Highlights from our 2022 Annual Report 

May 31, 2023

We successfully launched our market program, Eco-Harvest, in May 2022, which was the culmination of many years’ collective work coming to fruition. Our ambitious goal to launch a producer-focused ecosystem services market program was achieved through diligent year-to-year progress and achievement.

We invite you to review our 2022 Annual Report which highlights our major accomplishments last year. In addition to Eco-Harvest market program launch, we expanded our project regions and crops, announced a roadmap with General Mills, and continued a valuable partnership with SustainCERT.

Eco-Harvest is the science-based, standards-based market program we envisioned. But there is so much more to do. We look forward to expanding and enlarging our timeline to show how Eco-Harvest projects create measurable greenhouse gas reductions/removals as well as other ecosystem services outcomes for regenerative agriculture.

Key Highlights from 2022

• We successfully launched our market program, Eco-Harvest, in May 2022, which was the culmination of many years’ collective work coming to fruition. This launch signified the readiness of Eco-Harvest – an end-to-end digitized and advanced technology program and platform to generate high quality, third-party verified credits for soil carbon removals, avoided and reduced greenhouse gases, and water impacts from US farms. Dr. LaKisha Odom, the Scientific Program Director at FFAR, noted at the launch event: “ESMC is a poster child for how collaborative funding and research catalyzes innovation. This consortium is an amazing opportunity to support soil health research, incentivize adoption of soil health practices and provide a science-based methodology to measure the impact of these practices.”
• We announced a multi-year roadmap to scale Eco-Harvest with General Mills; this roadmap focuses on priority regions in the U.S. and Canada where General Mills sources its key ingredients, like wheat, oat, corn, and dairy. The initial $3 million investment from General Mills includes an ESMC grant to support the launch and development of Eco-Harvest and funds to scale regional programs.

• Our Eco-Harvest market program was the first to reach pilot certification under the Value Change Initiative in the US. Eco-Harvest achieved project design certification, which means it aligns with the Value Change Initiative Guidance. A subset of enrolled Eco-Harvest producers was also verified to show the reported soil carbon removals and GHG reductions are materially correct, making ESMC’s program the first Value Chain Intervention to reach this milestone of combined validation and verification in the US.
• We are a partner on seven USDA Climate Smart Commodity Grants; five were announced in September and two additional awards were announced in December.
• Our Eco-Harvest measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) platform was updated throughout 2022 to include multiple enhancements reflecting the needs and feedback of our project partners.
• We released a number of research reports through ESMRC, our research consortium. These were made possible by our member working groups, collaborations with technical contractors, and the generous support of FFAR. Part of our mission is to share research findings with the broader scientific community, and we will continue to produce and release reports along these lines to accomplish that mission.