Our Services

At Verdi, we’re all about helping you understand your soil, improve its health, and get rewarded for it too. Here’s a quick look at how we work:

Get Started: Once you’ve reached out to us, we’ll send you more information and a New Client Form to fill out. This helps us get to know your farm and what you need. Click here to enquire now.
Sampling Plan: The first step is to map your farm and create a detailed sampling plan for you. This costs $400. This gives us a clear understanding of your farm and will provide you with an accurate quote for testing.
Baseline Testing: After mapping your farm and developing a sampling plan, we’ll give you a quote for baseline testing. This testing measures the carbon in your soil and gives us a starting point to track your progress.
Ongoing Measurement, Reporting & Verification: After the baseline test, we offer ongoing measurement and verification services. This helps you keep track of how you’re doing and earn carbon certificates.

We also offer other services to help you get the most from your soil. These include nutrient testing, biodiversity observations, and a cloud-based interactive map of your farm. Scroll down to learn more.

Our Baseline Testing Services

Our baseline test is all about getting to know your farm. Here’s what we do:

Sampling Plan: We create a custom plan for your farm using the latest data and software. This helps us identify your farm’s Carbon Management Areas (CMAs).
Soil Cores: We take soil samples from each CMA. We go as deep as 1 meter, take photos, and note things like topsoil depth and plant roots.
Visual Soil Assessment (VSA): We check the health of your soil and pastures in each CMA.
Carbon Analysis: We measure the carbon in your soil, down to 1 meter if we can. We do this in 4 separate layers, following national and international protocols.
Nutrient Testing: We test the nutrients in the top 150mm of soil in each CMA. We look at total nutrients and what’s available for plants under different conditions.
Biodiversity and Management Practices: We note the different types of life on your farm and how you manage your land. This helps us understand your farm’s ‘Business As Usual’ (BAU).
NDVI Snapshot: We take a snapshot of your farm’s plant health and ground cover in the month of testing.
Report: We give you a detailed report with lab results, observations, and photos.

Want to know even more about your farm? Here’s what else we offer:

Hot Water Nitrogen and Carbon Testing: We can test how carbon and nitrogen move in your soil, down to 1 meter.
Nutrient Measurements: We can measure nutrients in each layer of your soil, down to 1 meter.
Interactive ‘Story Map’: We can create a detailed, interactive map of your farm that you can share with others. It’s a great way to show off your farm and your sustainability efforts.
Drone Mapping: We can use drones to create high-resolution images of your farm and do multispectral analysis.
Woody Biomass Mapping and Data Collection: We can measure the carbon sequestration of tree areas that aren’t covered by the ETS framework. This can help reduce your farm’s carbon liability or be sold on a voluntary market.
Farm Compliance and Environment Reporting: We have team members who specialise in helping farms meet their compliance and reporting obligations.

Comprehensive on farm measurements

+ Cores taken across entire farm, randomly allocated in each Carbon Monitoring Area (CMA)

+ 1 metre soil cores are split into 4 separate carbon analysis depths.

+ Visual soil assessments conducted in each Carbon Monitoring Area.

+ Observations and photographs recorded to capture the farm’s current practices.

+ Optional soil biology and nutrient testing with total and plant available extractions.

+ Observations and photographs of on-farm biodiversity.

+ A detailed report of our findings with lab results is sent to each farmer after testing.

Buffer Pool:

Verdi maintains a buffer pool where a percentage of the carbon sequestered is held in reserve. This buffer serves as insurance against any potential future reversals of carbon sequestration due to environmental disturbances such as floods, droughts, or other unforeseen events.

Risk Mitigation:

The buffer pool mitigates the risk of reversal and ensures that the overall integrity of the carbon credits is maintained.

Flexibility: The buffer also provides flexibility for farm management practices, allowing for necessary adjustments without compromising the permanence of carbon sequestration.

Permanence:

Verdi’s comprehensive approach to maintaining permanent soil carbon sequestered from the atmosphere involves long-term monitoring, maintaining a buffer pool, MRV agreements, regular reporting to provide a feedback loop, educational support, verification, and financial incentives.

Farmers implementing these measures, will ensure that the carbon is sequestered into the soil over the long term, providing lasting climate benefits and contributing to sustainable agriculture.

Leakage:

“Leakage” from farm greenhouse gas (GHG) emission actions, refers to the unintended increase or displacement of GHG emissions following carbon sequestration activities, which shift the intensity of emissions to a different location. For Verdi, this occurs when actions to increase soil carbon storage at one farm location inadvertently cause emissions to rise elsewhere. Key types of leakage include:

Farm Practices Shifting Leakage: Practices reduced in one area are moved to another. For example, if a farmer stops tilling to increase carbon sequestration but shifts their tilling to another part of the farm, the emissions reduction achieved is lost.

Feed Leakage: Changes in feed supply and balance dynamics lead to increased emissions elsewhere. For instance, if off farm feed supply (PKE, maize, grains) is increased, this feed may be produced with a high emissions footprint.

Lease Block/ Contract Grazing: Where the farm operation uses a lease block or contract grazing for a proportion of their farming activities, there is the potential for leakage at these locations if their emissions increase following practice changes on the home farm.

Verdi NZ’s Approach to Addressing Leakage:

• Robust Monitoring and Reporting Systems: Early identification and assessment of potential leakage.

• Buffer Reserves: Setting aside a percentage of carbon credits to account for potential leakage.

• Holistic Farm Planning: Promoting comprehensive land management to prevent activity-shifting leakage.

• Market Analysis and Incentives: Designing financial incentives to prevent market leakage (ERC).

• Education and Training: Providing guidance to farmers on preventing leakage and maintaining sustainable practices.

• Continuous Improvement: Regularly updating practices based on the latest research and data to effectively address leakage.

By implementing these strategies, Verdi manages soil carbon sequestration efforts for genuine and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

Business-as-Usual (BAU) Practice:

Definition: BAU practices refer to the current methods and activities that landowners are already implementing on their farms. These are the standard practices that do not involve any new or additional efforts to sequester carbon or reduce emissions.

Purpose: Collecting BAU data helps establish a baseline against which new practices can be measured to determine their additional impact on carbon sequestration and emissions reduction.

Additionality:

Definition: Additionality refers to the new actions and practices that landowners pledge to undertake beyond their BAU practices. These additional measures are crucial for proving that the carbon sequestration or emissions reduction achieved is above what would have occurred without the intervention.

Purpose: Demonstrating additionality ensures that the efforts are genuinely contributing to climate goals and are not simply maintaining the status quo.

How Verdi Collects BAU Data and Proves Additionality:

Landowners fill out a form where they select from a list of practices, indicating which they have already implemented (BAU) and which they pledge to undertake (additionality). The information collected from this form allows Verdi to focus attention to where pledged practices are taking place and ensure appropriate evidence is collected during the contract period.