Enrich your soil, improve your profit potential with Carbon by Indigo

To be eligible for payment in the program, you will need to:*

• Farm field crops in a state within Indigo's current service area (Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin)
• Adopt or advance at least one new carbon farming practice, such as adding cover crops, increasing cover crop diversity or growth period, reducing tillage, improving nitrogen timing, or diversifying your rotation
• Submit field and management information by required deadlines, beginning with entering your field boundaries in our web platform (or importing from third-party systems)
• Increase carbon sequestration and/or reduce greenhouse gas emissions on your farm, as determined by Indigo based on your farm records

Carbon can be thought of like a crop, similar to the other crops you produce on your farm. A carbon credit (also known as a carbon offset) represents either greenhouse gases (GHG) removed from the atmosphere or greenhouse gas emissions reduced. In the case of farming, carbon credits are created based on carbon dioxide you draw down into your soil and GHG emissions you reduce above the soil (for example, through improved nitrogen timing) – beyond what was already happening on your farm.

Carbon credits operate like crops in some ways. If you produce corn to sell, the buyer will want to know the quantity and quality. Grain handlers will want to facilitate that trade by meeting those information needs. So they weigh your corn and test it for quality so the buyer can have confidence in your product.

Similarly, carbon credits measure and track the quantity of additional carbon sequestered in the soil and GHG emissions reduced. Our carbon program supports and guides you in carbon farming, and generates carbon credits through modeling, soil samples, analysis, and handling of all the paperwork with the carbon registries. We also recruit and manage a global network of carbon credit buyers, including major corporations like JPMorgan Chase, Ralph Lauren Corporation, The North Face, and Barclays.

A carbon credit must be real, additional, and permanent, as well as independently verified and uniquely claimed.

• Real: Credits are generated through complete, accurate, and thorough accounting methods.
• Additional: The credit leads to GHG reductions that would not have happened without the incentive provided by the carbon market.
• Permanent: The changes in the project's carbon stock represent a permanent change in the net soil carbon pool.
• Independently Verified: Project methods, data, and reports undergo rigorous third-party auditing prior to issuing credits.
• Uniquely Claimed: Credits are owned by one entity at a time, from creation to retirement.

Because Carbon by Indigo is the ONLY registry-approved ag carbon program at scale, carbon credit buyers are willing to pay premium prices for our premium credits. This is important for farmers who want to generate top dollar for their carbon farming.

Investors, consumers, and employees are all demanding that companies reduce their impact on the environment and climate. Hundreds of companies have set voluntary targets for themselves to reach certain levels of greenhouse gas emissions – for example, achieving “net-zero emissions” status, in which they are emitting no incremental greenhouse gases into the atmosphere from their activities. In cases where a company or organization is unable to reduce their emissions enough to achieve their target (for example, an airline which relies on carbon-based fuels), that organization would buy carbon credits to help reach their overall net emissions goal. One quarter of the Fortune 500 companies have already set greenhouse gas emissions goals and more are doing so every month.

No. Just like buyers of yellow #2 corn, carbon credit buyers place a premium on credits that meet their desired requirements.

By following a registry-approved methodology and using rigorous data collection and modeling, we produce carbon credits with the greatest certainty and accuracy of measurement. This certainty is what carbon buyers look for in the “quality” of a carbon credit – confidence that the environmental impact is real and long-lasting.

Carbon by Indigo is the ONLY registry-approved ag carbon program at scale and produces the highest quality carbon credits, which allows us to generate the most carbon revenue for farmers over the long term.

The current list of qualifying practice changes include:

• Adding cover crops (for the first time, extending the duration, or diversifying your mix)
• Diversifying your crop rotation
• Reducing or eliminating tillage
• Improving nitrogen timing

If a field with a spring/summer crop first enrolls in the program before May 1, 2023, you can generate credits in the 2023 carbon crop from practice changes conducted from post-harvest 2021 through harvest 2023. (For winter crops, the timing is similar but has some variations.) After a field’s first carbon crop in the program, a 1-year eligibility window (instead of 2 years) applies.

Carbon credit buyers only want to pay for carbon sequestration and emissions reductions that are truly additional and would not have occurred without the grower receiving carbon credit revenue. For this reason, practice changes made farther in the past do not count toward carbon credit production. Because registry-issued ag carbon credits are rare (Indigo is currently the only program producing them), carbon credit buyers are willing to pay premium prices for our high-quality credits. This is also why we can guarantee a limited time minimum credit price.

Participation in Carbon by Indigo includes free access to our web platform where you will use it to map/import field boundaries you want to enroll in the program, sign a contract per field, and then enter records for each contracted field in order for Indigo to determine credits generate and pay you.

Field records consist of indicating if 8 events occurred on the field and, if they occurred, providing supporting information and documentation. Examples include: planting and harvest dates, fertilizer types, amounts, and application dates, and tillage types and dates, as well as information on cover crop types, dates, and planting and termination methods, and organic amendments where applicable. For your first year, this information is needed for the last 3-5 years as well as the current season. Field records can be entered two ways:

1. On your desktop computer
2. Imported via John Deere Operations Center^TM

 Learn More Here. 

We recognize the importance of your agronomic information. It’s the foundation of your business. That’s why Indigo is committed to data privacy and why our data practices have been certified by Ag Data Transparent. You can read about our Data Integrity Policy here.

Demand for agriculture-based carbon credits has accelerated over the last year, which is why Carbon by Indigo is pleased to offer growers the security of a price floor, plus unlimited upside as the price rises. We are offering a guaranteed minimum payment rate for growers of $20 per carbon credit starting with the 2021 crop, and as the price increases you stand to earn even more.