The group has leveraged its experience in these sectors to increase investments in immediate, scalable natural climate solutions projects that protect ecosystems and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, demonstrating strong alignment with GreenCollar’s approach.

Christopher Metrakos, Managing Director, Natural Resources at Ontario Teachers’, said: “We are thrilled to invest in a leading global environmental markets investor and project developer alongside KKR, the founders and management team of GreenCollar. GreenCollar’s collaborative and scientific approach is driving the development of innovative environmental solutions, particularly within Australia’s carbon market, and the business has great potential for international growth.”

Founded by James Schultz and Lewis Tyndall over a decade ago, GreenCollar is a profit for purpose business working across the carbon, water quality, biodiversity and plastics markets. It exists to value the environment and drive positive impact at scale by creating methodologies and markets that put the environment on the balance sheet.

James Schultz, GreenCollar CEO, commented, “Our mission is to put the environment on the balance sheet through carbon farming, improved water quality, nature positive outcomes, and addressing the global challenge of plastics. The methodologies and projects we’ve developed under Carbon and Water, and the work we are doing in Plastics and Nature credits are setting the global standard for high quality, high integrity credits to drive positive environmental outcomes at scale.

“KKR has been a terrific strategic partner and we are excited to welcome another similarly aligned partner in Ontario Teachers’ as we look to achieve our vision of driving change towards an economy that puts the right value on positive climate change and environmental outcomes. The support of KKR and Ontario Teachers’ will be invaluable as we look to further our international impact,” Schultz said.

Since the investment by KKR’s Global Impact Fund, which seeks to invest behind scalable, commercial solutions to solve critical challenges identified by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, GreenCollar has successfully grown its capabilities and offerings through several acquisitions and expanded internationally. Most recently, the company has strengthened its carbon trading marketplace through the acquisitions of carbon advisory and trading firm Sigma Global, Queensland carbon farming business, Devine Agribusiness Carbon, and the consumer-facing offsets platform Go Neutral. It also recently formed a partnership with leading soil carbon operator, AgriProve, expanding its position as the only industry operator to offer the full suite available of nature-based carbon farming methods.

George Aitken, a Director on KKR’s Private Equity team in Australia, said, “We are delighted to welcome Ontario Teachers’ given their significant expertise in the natural resources sector. KKR is aligned with Ontario Teachers’ in our commitment to drive positive environmental impact and we are confident this new strategic partnership taps into our collective strengths to position GreenCollar for its next stage of growth. Carbon credits and environmental offsets remain an important part of the transition towards sustainability and GreenCollar’s continued growth will help to scale this effort further.”

With this new investment, Ontario Teachers’ will join KKR in supporting GreenCollar’s international expansion as well as its growth across water, nature and plastics. Just this year GreenCollar celebrated the establishment of the Reef Credits Registry, validating its foundational work in establishing a world-first water quality market targeting the Great Barrier Reef. It also established a range of pilot projects to reward the positive biodiversity outcomes of good land stewardship under its Nature platform, and registered Australia’s first and the world’s second project under Verra’s plastics standard.

Internationally, GreenCollar’s expansion into new regions includes its plastic recovery projects in West Africa and the Pacific, cook stoves projects in Southern Africa, and its first forest protection projects in South-East Asia.

At one time, carbon dioxide emissions were invisible — not just physically, but economically. But times have certainly changed. The effects of emissions are all too clear — the subject of global movements, of international agreements and a flurry of net-zero commitments from the world’s largest businesses. And in the last decade, the effects of carbon trading have been noticed too. Carbon trading or emissions trading schemes (ETS) are a way to measure and account for the cost of emissions. Their trade is a way to strengthen companies’ emissions reduction strategies by investing in carbon reduction projects.  

Counting Credits 

These tradable units are referred to as carbon credits (Australian Carbon Credit Units or ACCUs in Australia), and represent the one tonne of carbon dioxide or their greenhouse gas equivalent. While Australian carbon credit units (ACCUs) represent one tonne of carbon emitted, because However, the precise monetary impact of this CO2 volume on the planet is difficult to define, so carbon pricing today is decided by either taxes or trading.  

