Browse Ambrook’s collection of environmental markets for agricultural operations.

Create a free account and enter basic operation information to check eligibility. Indigo provides a carbon calculator to estimate earning potential by location and practice change before enrolling. Enrollment is digital, and growers can review the terms and conditions of the Carbon contract during the enrollment process.

Questions about whether an operation qualifies can go to customersupport@indigoag.com.

Carbon by Indigo pays farmers for carbon sequestered through practice changes on cropland, rather than&#x2004;a lump sum or single payment for practice change. The standard program returns 75% of the weighted carbon credit purchase price directly to the farmer, and farmers always take home 75% or more of the carbon credit average sale amount.


Credits are issued by the Climate Action Reserve (CAR), an independent third-party registry, which confirms their eligibility for sale. Indigo describes the program as the largest registry-approved agricultural soil carbon program in the market, with more than 2 million credits issued to date.



Carbon by Indigo pays farmers for carbon sequestered through practice changes on cropland, rather than a lump sum or single payment for practice change. The standard program returns 75% of the weighted carbon credit purchase price directly to the farmer, and farmers always take home 75% or more of the carbon credit average sale amount.

Credits are issued by the Climate Action Reserve (CAR), an independent third-party registry, which confirms their eligibility for sale. Indigo describes the program as the largest registry-approved agricultural soil carbon program in the market, with more than 2 million credits issued to date.

There are eight criteria your operation needs to meet to be eligible for the Carbon by Indigo program:

1. Location — fields must be located in an eligible state. The program is available across all 48 continental US states.
2. Land use — at this time, only cropland is eligible. Indigo states it aims to expand to other land use types, such as pastureland, in the future.
3. Crops — you must grow a currently supported crop on the fields you would like to contract, and have exclusively planted eligible crops on those fields in the last five years (excluding crops grown as covers). Eligible crops: alfalfa, barley, dry beans or peas, canola, corn, cotton, flax, millet, oats, peanuts, rye, sorghum or milo, soybeans, sugar beets, sunflowers, triticale, wheat.
4. Practice change — you must make a practice change on your farm. Eligible practices include planting cover crops, reducing tillage, diversifying crop rotation, and improving nitrogen timing. Cover crops are the best way to maximize payment.
5. Other programs — fields currently enrolled in other carbon credit programs are not eligible. Fields under some conservation agreements may also be ineligible: fields in CRP are ineligible, but fields utilizing EQIP or CSP are eligible.
6. Tenure — fields must have been used in agricultural production for at least the past ten years.
7. Uncommon situations — a few scenarios may make a field ineligible, including clearing native ecosystems, farming on histosols, reclaiming mining land, and adding tile drains during the Carbon contract period.
8. Record keeping — you are required to submit detailed field records, which may include planting dates, fertilizer type, and application method, depending on your operation.

Indigo also states the program is open to farmers who grow any of 18 types of crops on at least 150 acres, enrolling at least one field.

A contract to sell an environmental outcome the operation produces - sequestered carbon, a water-quality credit, a habitat credit - to a buyer, rather than receiving an award. Payment is typically per unit (per acre or per ton CO2e) over a multi-year term and contingent on verification, so records using this instrument carry the payment.* and contract.* fields rather than award.min/award.max. Covers both credit-generating programs, where credits are sold to outside buyers, and supply-chain insetting programs, where a company the operation already sells to pays for the practice.

Environmental Market

Soil Health

Reduced Tillage

Regenerative

Conservation

Carbon Capture

Payments are based on performance — the number of verified carbon credits generated on enrolled land and sold to a third-party buyer.

All payments under Carbon by Indigo are subject to multi-year vesting and are contingent on continued long-term maintenance of regenerative agricultural practices and soil carbon levels. Indigo's disclosure states payments are "paid on a five-year schedule."

All carbon credits generated are subject to a buffer pool holdback of up to 20% of credits generated, required by third-party crediting to protect against reversals; participants will not receive payments for the holdback.

Indigo states that even if farmers choose to discontinue carbon farming with Indigo, they will never be asked to pay back money they have been paid.

