December 9th, 2024, Toronto, Ontario — Today, ALUS announced that it received grant support from Cisco Foundation, which will strengthen its carbon quantification capabilities. The grant will enable ALUS to develop and test three innovative technologies that use AI and machine learning to quantify carbon sequestration benefits from nature-based solutions on farmland, and support the validation, verification, and certification of ALUS’ carbon credit issuance program.
“Current carbon Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) is not practical or economically viable at scale,” says Jordan Sinclair, Vice President of Strategy at ALUS. “Funding from Cisco Foundation allows us to collect data and do the foundational work required to develop a site-specific MRV that can be used across all of our communities.”
ALUS will partner with Planet, a satellite imagery and Earth data analytics platform. ALUS will utilize high resolution imagery as well as Planet’s Forest Carbon Monitoring service to measure above ground biomass and density and estimate the amount of carbon being sequestered in tree and shrub plantings.
Earth Optics and Soil Optix are partnering with ALUS for estimating below ground soil carbon values in grassland projects. Earth Optics and Soil Optix utilize vehicle-mounted sensors in conjunction with physical soil samples to estimate carbon sequestered in the soil.
These values are then fed into the machine learning models to verify carbon values and refine the algorithms used to predict carbon sequestration. The goal is to refine the predictive model so that fewer and fewer ground truth points are needed, thereby reducing the cost of quantifying carbon sequestered through nature-based solutions while simultaneously increasing accuracy.
Cisco Foundation is a leader in corporate giving. Tapping Cisco’s broader offerings of technology, expertise, and global employee community, Cisco Foundation has built a diverse and balanced portfolio of partner organizations who are innovating to deliver technology solutions that drive impact at scale. Cisco Foundation invests in all sizes of nonprofits including smaller, proximate organizations that are having an outsized impact.
“This grant support will enable ALUS to leverage technology to track, validate and evaluate the effectiveness of solutions more quickly and efficiently, with potential positive impact on soil health, increased biomass and pollinators on managed land,” shares Charu Adesnik, Executive Director of Cisco Foundation.
About Cisco Foundation
The Cisco Foundation supports non-profit/non-governmental organizations that offer digital, tech-enabled solutions and services that support vulnerable and/or underserved people. By leveraging the full power of Cisco’s offerings of grant funding, technology donations, expertise, and employee volunteerism, Cisco Foundation invests and partners with direct service organizations help strengthen their organizational capacity, design solutions, and take their programs and services to the next level — thereby positioning them for long-term viability and impact people and communities around the world.
About ALUS
ALUS envisions a future where all farmers and ranchers produce ecosystem services from nature-based solutions alongside food and fibre to help solve the crises of biodiversity loss and climate change. Through its turnkey farmer-led, community-delivered program, ALUS supports more than 360 community leaders across 39 ALUS communities in helping over 1,700 farmers and ranchers build and actively manage 52,000+ acres of nature-based projects. These projects, like wetlands, grasslands and tree and shrub plantings, help capture carbon, keep lakes, rivers and streams clean, provide food and shelter for wildlife, and better prepare communities for extreme weather events like flood and drought.
ALUS also helps businesses, governments and organizations invest in new acres of nature created on agricultural land to generate positive environmental, economic and social outcomes in the communities where they operate and that, one acre at a time.
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Nadine Mercure
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