The Market 

Australia’s current carbon crediting model is administered by the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) and involves the exchange of ACCUs for the per-tonne abatement outcomes of verified carbon abatement projects. ACCUs are funded under the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) and sold from ACCU-generating carbon abatement projects to business wanting to offset their emissions. The market is largely voluntary, with businesses making commitments based on ESG and ‘net zero’ targets that deliver benefits to the planet and their brand. Though some of Australia’s larger emitters are required to offset emissions through the scheme’s Safeguard Mechanism. 

 The ERF 

Since 2012, applications for carbon abatement projects can be made through the ERF, a scheme overseen by the Clean Energy Regulator (CER). If eligibility criteria are met (including accepted methodologies and reporting commitments), then an application can be made successfully. Participants with a registered project may then bid for a contract to sell their ACCUs to the CER, who will run auctions to select bidders according to price. Carbon credit income varies between projects and the CER favours projects that plan to deliver the most financially competitive outcomes, to maximise the amount of taxpayer-funded offsetting that can be achieved.  

Eligibility  

Importantly, eligibility for ACCU-generating projects is more varied than many land managers may realise, and include projects such as Avoided Clearing, Human Induced Regeneration, changes to land and livestock management as well as energy projects.  Apart from the significant financial reasons to create and sell carbon credits, these projects create a range of other on-farm and on-Country benefits, including increased soil and water health, improved productivity, enhanced biodiversity and a range of flow-on social benefits to regional communities.   

How to Start Trading 

Carbon credit investment can deliver significant benefits to a company. Some larger emitters are obligated to purchase credits in accordance with the CER’s Safeguard Mechanism, but for others the carbon market is voluntary, a way to meet their ESG commitments and deliver benefits to their brand.  

• The first way is to purchase credits is through the Emission Reduction Fund’s (ERF) project register, which outlines a number of projects for investors to choose from.  
• A second way is to contact projects and project facilitators through the Carbon Market Institute’s (CMI) marketplace.  
• As Australia’s largest environmental markets investor, GreenCollar also works directly with a number of land managers, Indigenous groups and Natural Resource Management organisations, all of which are generating ACCUs for purchase. For investors wanting high-quality, high-integrity and high-value returns, GreenCollar provide projects that offer comprehensive ESG benefits for companies.   

 The Greatest Good 

Monetary and productivity benefits for project managers and ESG benefits to investors are well documented. But the core of the scheme is to actually cost the carbon dioxide that is being emitted into the atmosphere. The CER estimated last year that over 80 million tonnes of CO2 has been abated through Australian carbon farming projects under the ERF. GreenCollar’s own projects are developed with partners that intentionally stack value in their projects to deliver the best environmental outcomes, including preservation of vulnerable habitats, biodiversity enhancement, and significant improvements to water and soil quality — all this on top of carbon abatement. The environmental and social windfalls generated by carbon farming projects are extras ‘additionalities’ (often referred to as ‘co-benefits’) a term that belies their significance when applied at scale. 

The concept of carbon footprints is a familiar one to most: the more you travel, the bigger house you have, the more you consume, the more the footprint grows. Today, there are a plethora of tools to help us dig deeper into the nature of our impact on the climate. Carbon footprint calculators have been developed by everyone from conservation.org to the BBC and are growing more complex in our increasingly data-driven world. Calculating a personal carbon footprint and one for an organisation, while certainly different, are based on the same concept — measuring impact. But obviously with a goods or service-producing organisation, those ripples of impact are much larger.

In Australia, impact is broken down with the company at the centre and out to the radiating influence of what they’re producing, the effect of that, and so on. An organisation’s carbon footprint is measured by the Clean Energy Regular (CER) and is broken down into 3 scopes.

An organisation can measure its footprint by examining its processes and activities like this:

Scope 1 emissions

Scope 1 is direct emissions from company-owned and controlled resources. This includes manufacturing processes, emissions from office energy consumption, and company vehicles. It is essentially all the emissions the company itself creates to make its product or deliver its services.

Scope 2 emissions

Scope 2 are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy. That means, taking into account emissions that are created to generate the energy that an organisation purchases from a utility provider. The actual use of the energy is counted in scope 1, so scope 2 is about taking accountability for the ripple effect of generating the energy in the first place.

Scope 3 emissions

Scope 3 emissions is everything else. It includes all the upstream and downstream emissions related to the company’s activities. For example, if the company sells a product, scope 3 takes into account the emissions generated from the use of that product by the customer. It also takes into account the emissions generated to produce the things that go into making the product. For example, materials, components, parts or ingredients. It even takes into account things like office furniture, IT support, employee travel, transportation and distribution, and end of life – which means looking at how packaging or waste generated are disposed of.

