Trimble Ag Division Hailed as Leader in Carbon Offsets
May 31, 2017
Agri-Trend Aggregation, a division of Trimble Ag Business Solutions, is capturing headlines for being a key driver in the the first beef carbon offset project in the world.
Bill Dorgan, Agri-Trend Aggregation Business Unit Leader, worked with Feedlot Health Management Services in Alberta to establish the groundbreaking project that saw participating feedlots engage in verified practices that earned carbon offsets worth approximately $1million to the emitters involved in the exchange. Many more feedlots are expected to participate going forward.
“It’s an opportunity for everybody involved with agricultural sustainability to put out to the world what we’re doing in terms of greenhouse gas reduction and climate change,” Dorgan said in a recent media interview with a Canadian agriculture newspaper.
The project resulted in mitigation of emissions in feedlot beef cattle, and is a clear example of what the agricultural sector can accomplish in terms of greenhouse gas emission reduction and the use of offsets, said Dorgan.
While this is the first carbon offset program involving a feedlot,
Dorgan has been helping Alberta farmers pocket cash by trading carbon offsets for years.
Carbon credits are produced by farmers under several protocols including Zero Tillage farming practices and the soon-to-be approved Nitrogen Emission Management program. Essentially, these efforts help farmers do their part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by observing certain standards that reduce CO2 emissions. In exchange, they can sell those carbon credits back to heavy industry to ‘offset’ their emissions. These best practices help the environment, focus on good agronomy and provide a significant financial benefit to farmers.
The agricultural sector generates approximately 10 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions across Canada. However, since 2007, over 11 million tonnes of CO2 have been removed from the atmosphere in Alberta by improving agricultural management. Through farm data software such as Trimble Ag Business Software, growers can track the success of environmentally sustaining practices such as NERP — the Nitrous Oxide Emission Protocol — which was designed to meet international standards for improving nitrogen management in cropping systems and quantifying the nitrous oxide reduction associated with better nitrogen management.
Dorgan’s work helping farmers trade emission offsets has generated an estimated $35 million to Alberta farmers’ pockets.
Learn more about Trimble Carbon Credits and how you can start generating carbon offsets on your farm today.