When it comes to agricultural climate action, the boundaries that define claimable impact in GHG accounting standards are often too narrow to reflect the full impact of regenerative practices on farming landscapes. This tension can lead to underinvestment in regenerative ag programs relative to the scale of the benefits to supply resilience, natural ecosystems, and GHG reductions.
Conservation International’s recent report, Principles for High-Integrity Insetting in the FLAG Sector, advocates for a framework to expand those boundaries without compromising the integrity of decarbonization goals. More than 40 organizations across the agrifood sector contributed to the report - Regrow among them - which recommends actions that public, private, and standards organizations can take to accelerate investment in regenerative agriculture.
Below is a brief summary of the report and Regrow’s key takeaways.
What Is Insetting, and Why Does It Matter?
Insetting refers to greenhouse gas reductions or removals that happen within a company’s value chain—think regenerative agriculture on a supplier’s field, reforestation in a watershed that supports production, or peatland protection near palm oil operations. Companies can quantify and report the impact of insetting projects using either inventory or intervention accounting methodologies.
Current accounting standards limit insetting claims to a strict definition of ‘within’ a company’s value chain, based on geographic proximity and commodity traceability. By expanding claimability to include near value chain impacts, we increase incentives for companies to fund whole-farm crop rotations, buffer-zone restorations or watershed projects that make their supply sheds more resilient and climate-positive.
To support this evolution in impact attribution, Principles for High-Integrity Insetting offers six actionable principles that companies and standards bodies such as SBTi and GHGP can adopt for designing insetting strategies that increase positive impacts for climate, nature, and people. Importantly, these principles call for action today as the industry matures accounting principles for the future.
Principles for High-Integrity Insetting
| Transformation goals |
Principles |
What it means in practice |
| FLAG-sector decarbonization |
1. Prioritize climate impact
2. Collaborate in supply sheds & landscapes
|
Direct investment to the interventions and locations that cut the most greenhouse-gas emissions. Pool investments with peers. Don’t wait for perfect accounting rules. |
| Just & nature-positive transition |
3. Deliver shared value for people
4. Deliver positive outcomes for nature
|
Design projects with and for farmers, local communities and supply-chain partners so that benefits are fairly distributed and action scales across entire landscapes. |
| Impact & efficiency |
5. Credible claims
6. Efficient MRV
|
Anchor every intervention in transparent claims and cost-efficient MRV tech so companies can act now with confidence and upgrade disclosures as standards evolve. |
Regrow’s key takeaways for regenerative ag practitioners
1. Adopt an impact-first mindset
The report urges companies to put real-world impact ahead of strict ledger rules. That means developing a plan and directing resources to the parts of the supply chain where impact opportunities are largest. When today’s standards don’t yet provide a framework for every ton to be booked in corporate inventories, companies should still measure the results (such as water, biodiversity, and beyond value chain emissions) and explain why the current accounting framework does not capture the full benefit.
Regrow supports this approach by providing independent measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) that quantifies reductions in both value chain and near value chain projects. Data backed program outcomes help companies create the business case for action, attract co-investment, and build evidence for evolved accounting standards.
2. Work together in shared sourcing regions
Transforming an agricultural landscape is a team sport. The report calls for pre-competitive collaboration among companies that source from the same regions and supply sheds. Pooling funds for grower incentives, data collection, or restoration work lowers costs, speeds up learning and delivers benefits that no single company could achieve alone.
In practice this looks like multi-partner programs in places like the U.S. Corn Belt or Brazil’s Cerrado, where Regrow is working with organizations that share data, expertise, reporting metrics through common platforms. The result is coordinated incentives for farmers, consistent MRV, and larger, verified climate gains at lower cost.
3. Treat carbon, nature and livelihoods as one system
The report makes clear that credible insetting must improve more than a carbon balance sheet. It must also safeguard biodiversity, water resources, and farmer incomes.
Regrow’s platform was built with this interdependence in mind. MRV programs can collect and track beyond carbon data like SAI metrics, and farmer data collection is built to minimize the burden on participating growers. This integrated view helps companies design projects that deliver durable emission cuts while enhancing the resilience of landscapes and the economic livelihoods of farmers.
The Road Ahead
It is critical that accounting frameworks catalyze rather than restrict investments into agricultural landscapes. Implementing these principles will require work from across the industry—standard-setters, companies, MRV providers, project developers, and stakeholders across the agrifood supply chain. At Regrow, we’ll continue to support the industry with data, technology, and program expertise, helping turn these principles into acres restored, emissions avoided, and livelihoods improved. Now is the time to scale what works.
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