In calculating emissions, some companies find they can lower their impact by introducing or changing current operating systems to reduce their emissions and their impact on the climate and the health of the environment. However, there are also emissions that are unavoidable  or can’t yet be reduced due to current technological limitations.

Increasingly, companies are electing to resolve these unavoidable emissions through offsetting.  Carbon Offsets work by giving these entities a certificate of emissions reduction as a means to both give back to the environment and invest in its future. In Australia, Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) are accrued by carbon abatement projects, which companies can purchase to offset their unavoidable emissions.

In partnering with carbon project managers, GreenCollar’s technical team calculates the project’s potential carbon abatement potential and commercial viability. Using an array of data collection, monitoring and reporting techniques, GreenCollar is able to accurately calculate and enhance the carbon abatement potential of ACCU-generating carbon projects. GreenCollar also works with businesses to develop high-quality, high-integrity offset portfolios, based on extensive due diligence, that enable businesses to move towards net zero goals and develop new carbon neutral products or services, fuelled by projects that deliver significant environmental, social and economic benefits in addition to the measured offset.

We once looked at trees and saw only timber. Nowadays we see biodiversity and habitat too. But increasingly, environmentalists, businesses, and land managers alike are looking at trees and seeing a carbon sink —a means of absorbing CO2, the most abundant greenhouse gas, through a process called carbon sequestration. 

Carbon sequestration is the long-term capture and storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide, a process that happens naturally, but is increasingly encouraged and facilitated to mitigate the effects of climate change. 

Carbon is sequestered naturally via many different systems. It is absorbed by: 

• The biosphere: carbon dioxide absorbed by vegetation via photosynthesis. 
• The pedosphere: carbon dioxide absorbed and stored in soil. 
• The hydrosphere: absorption by the ocean, including marine vegetation and phytoplankton. 
• The lithosphere: assimilation and storage of CO2 into the earth’s minerals (rocks). 

As one of the most significant greenhouse gases because of its abundance and rapid growth in the atmosphere, the abatement and storage of carbon dioxide is of key importance in slowing down the effects of climate change.   

Most would be aware of Australia’s highly political carbon crediting and tax schemes over the last decade, which were designed to slow down and create consequence for large carbon emitters. 

Australia’s national carbon crediting model is administered by the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) and involves the exchange of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) for the outcomes of verified carbon abatement projects. ACCUs are funded under the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) and sold from ACCU-generating projects to business wanting to offset their emissions. The market is largely voluntary, with businesses making commitments based on ESG and ‘net zero’ targets that deliver benefits to the planet and their brand. Though some of Australia’s larger emitters are required to offset emissions through the scheme’s Safeguard Mechanism. 

For land managers, carbon sequestration projects can deliver many benefits — not just in the form of ACCUs, but also on-farm and on-Country benefits that lead directly to a boost in productivity. These include:  

• Avoided Deforestation: Prevents the release of carbon dioxide by preserving forested areas earmarked for clearing andprotecting them for up to 100 years 
• Avoided Clearing: A method that sequesters carbon dioxide by breaking with a property’s current or historic clearing regime and providing increased capacity for vegetative carbon absorption.  
• Human Induced Regeneration: A carbon sequestration method that absorbs and stores carbon dioxide by changing land management practices and allowing native vegetation to regrow. 
• Soil Carbon Projects: Use sustainable and regenerative agriculture methods to help remediate soil health and build soil carbon. 
• Savanna Burning Projects: A method that limits carbon dioxide released by unmanaged wildfire through controlled and cooler burns as well as wildfire containment.  
• Beef Herd Management: A way to sequester carbon dioxide through livestock management and changing animal traffic to minimise soil disturbance.  

These methods, as well as the significant carbon abatement benefits and financial benefits to land managers, also are methods that lead to soil improvement, biodiversity enhancement, increased water health, and lead to improvements in productivity, tilling, and irrigation systems.   

GreenCollar’s project management focusses on this stacking of values, and works with the land manager to maximise both the environmental and business benefits that accrue as a result of carbon farming projects. Coupling specialist data monitoring and reporting with site visits, GreenCollar can assist land managers in unlocking the full potential  their land has to offer. 