The first step for ranchers interested in participating is to submit an application of interest. From there:

1. Native will reach out to schedule an initial phone/video call or ranch visit.
2. Native will request information about the ranch: baseline records and maps (shapefiles), ranch improvement plan, easement contracts (if applicable), and written leases (if applicable).
3. Native will confirm eligibility and provide terms.
4. You sign the contract.
5. You get paid to start project activity and continue to receive carbon credit payments for 40 years.

Ranchers or landowners outside the project region can contact Kirsten McKnight at kirsten.mcknight@native.eco or submit an application of interest for a new region.

Native's improved grazing carbon program provides ranchers with upfront financial and technical support to sequester carbon in soils. In partnership with Western Sustainability Exchange, the program provides upfront funding to help ranchers implement sustainable land management practices that enhance soil carbon sequestration, enabling ranchers to invest in infrastructure and grazing improvements while gaining access to verified and credible carbon markets.


Participating ranchers benefit from increased forage and land productivity, greater drought resilience, enhanced&#x2004;carrying capacity for livestock and wildlife, capital support for infrastructure improvements, and diversified income through carbon credit revenue for up to forty years.


The program supports ranchers in adopting improved grazing techniques such as increasing pasture splits to boost stocking density and livestock movement, reducing grazing days per pasture to prevent overgrazing, and prioritizing land rest in all pastures.


Launched in 2015 in partnership with Western Sustainability Exchange, it is the first validated and verified carbon project to a leading carbon standard, undergoing third-party audits to the Verified Carbon Standard.


Native's Help Build™ program provides up-front capital and financial security to improve soil health before the income from soil carbon benefits has been realized. Help Build™ offsets provide funding for fencing and water infrastructure that allows ranchers to increase their number of pastures, decrease the pastures' size, and increase the speed and number of livestock rotations, prolonging rest and recovery on more acres of grassland.



Native's improved grazing carbon program provides ranchers with upfront financial and technical support to sequester carbon in soils. In partnership with Western Sustainability Exchange, the program provides upfront funding to help ranchers implement sustainable land management practices that enhance soil carbon sequestration, enabling ranchers to invest in infrastructure and grazing improvements while gaining access to verified and credible carbon markets.

Participating ranchers benefit from increased forage and land productivity, greater drought resilience, enhanced carrying capacity for livestock and wildlife, capital support for infrastructure improvements, and diversified income through carbon credit revenue for up to forty years.

The program supports ranchers in adopting improved grazing techniques such as increasing pasture splits to boost stocking density and livestock movement, reducing grazing days per pasture to prevent overgrazing, and prioritizing land rest in all pastures.

Launched in 2015 in partnership with Western Sustainability Exchange, it is the first validated and verified carbon project to a leading carbon standard, undergoing third-party audits to the Verified Carbon Standard.

Native's Help Build™ program provides up-front capital and financial security to improve soil health before the income from soil carbon benefits has been realized. Help Build™ offsets provide funding for fencing and water infrastructure that allows ranchers to increase their number of pastures, decrease the pastures' size, and increase the speed and number of livestock rotations, prolonging rest and recovery on more acres of grassland.

Eligibility for the program depends on both the core requirements from the project methodology and Native's own criteria. This includes:

- Current management is either continuous grazing or limited and moderate previous history of regenerative management. The best candidates will be those with limited experience with improved grazing. If the ranch has been working on rotations and more intensive management in the past, management can be assessed at the pasture level and pastures that may not be eligible excluded, without the ranch being completely ineligible.
- Located in the validated project region. The project is validated for a defined region shown on a map on the program page — Montana and surrounding states. Ranchers outside the region are invited to reach out.
- Commitment to the land and ranch operations. Native signs 40 year contracts with participating ranches and guarantees to pay a minimum payment per metric tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent accrued in the soil.
- Greater than 2,500 grazable acres under livestock management. Native states its minimum is 2,500 acres at this time.
- Willingness to work and grow in uncertainty, given the evolving science of soil carbon sequestration and carbon markets.

Native signs 40 year contracts with participating ranches and guarantees to pay a minimum payment per metric tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent accrued in the soil. The specific payment rate is not published.

Ranchers are paid to start project activity and continue to receive carbon credit payments for 40 years. Native measures, reports, and verifies the carbon sequestered in the soil to develop and transact carbon credits in voluntary markets.

The project is validated and verified to the Verified Carbon Standard and undergoes third-party audits.

List of Agricultural Environmental Markets