Arlington, Virginia-based EarthOptics has launched its Soil Carbon Project, a product labeling initiative to benefit the consumer packaged goods industry.
By serving as the one-stop-shop for soil carbon measurement, EarthOptics enables CPG companies to quantitatively demonstrate to customers that the agriculturally sourced ingredients of each climate-smart product positively contributes to world carbon neutrality goals through verified net additions of soil carbon.
Soil carbon sequestration is an important piece of the climate-change mitigation puzzle since almost 45 percent of global soil is used for agricultural purposes, and soil can store about 2.3 times the amount of carbon compared to the carbon in atmospheric CO2 and 3.5 times more than in living plants.
To qualify for the EarthOptics Soil Carbon Project, a product must contain raw ingredients, like agricultural crops, that are grown in soil where they draw carbon from the atmosphere to store in the soil. The Soil Carbon Project label will clearly display how much CO2 was removed from the atmosphere and stored in the soil. This information is validated through EarthOptics technology that combines on-field sensors, patented ML and baseline soil core samples to determine the soil-property measurement and analysis.
“For a labeling initiative to be successful, it needs to be accurate and trustworthy. Measuring soil carbon retention for food and other consumer goods historically has been a costly and time-intensive endeavor. What we’ve been able to do at EarthOptics is move the soil carbon needle from estimation to accurate, verifiable measurements,” said Lars Dyrud, EarthOptics CEO.
“Consumers will be able to look at our Soil Carbon Project label and appreciate that the corn used to make their cornflakes took one pound of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and kept it in the soil, or the grain used to produce a six-pack of beer took 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.”
Through the intelligence of its ML, EarthOptics has been able to reduce by 70 percent the number of soil core samples. EarthOptics, through a partnership with Virginia Polytechnic Institute, North Carolina State University and the University of Arkansas, continues to research and validate the ability of their MRV technology to dramatically lower the cost and complexity of soil carbon measurement.
By collaborating with CPG companies and farmers, EarthOptics can enable more climate-smart management practices. Using the EarthOptics technology suite, farmers are able to make more informed decisions that can help them become smarter and sequester more carbon.
By tilling only where needed, farmers limit the amount of carbon released from the soil through tillage, as well as realize cost-savings in fuel, equipment and labor.
To learn more, visit earthoptics.com.