Carbon is an invisible yet ever-present by-product of doing business—amassing in production and procurement; accruing as we power our offices and transport our goods. But value in carbon credits is starting to stack up too. There is an ever-growing number of reasons to offset the greenhouse gas emissions in your value chain. Aside from making a tangible commitment to climate change mitigation it might be the brand benefits delivered by carbon neutrality, or it might be direct investment in Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) as their value continues to climb.

With such a groundswell—both locally and internationally—towards the fulfillment of carbon offset commitments and with direct organisational benefits so clearly on display, it begs the question: Can just anyone call themselves carbon neutral.

The short answer is no, or at least, not with any credibility.

The Climate Active Carbon Neutral Standard (CACNS)—Formally known as the National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS)—is an organisational standard, rooted in international best practice and contextualised for the local carbon market. Organisations seeking CACNS certification need to display adherence to five main pillars of quality assurance when seeking verification:

• Relevance: accurately reflecting the nature of their greenhouse gas output
• Completeness:  reporting of emissions is undertaken completely
• Consistency: Utilising consistent metrics to measure carbon output
• Transparency: Compiling reporting data in a clear, coherent manner
• Accuracy: Remaining unbiased and accurate in the quantification of emissions

The CACNS captures a growing need for quality control in verification, not just for organisations seeking to mitigate their climate impact, but for buildings and precincts, events, services and products. Under the standard, applicants are required to calculate emissions and adopt an emission reduction strategy before carbon credits can be purchased. After carbon credits are purchased, validation is arranged before a public summary of the carbon neutral claim is published.

So how does this standard affect companies wishing to offset their emissions? Well as with all standards, it’s about quality. Recently, the rapid development of the carbon market has seen the focus around offset quality grow in measure with the industry’s financial potential. The Carbon Market Institute (CMI) are currently recommending more standardised reporting criteria and increased transparency in the market through the implementation of the Carbon Industry Code of Conduct, while companies settling bids for carbon neutrality by purchasing low-value credits make national news.

The effect of the CACNS on carbon offsets is ensuring a level of confidence that a credit can fulfil its basic principle. As the industry moves forward, it seems increasingly likely that low-value projects will produce fewer rewards for companies wanting to reduce their carbon footprint.

What are carbon credits?

A carbon credit is a certificate that represents one tonne of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gas equivalent.  In Australia these are called Australian carbon credit units (ACCUs) and because the precise monetary impact of this CO₂ volume on the planet is difficult to define, carbon pricing today is decided by either taxes or trading. Though generally speaking, the price of carbon credits, amid growing net zero commitments from companies and government worldwide, is rising — and projected to double by 2030. 

How to earn carbon credits

Applications for carbon projects can be made through the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF), a scheme overseen by the Clean Energy Regulator (CER). If eligibility criteria are met (including accepted methodologies and reporting commitments), then an application can be made. Participants with a registered project may then bid for a contract to sell their ACCUs to the CER, who will run auctions to select bidders according to price. Carbon credit income varies between projects, but publications like Farm Online have reported substantial gains: “A 1000-hectare wheat farm that’s sequestering three tonnes per hectare per annum is going to be making 3000 carbon credits a year.” With carbon credits trading at around $22 in July 2021 and predicted to keep rising, that’s a decent return.

Partnering with GreenCollar to develop your project is a way to ensure you’re maximising your profits and project impact. GreenCollar’s technical team calculates the project’s potential carbon abatement potential and commercial viability, and works with land managers to tailor the project to their needs — this includes data collection and site visits. All ongoing monitoring and reporting processes are taken care of by GreenCollar, and the land manager can receive the first of their ongoing project revenues after approximately 18 months depending on stakeholder consents.

Importantly, eligibility for ACCU-generating projects is more varied than many land managers may realise, and include projects such as:

• Avoided clearing – protecting growing forest from future scheduled clearing by breaking with the property’s historical clearing regime.
• Avoided deforestation – preservation of native forest on property that has previously received government consent to be cleared and converted to cropland or pasture.
• Human-induced regeneration – allows natural regrowth of native vegetation by making management changes such as changes to grazing patterns, installation of new infrastructure, and cessation of regrowth clearing.
• Beef herd management – Aims to improve soil health and carbon sequestration through changes in livestock systems.
• Soil carbon projects – Manage the environmental cost and efficiency of farm systems to better serve the health of the farm, soil, and water and increase carbon uptake by changing irrigation and tilling systems.

