Program can help fight climate change and increase food security by monetizing carbon farming and driving adoption of award-winning technology that boost crop yields
SOLON, Ohio (April 29, 2020) — CarbonNOW™, an innovative program launched in January by Locus Agricultural Solutions® (Locus AG), was named yesterday as a Fast Company World Changing Ideas 2020 Awards finalist in the food category. CarbonNOW has the potential to address climate change and food security by monetizing carbon farming and providing access to a technology that accelerates carbon sequestration and boosts crop yields and nutrients.
Farmers that enroll in CarbonNOW and use Rhizolizer®— Locus AG’s global award-winning, game-changing soil “probiotic” technology—with their regenerative agriculture practices will get paid for each ton of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) sequestered per acre. Payments can come directly from companies that want to offset emissions or indirectly from companies that buy credits through agriculture-based exchanges such as Nori’s carbon removal marketplace.
“We created CarbonNOW with the understanding that we can’t stop climate change or address food security if we don’t change how food is grown. The fastest way to achieve that at scale is to pay growers to farm carbon and provide an easy-to-use technology that accelerates sequestration and boosts crop quality and quantity,” said Grant Aldridge, Locus AG’s CEO. “Having Fast Company recognize our CarbonNOW program as a World Changing Idea can drive adoption and give struggling growers a much-needed revenue stream.”
Unlike other carbon exchange programs, Nori’s marketplace will compensate CarbonNOW participants in full this year for the past five years of conservation practices. Farmers can maximize money earned by using Rhizolizer, which has been shown to increase yields by over 40 percent and store record amounts of CO2e per acre.
“This recognition bolsters our credentials as a certified B Corp™ that balances profit and purpose,” said Aldridge. “We’re proud to join this year’s cohort of World Changing Ideas winners that are rising to meet a number of our most pressing global challenges.”
Now in its fourth year, the World Changing Ideas Awards showcase 26 winners, more than 200 finalists, and more than 500 honorable mentions—with Health and Wellness, Corporate Social Responsibility and AI and Data among the most popular categories. A panel of eminent judges selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 3,000 entries across transportation, education, food, politics, technology and more. The 2020 awards feature entries from across the globe, from Vancouver to Singapore to Tel Aviv. Fast Company’s May/June issue will celebrate how some of the world’s most inventive entrepreneurs and companies are addressing grave global challenges.
“There seems no better time to recognize organizations that are using their ingenuity, resources and, in some cases, their scale to tackle society’s biggest problems,” says Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “Our journalists, under the leadership of senior editor Morgan Clendaniel, have uncovered some of the smartest and most inspiring projects of the year.”
For more information on the program, visit LocusAG.com/CarbonNOW.
###
About Locus Agricultural Solutions®
Locus Agricultural Solutions® (Locus AG) is an agtech B Corp™ that is helping to solve the interrelated challenges of climate change and food security. Its innovative, award-winning microbial soil “probiotics” technology and CarbonNOW™ program give farmers a new way to boost yields and income and sequester carbon while reducing operating costs and environmental impact. Locus AG gets its core scientific capabilities from its parent company, Locus Fermentation Solutions (Locus FS), an Ohio-based, globally recognized green technology company. For more information, visit LocusAG.com.
About the World Changing Ideas Awards
World Changing Ideas is one of Fast Company’s major annual awards programs and is focused on social good, seeking to elevate finished products and brave concepts that make the world better. A panel of judges from across sectors choose winners, finalists, and honorable mentions based on feasibility and the potential for impact. With a goal of awarding ingenuity and fostering innovation, Fast Company draws attention to ideas with great potential and helps them expand their reach to inspire more people to start working on solving the problems that affect us all.