Summary: There are many carbon programs out there, but how will you know which one to choose? The quality of a carbon credit is important to overall farmer profitability as well as long-term demand for the carbon credits generated, but quality can be hard to determine. At Indigo, we only issue registry–certified carbon credits.
While there are many carbon programs for farmers, a credit without the registry seal is not necessarily a valid credit within the marketplace. Buyers of these carbon credits want to know the standardization and validity of these credits generated, which is why being registry certified by an independent body is the only way to ensure buyer confidence in the credit and thus maximum profit for growers.
Take the USDA Organic label, for example. Shoppers know that seeing the Organic label on their eggs means buyers can have confidence that the eggs meet organic requirements, while eggs lacking that third-party certification can make buyers have doubts. The Organic label ensures that the producer of the eggs has met certain government standards and guidelines for growing and processing. This type of verification adds value to the price of an item since the buyer can have confidence it has met certain standards.
In the same way, carbon registries provide third-party certification to growers’ carbon credits, telling buyers that objective third parties have reviewed the credits and found them to meet standards. Registry-issued carbon credits are therefore held with higher confidence in the market, and farmers can be assured that the market value of their credits is maximized. In order to get registry approval, carbon credits must meet a stringent list of 10 criteria: additionality, permanence, leakage, conservativeness, relevance, completeness, consistency, transparency, accuracy, and ownership.
Carbon by Indigo is the only agricultural carbon program operating at scale that meets these 10 criteria. The only one. And what that means is our carbon credits are the highest quality on the market.
Our methodology has been approved by two of the world leaders in standard setting for carbon projects, The Climate Action Reserve and Verra. Because of this high-quality “stamp of approval,” buyers demand our credits, in turn generating premium revenue streams for our farmers. It’s especially valuable as questions about carbon have arisen with the new federal administration, and the USDA has expressed interest in a voluntary carbon market, which would make our registry approved credits even more valuable.