Why earn carbon credits?

There are significant financial reasons to earn carbon credits. The diversification of income creates increased and ongoing economic resilience for farmers. But there are also a range of other on-farm, benefits that come from carbon projects. The environmental and social windfalls generated by projects are extras — often referred to as ‘co-benefits’ — and the benefits for land managers can be equally varied. One of the most crucial ways carbon farming can directly increase productivity is through soil improvement. A change in land management practices such as changes to tilling and irrigation regimes results in measurable increases in soil function and fertility as well as increased water and nutrient retention in plants — all of which contribute to enhanced productivity. Increased or preserved vegetation cover has also been proven to lessen the severity of seasonal events such as heat stress in livestock and frost in colder months. This is further enhanced by a range of environmental benefits which include: increased biodiversity above and below ground, habitat protection for endangered species, and increased soil and water health in the landscape.

How to claim carbon credits

Claiming ACCUs can be achieved through the Reporting and Crediting Form, found on the Emissions Reduction Fund’s (ERF) Client Portal. To claim, participants need a completed and signed ACCU application, an eligible offsets report for the reporting period, and method-specific supporting documentation. A comprehensive list of how to claim is available on the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) website, but by working with a project developer such as GreenCollar, land managers can hand the administrative burden of applications, documentation and reporting over and concentrate on implementing their project on the ground.

How to invest in carbon credits

Carbon credit investment can deliver significant benefits to a company. Some larger emitters are obligated to purchase credits in accordance with the CER’s Safeguard Mechanism, but for others the carbon market is voluntary, a way to meet their ESG commitments and deliver benefits to their brand.

• The first way is to purchase credits is through the Emission Reduction Fund’s (ERF) project register, which outlines a number of projects for investors to choose from.
• A second way is to contact projects and project facilitators through the Carbon Market Institute’s (CMI) marketplace.
• As Australia’s largest environmental markets investor, GreenCollar works directly with a number of land managers, Indigenous groups and Natural Resource Management organisations, all of which are generating ACCUs for purchase. For investors wanting high quality, high-integrity credits and high-value returns, GreenCollar provides projects that offer comprehensive ESG benefits for companies.

You’re great at raising livestock or growing crops, but have you ever thought of farming carbon? While it may not the first thing you think of cultivating, carbon is increasingly profitable, works alongside your current farming operation, and can even increase productivity.

What is Carbon Farming?

Key to the success of carbon farming is carbon sequestration. Sequestration is a naturally-occurring process where carbon is absorbed by the landscape and becomes stored in soil or converted to new growth by vegetation. The emission of CO₂ into the atmosphere is the leading cause of climate change, and reducing carbon release remains the core aim of carbon farming projects.

Carbon projects avoid carbon emissions and increase carbon sequestration through changes in land management practices, but that doesn’t mean you have to lock up your land or de-stock. If done well, carbon projects complement existing operations to deliver benefits for business as well as the environment.

Carbon Farming in Australia

In Australia, land managers have participated in carbon farming initiatives since 2011, when the first scheme was introduced through the Emissions Reduction Fund.

Today, carbon farming has evolved in size and scope, with around 100 million carbon credits awarded to successful projects under the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) to date. Each project uses an approved methodology that suits its location, farming practice, land availability and land-use history. There are approximately 1,000 projects currently registered across all States and Territories in Australia and demand for high quality, high integrity carbon credits in the voluntary sector is increasing. McKinsey estimates that globally 95 million carbon credits were retired by voluntary buyers in 2020 alone, and expects demand to be 15 times higher by 2030.

Funding For Carbon Farming

The ERF is a government-run offsets program which allows land managers to implement carbon storage or emissions reduction (commonly known as abatement) activities to generate and sell carbon credits. These activities can include changes to vegetation clearing regimes, revegetation and pest control management strategies, changes to tilling, chemical and land use systems, and altered fire management practices. These methodologies (outlined below) reduce vegetation suppression and soil degradation, in turn increasing the carbon sequestration potential of the land.

The carbon credits land managers are awarded for successful projects are called Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) and represent one tonne of stored or avoided carbon dioxide (or non-carbon greenhouse gas equivalent) (tCO2-e). All ACCUs are awarded through approved management activities and methodologies.

