Groundwork BioAg has issued the first verified credits from its carbon dioxide removal (CDR) program called Rootella Carbon®. The company specializes in a high-durability CO2 removal pathway centered around mycorrhizal soil fungi.
The Rootella Carbon® program has now generated 19,568 Verified Carbon Units (net), which have been independently verified by SCS Global underVerra’s Verified Carbon Standard. Portions of the credits have already been contracted in multiple purchase agreements.
This milestone issuance marks the company’s transition from pipeline development to active delivery in the voluntary carbon market. Groundwork BioAg is the first to bring mycorrhizal fungi-driven soil CDR to commercial scale under a rigorous third-party registry framework in the US.
Rootella Carbon® enables farmers to access the voluntary carbon market through the sales of soil CO2 credits from agricultural activities centered around mycorrhizal inoculants.
Mycorrhizal Carbon sequesters 1.5–3.5 tCO₂e/ac (4–9 tCO₂e/ha) annually. The mycorrhizae fungi species catalyzes the formation of Mineral-Associated Organic Matter (MAOM), the persistent CO2 pool that is stable for centuries to millennia, regardless of cultivation methods.
According to Groundwork BioAg, the Rootella Carbon® project delivers 100% carbon removal, with no avoidance credits, and it represents the most cost-effective, high-durability, high-integrity CDR program on the market today.
The company shares that the project’s grower enrollment has scaled from approximately 9,000 acres (3.6 kha) in 2023 to over 700,000 acres (280 kha) of cropland across the US Midwest and Canadian prairies today.
Relevant: Groundwork BioAg And Anew Climate To Commercialize 500,000 Tons Of Soil CDR Credits
Farmers participating in Rootella Carbon® receive up to 70% of the net proceeds from CDR credit sales. Larry McClendon, a participating grower from Marianna, Arkansas said “We’re seeing positive results in building soil carbon, and those results are being quantified. This gives me confidence that the Rootella Carbon program is delivering real outcomes.”
Commenting on behalf of Verra, CEO Mandy Rambharos stated, “VM0042 was designed to bring rigorous, science-based accounting to agricultural land management: a sector with enormous carbon removal potential across US farmland that’s barely been tapped.”
She added, “This first issuance in the country across a program now spanning more than 700,000 acres shows the methodology working as intended on the ground.”
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