Melbourne-based AgTech provider Carbon Count has launched an online end-to-end soil carbon project management software package to enable agricultural consultancies, project managers and carbon trading companies to make the most of the soil carbon credit market.
The Carbon Count platform aims to simplify, streamline and fast-track soil carbon projects, making them cheaper to implement for the carbon trader.
The carbon project management technology is apparently the first of its type available commercially anywhere.
The young ag technology business is confident it can help accelerate the Australian market's adoption of the federal government Emissions Reduction Fund by empowering agricultural consultants, project managers and carbon traders to speed up their workflows.
Carbon Count is keen to promote the opportunities for agricultural communities to benefit from the new income stream the Australian soil carbon trading market has to offer.
The ERF is a voluntary scheme which aims to provide incentives for a range of organisations and individuals to adopt new practices and technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The government purchases lowest cost abatement carbon credit units from a wide range of sources, providing an incentive to businesses, households and landowners to proactively reduce their emissions.
Various activities are eligible under the scheme, which issues one Australian Carbon Credit Unit earned for each tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2-e) stored or avoided by a project.
ACCUs can be sold to the government through a carbon abatement contract, or on the secondary market.
Maximise your credit value
Offering regulatory-approved sampling, design and measurement of soil carbon and farm emissions, the Carbon Count service is geared to maximise the value of those ACCUs traded on carbon markets.
With the Clean Energy Regulator's legislative framework for the Emissions Reduction Fund already integrated into the platform, licensees are able to more easily pass audits, meet regulatory requirements and produce all reporting necessary to register and manage soil carbon projects and trade derived carbon credits in Australia.
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At the heart of Carbon Count's new agtech software is a patented Fast Adaptive Algorithm for Soil Testing (FAAST).
It offers the world's first commercially available fast sampling methodology to easily measure and certify the value of carbon in a project area.
The algorithm generates the optimal number of sample locations required to maximise a project's return on investment.
It operates within a proprietary software that undertakes all necessary carbon estimate calculations, manages farm carbon emission baseline derivation and calculates annual farm carbon emissions.
This means carbon farming advisors are no longer required to perform the complex mathematical equations and laborious paperwork necessary for certifying soil carbon.
What users receive at the end of a soil carbon project is the net carbon abatement, approved by the regulator and tradable on the market.
Effective sequestering
Carbon Count also supports carbon farmers in developing effective carbon sequestration land management practices.
The platform can produce a myriad of insightful farm maps and soil fertility measures, including fertility maps and pH maps.
The Carbon Count team prided itself in having the domain knowledge not only around agribusiness, but also information technology.
The group has combined its expertise to deliver a platform that's been designed with state-of-the-art technology in conjunction with the input, expertise and knowledge of soil scientists, geo-statisticians, farm system agronomists and farmers.
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