Carbon credits (ACCUs) are purchased by the government, through the Emissions Reduction Fund, or by individuals and companies wishing to voluntarily offset their emissions – a trend that is growing exponentially.

At the highest end, the global voluntary carbon market is predicted to be valued at more than $50 billion by 2030. The ACCU spot price reached $22 at the end of July 2021 and some commentators predict that it will double by 2030.

Eligible Carbon Farming Methods

Carbon farming methodologies available through the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) range from savanna burning projects and vegetation management projects to changes in on-farm agricultural systems. There are a variety of ways to participate and profit.

Vegetation projects achieve net carbon reductions by maximising the amount of on-farm vegetation available to store carbon. There are a number of eligible activities that may be implemented for vegetation management:

• Human-Induced Regeneration projects aim to regenerate parts of a property where vegetation has previously been or is currently being suppressed – usually by mechanical or chemical destruction, or overgrazing by livestock and feral animals. Management practice changes such as the installation of infrastructure to enable rotational grazing, and effective management of feral animals allows natural regrowth of native vegetation.  Regenerated bushland and forests decelerate greenhouse gas release and store carbon, while improving soil health, water retention and biodiversity.
• Avoided Deforestation projects preserve areas of native forest which have previously received government consent to be cleared and converted to cropland or grassland. Projects generate carbon credits for landholders who maintain the forest and do not clear the land. Carbon abatement is achieved by not clearing native vegetation and avoiding the release of emissions.
• Avoided Clearing projects protect growing forest from future scheduled clearing. Carbon is stored in native regrowth that is scheduled to be cleared under a property’s historical clearing regime. To be eligible there must be evidence of two historical clearing events that have occurred where unrestricted clearing was permitted and cropping or grazing has been undertaken.

There are also other valuable methods and carbon abatement strategies that place more emphasis on altering existing farm systems.

• Soil Carbon projects earn carbon credits by storing carbon in soil, a process stacked with ecological benefits proven to boost soil quality and therefore, cattle and crop yield. Soil carbon sequestration and regenerative agriculture is seen as the most important and cost-effective system for storing and abating global CO₂ levels. Environmental consultant Energetics suggest that improved farming and land management as well as low carbon transport could contribute to most of Australia’s abatement targets by 2030.  Many techniques can be used to build soil carbon, and can include:

• • Increasing the input rate of carbon, through the planting of vegetation or input of compost or mulch
  • Changing fertiliser application and timing
  • Altering irrigation methods
  • Decreasing activities that cause carbon loss, such as stubble burning or vegetation clearing
  • Changing grazing and tilling practices to reduce soil impact and disturbance
  • Altering the soil profile to a composition that increases residence time of carbon in the soil, such as adding clay to sandy soils

Beef Herd Projects involve cattle and dairy farmers across livestock, grazing, and broadacre farming. These methods provide carbon abatement and productivity benefits by improving the overall health, nutrition, age structure and productive efficiency of cattle to reduce emissions and generate carbon credits. Projects have to be undertaken on a sufficiently large herd of 10,000 head or greater, and may include dietary adjustments, reducing the average age of the herd, reducing the proportion of unproductive cattle or changing the number of cattle within each livestock class within the herd.

• Animal Effluent Management Methods are for farmers with piggeries or dairies and reduce emissions by introducing new ways to treat waste by destructing methane.

(Updated 2 October 2024). 

Along with raising livestock or growing crops, carbon farming can be integrated into your current farming operation to generate an additional and diversified income stream that supports primary production. When done well, it can even boost your productivity and improve your land health and resilience.  

It may sound too good to be true, but the key to a successful project looking holistically at the land and your operation, identifying which potential carbon farming projects would positively impact your property and can align with your long-term farming goals.  

What is carbon farming?

At face value, carbon farming is simply adjusting the way you manage your land to prevent the release of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. It sounds easy, but it can be quite complex. The key is identifying and implementing new and additional practices that hold carbon in vegetation and soils. It can be a single land management change or a whole of farm approach by managing water, plants, and livestock.  

Eligible activities that landholders can undertake to produce carbon credits include: 

• changes to livestock management 
• protecting native vegetation at risk of clearing  
• regeneration or reforestation of native vegetation 
• improving soil carbon. 

The main goal of carbon farming is reducing the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere, as well as generating a fresh source of income for the landholder.