Microsoft has purchased soil drawdown carbon credits from Grassroots Carbon, helping support grassland ecosystem health in the United States.
The credits represent carbon sequestered over 30 years through regenerative management of grasslands. With about 41% of U.S. grasslands currently used for livestock grazing, they maintain the capacity to sequester over 500 million tons of carbon each year. However, since about 95% of these grasslands are managed using conventional methods, soil carbon is typically depleted and land is degraded rather than improved.
Improving soil health through regenerative agricultural practices, beyond its carbon-sequestering abilities, provides environmental benefits such as enhancing water storage, preventing erosion, and improving overall grassland ecology. Grasslands are known to be an endangered ecosystem in the U.S., and they house many of North America’s most endangered species.
The companies said it is Microsoft's first investment in carbon credits generated from regeneratively managed grasslands.
Grassroots Carbon partners with ranchers that have grazing cattle, more than 500 acres of land, and are practicing or considering regenerative agriculture.
Partners are paid 80% of the overall carbon credit sale, determined based on the number of carbon credits generated while under contract, allowing participants to improve their land while generating additional income. So far, Grassroots Carbon has disbursed about $2 million to ranchers throughout the U.S.
One key regenerative agricultural practice for grasslands is rotational grazing, a technique that involves dividing land into paddocks and moving livestock through the different areas, leaving other parts of the land open. Rotational grazing allows grasses to rest and regrow to grazing height, overall improving soil structure, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration potential.
A number of new technologies have also been developed to help farmers map soils, including Grassroots Carbon's tool, PastureMap. These applications may further improve regenerative agricultural practices as an increasing number of farmers work to benefit from carbon markets.
“Supporting high-quality soil carbon credit solutions is part of Microsoft’s carbon removal strategy,“ said Phil Goodman, director of Microsoft’s carbon removal portfolio. “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.”
