Nori Inc. was a technology company based in Seattle, Washington, that closed in 2024. [1] The company's main business is a carbon marketplace focused on soil-carbon sequestration and pays farmers who adopt regenerative agriculture practices which may contribute to carbon sequestration. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Nori was founded in 2017 by Paul Gambill. [6]
In 2018, Nori raised $145,548 on Republic's crowdfunding platform when its CEO, Gambill pitched Nori on an episode of Meet the Drapers, starring venture capitalist Tim Draper and his family. [7] [8]
In 2020, Nori raised $4 million from several investors. [9]
In February, 2022 Nori raised $7 million in a Series A round led by M13 and Toyota Ventures. [6]
In April 2023, Nori laid off 10 employees due to "changing market conditions." [10] Several months later, the company hired Matt Trudeau as its new CEO and raised an additional $6.25 million in funding. Gambill then transitioned to the title of Chief Product Officer [11] and ended his tenure with the company in March 2024, although staying as a member of its board. [12]
Nori has created a platform where carbon removal suppliers can get paid by carbon removal buyers. [13] Nori specifically focuses on the growth of financial incentives and the supply of carbon removal offsets, not reduction or avoidance offsets. [14]
Nori sells the Regenerative Tonne™ (formerly "Nori Carbon Removal Tonnes” or “NRTs”) on its trading platform to represent one tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2) that has been removed from the atmosphere into for a minimum of 10 years. [15] Nori's RTs are generated from agricultural projects that can store carbon dioxide in soil as of April 2021. [16] These soil projects are broadly called regenerative agriculture practices. Nori is developing a financial instrument to assist growers in enhancing carbon dioxide sequestration in their soils, with potential benefits including climate change mitigation, drought tolerance, reduced surface runoff pollution, and improved soil health. [17]
In December 2023, Nori launched the Net Zero Tonne™, a blended credit that mixes soil carbon sequestration with durable removal like direct air capture. [18]
In early 2020, Maryland farmer Trey Hill became the first seller in Nori's marketplace. He was paid over $115,000 for practices that, over the preceding few years, had sequestered over 8,000 tons of carbon in the soil. Buyers included Shopify Inc., Arizona State University, and individuals looking to remove carbon. [2]
In November 2020, Iowa farmer Kelly Garrett sold 5,000 carbon removals through Nori's carbon removal marketplace platform and Locus Agricultural Solutions. The buyer of the carbon credits was Shopify Inc, who used the carbon removal credits to help negate emissions from transporting goods sold on the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend. [19] [3]
No-till farming is an agricultural technique for growing crops or pasture without disturbing the soil through tillage. No-till farming decreases the amount of soil erosion tillage causes in certain soils, especially in sandy and dry soils on sloping terrain. Other possible benefits include an increase in the amount of water that infiltrates into the soil, soil retention of organic matter, and nutrient cycling. These methods may increase the amount and variety of life in and on the soil. While conventional no-tillage systems use herbicides to control weeds, organic systems use a combination of strategies, such as planting cover crops as mulch to suppress weeds.
The Chicago Climate Exchange(CCX) was a voluntary, legally binding greenhouse gas reduction and trading system for emission sources and offset projects in North America and Brazil.
Afforestation is the establishment of a forest or stand of trees in an area where there was no recent tree cover. There are three types of afforestation: Natural regeneration, agroforestry and tree plantations. Afforestation has many benefits. In the context of climate change, afforestation can be helpful for climate change mitigation through the route of carbon sequestration. Afforestation can also improve the local climate through increased rainfall and by being a barrier against high winds. The additional trees can also prevent or reduce topsoil erosion, floods and landslides. Finally, additional trees can be a habitat for wildlife, and provide employment and wood products.
Carbon offsetting is a carbon trading mechanism that enables entities to compensate for offset greenhouse gas emissions by investing in projects that reduce, avoid, or remove emissions elsewhere. When an entity invests in a carbon offsetting program, it receives carbon credit or offset credit, which account for the net climate benefits that one entity brings to another. After certification by a government or independent certification body, credits can be traded between entities. One carbon credit represents a reduction, avoidance or removal of one metric tonne of carbon dioxide or its carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e).
Carbon sequestration is the process of storing carbon in a carbon pool. It plays a crucial role in limiting climate change by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. There are two main types of carbon sequestration: biologic and geologic.
Biochar is charcoal, sometimes modified, that is intended for organic use, as in soil. It is the lightweight black remnants, consisting of carbon and ashes, remaining after the pyrolysis of biomass, and is a form of charcoal. Biochar is defined by the International Biochar Initiative as the "solid material obtained from the thermochemical conversion of biomass in an oxygen-limited environment".
