Landowner Overview of the Nori Marketplace
What is Nori?
Nori is a Seattle based company composed of folks with backgrounds in engineering, economics, agronomy, and blockchain architecture who are building a voluntary carbon removal marketplace. This marketplace will monetize the removal and retention of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere through regenerative agricultural practices. Nori rewards the adoption of these practices by issuing Nori Regenerative Tonnes™.
What is a Nori Regenerative Tonne?
A Nori Regenerative Tonne is a sellable asset that represents one tonne of CO2 removed from the atmosphere and retained in a terrestrial reservoir for 10 years. The Regenerative Tonnes are calculated by modeling agronomic management data using Soil Metrics, the commercially licensed version of the USDA-ARS official Greenhouse Gas Inventory Tool (GGIT). GGIT estimates incremental carbon sequestration using farming practice data as well as local soil types and weather patterns.
Who buys Nori Regenerative Tonnes?
Nori Regenerative Tonnes are typically sold to people or companies looking to offset carbon emissions. These buyers range from large companies (energy, tech, and travel), mid- and small-sized companies (retail, food), to even families or individuals.
What does the landowner consent to?
There is no financial obligation as the landowner of a project enrolled in the Nori marketplace. The farmer sequesters the carbon and pays for verification, but the landowner owns the land. A landowner must give permission to the Primary Contact to enroll the land to help ensure it is not double listed in another carbon marketplace. The Primary Contact is the one who signs a 10-year contract with Nori to maintain soil organic carbon stock and regenerative practices.
Why a 10 year contract?
The value of carbon removal builds with time. Buyers are paying for Nori Regenerative Tonnes with the assurance that the carbon removed from the atmosphere is retained in the soil. The 10-year contract provides buyers ongoing assurance that the carbon stays in the ground. This also ensures that regenerative practices are maintained for the duration of the contract -- barring major weather events that would dictate other farming practices.
What are the benefits to the landowner when enrolling land in the Nori Marketplace?
Environmental benefits - The enrollment of your land in the Nori marketplace incentivizes the farmer to maintain best management practices for the sustainability of your land on a long-term basis. Continuous regenerative management of your land will provide many environmental benefits, including the retention of topsoil, increased biodiversity, and improved soil structure. Each of these environmental benefits will increase the health and longevity of your cropland through drought tolerance, suppression of weed seedbank, nutrient retention, less water pollution, and more resilient soil health.
Benefits of verified land management records - Enrolling with Nori allows your land to have verification of regenerative agricultural practices, which may be of increasing value as other ecosystem service payment markets emerge.