How Nutrien Ag Solutions Will Grow The Company’s Portfolio Approach to Carbon

For 2021, Nutrien has nine pilot programs in North America–three in Canada and six in the U.S.
For 2021, Nutrien has nine pilot programs in North America–three in Canada and six in the U.S.
(Nutrien Ag Solutions)

On June 9, Nutrien provided an update on its carbon program first introduced six months ago and named nine value chain partners. Brent Smith, vice president of marketing, sustainability and proprietary products at Nutrien Ag Solutions provided The Scoop with additional insights into how the retail division of the company will be key in the program’s progress. 

“We have the trusted relationship with the grower, so we’ll work with them and work with our partners from across the value chain,” Smith shares noting the nine partners announced so far are: American Farmland Trust, BASF, Corteva Agriscience, ESMC, Ingredion,  Maple Leaf Foods Pepsico, Soil and Water Outcomes Fund, and Syngenta. 

“Our place in carbon needed to involve partners that were like-minded in the mission and vision in adopting carbon smart practices,” he says. 

For 2021, Nutrien has nine pilot programs in North America–three in Canada and six in the U.S. 

“No. 1, we want to make things simpler for the grower. And we want to be responsible and deliberate in how we ultimately help growers monetize their carbon assets,” Smith says. “Six months ago we announced a program, and now we can show farmers how we can connect all the dots for them to bring an opportunity with carbon.” 

With more than 2,000 agronomists in the U.S. and 850 retail locations, Smith says Nutrien is uniquely positioned to deliver its approach to carbon at a large scale while also being a local stakeholder with customers and communities. 

“We live, operate and serve in the same communities as our growers. Which is why the relationships that our retail field staff has with our grower customers is so critical in our ability to scale these pilots. he says. “Our team is focused on developing solutions and prescriptions specific to our growers. So, it’s critical that we are working with our proprietary technologies and supplier partners to develop programs that achieve sustainable success.” 

The pilot program in 2021 aims to help the company solidify its approach with that strategy at delivering the right recommendation and measurement for carbon.  

“My team is working really closely with the agronomists to make sure we have the right solution templates for the specific grower, field, and acre,” Smith says. “At its core, it’s just another way we can expand the relationship with customers.”
The carbon program is also a way Nutrien sees the company as being able to deliver on how sustainability is core to its mission and values. Smith says the goal is to be able to help growers create and monetize high quality verified carbon assets. 

For more on how Nutrien doubled its sign up for the carbon program and how it’s invested $800 million over 11 years to bring the pieces to the puzzle together, click here.

 

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