The Virgin Earth Challenge was a competition offering a $25 million prize for whoever could demonstrate a commercially viable design which results in the permanent removal of greenhouse gases out of the Earth's atmosphere to contribute materially in global warming avoidance. The prize was conceived by Richard Branson, and was announced in London on 9 February 2007 by Branson and former US Vice President Al Gore.
Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is a process in which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere by deliberate human activities and durably stored in geological, terrestrial, or ocean reservoirs, or in products. This process is also known as carbon removal, greenhouse gas removal or negative emissions. CDR is more and more often integrated into climate policy, as an element of climate change mitigation strategies. Achieving net zero emissions will require first and foremost deep and sustained cuts in emissions, and then—in addition—the use of CDR. In the future, CDR may be able to counterbalance emissions that are technically difficult to eliminate, such as some agricultural and industrial emissions.
Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is the process of extracting bioenergy from biomass and capturing and storing the carbon dioxide (CO2) that is produced.
Enhanced weathering, also termed ocean alkalinity enhancement when proposed for carbon credit systems, is a process that aims to accelerate the natural weathering by spreading finely ground silicate rock, such as basalt, onto surfaces which speeds up chemical reactions between rocks, water, and air. It also removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, permanently storing it in solid carbonate minerals or ocean alkalinity. The latter also slows ocean acidification.
Soil management is the application of operations, practices, and treatments to protect soil and enhance its performance. It includes soil conservation, soil amendment, and optimal soil health. In agriculture, some amount of soil management is needed both in nonorganic and organic types to prevent agricultural land from becoming poorly productive over decades. Organic farming in particular emphasizes optimal soil management, because it uses soil health as the exclusive or nearly exclusive source of its fertilization and pest control.
The Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), formerly the Voluntary Carbon Standard, is a standard for certifying carbon credits to offset emissions. VCS is administered by Verra, a 501(c)(3) organization. Verra is a certifier of voluntary carbon offsets. As of 2020 there were over 1,500 certified VCS projects covering energy, transport, waste, forestry, and other sectors. In 2021 Verra issued 300 MtCO2e worth of offset credits for 110 projects. There are also specific methodologies for REDD+ projects. Verra is a program of choice for most of the forest credits in the voluntary market, and almost all REDD+ projects.
Regenerative agriculture is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems. It focuses on topsoil regeneration, increasing biodiversity, improving the water cycle, enhancing ecosystem services, supporting biosequestration, increasing resilience to climate change, and strengthening the health and vitality of farm soil.
Indigo Agriculture is a Boston, Massachusetts-based agricultural technology company that works with plant microbes, aiming to improve yields of cotton, wheat, corn, soybeans, and rice. The company also offers crop storage and other logistics programs for farmers.
Carbon farming is a set of agricultural methods that aim to store carbon in the soil, crop roots, wood and leaves. The technical term for this is carbon sequestration. The overall goal of carbon farming is to create a net loss of carbon from the atmosphere. This is done by increasing the rate at which carbon is sequestered into soil and plant material. One option is to increase the soil's organic matter content. This can also aid plant growth, improve soil water retention capacity and reduce fertilizer use. Sustainable forest management is another tool that is used in carbon farming. Carbon farming is one component of climate-smart agriculture. It is also one way to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Direct air capture (DAC) is the use of chemical or physical processes to extract carbon dioxide directly from the ambient air. If the extracted CO2 is then sequestered in safe long-term storage (called direct air carbon capture and sequestration, the overall process will achieve carbon dioxide removal and be a "negative emissions technology".
Rattan Lal is a soil scientist. His work focuses on regenerative agriculture through which soil can help resolve global issues such as climate change, food security and water quality. He is considered a pioneer in soil-centric agricultural management to improve global food security and develop climate-resilient agriculture.
Eric Toensmeier is an author of several books focused on climate change, biodiversity, and nutrition. He is also a lecturer at Yale University and a Senior Biosequestration Fellow at Project Drawdown.
Carbon180 is a nonprofit environmental organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. In 2015, Giana Amador and Noah Deich co-founded the organization at the University of California, Berkeley. Carbon180 advocates for carbon dioxide removal solutions, including, but not limited to, direct air capture (DAC), forest carbon removal, and agricultural soil carbon. Carbon180 engages with lawmakers, academic and science-based institutions, and businesses to fund and deploy carbon removal technologies and methods.
Biochar carbon removal (BCR) is a negative emissions technology. It involves the production of biochar through pyrolysis of residual biomass and the subsequent application of the biochar in soils or durable materials. The carbon dioxide sequestered by the plants used for the biochar production is therewith stored for several hundreds of years, which creates carbon sinks.
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