Challenges and Opportunities in Soil Carbon Credits
Addressing Obstacles in Soil Carbon Measurement and Durability
Soil carbon credits have the potential to drive gigatonne-scale carbon removal, but barriers in measurement, verification, and long-term durability have slowed market growth. This report explores the key challenges facing soil carbon projects and the solutions that can strengthen buyer confidence, improve credit quality, and accelerate investment in regenerative agriculture.
Andrea Cecchin, PhD
Andrea Cecchin, PhD
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Andrea has been a consultant and advisor for national and local governments, industry, research institutions, and NGOs on sustainable production and consumption, environmental policy, and circular economy.
Trained as an interdisciplinary and critical thinker, he has developed a transdisciplinary approach to sustainability through designing and coordinating multi-stakeholder and cross-cutting projects in Europe, South America, and North America.
Andrea has extensive academic experience in circular economy policy and business models, industrial ecology, and life cycle assessment of regenerative agriculture practices. Andrea has been an adjunct faculty member at University of North Dakota, North Dakota State University, and Minnesota State University Moorhead, where he taught introductory courses on sustainability assessment and advanced classes on environmental policy and science. He also co-led the working group “Circular Economy, Zero Waste and Innovation” within the International Sustainable Development Research Society.
Most recently, Andrea led the design and research of metrics for sustainability assessment of supply chains at HowGood, a sustainability intelligence platform for food companies, where he also served as subject matter expert on product carbon accounting, water footprinting, and impact assessment of agricultural practices.
Prometeo Project Scholarship, National Secretary of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation of Ecuador
European Social Fund Scholarship, European Union
Sarah Federman, PhD
Sarah Federman, PhD
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Dr. Sarah Federman has cross-sector expertise in analytics, forest conservation, working lands policy, and the science underpinning biodiverse and resilient landscapes.
In the policy sector, Dr. Federman contributed as a lead author and coordinator to R&D roadmaps for landscape resiliency and climate-smart innovation for the US Department of Agriculture's Office of the Chief Scientist. While at the USDA, she also supported a federal interagency R&D strategy with the Department of Energy focused on the circular carbon economy. In the private sector, Dr. Federman led, developed, and implemented data-driven continuous improvement frameworks for an indoor agricultural technology startup, as part of a broader strategy to enable responsible vertical scaling.
In academia, Dr. Federman has deep expertise in the ecological dynamics supporting the structure and function of tropical forests. Her work includes peer-reviewed recommendations for forest conservation and management of critically endangered species. She has managed multilateral teams and collaborations in Peru, Madagascar, and Trinidad and Tobago focused on forest ecology and conservation.
Dr. Federman holds a PhD from Yale University's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a M.S. in forest science from the Yale School of the Environment. Her graduate studies were supported by the National Science Foundation's Graduate Student Research Fellowship Program.
AAAS Science Technology & Policy Fellow, USDA Office of the Chief Scientist
John Spangler Nicholas Prize for best dissertation, Yale University Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
George Gaylord Simpson Prize, Yale Peabody Museum
National Science Foundation Graduate Student Research Fellow
Strachan Donnelley Student Award for outstanding thesis, Yale School of the Environment
Princeton in Latin America Fellow
Centennial Scholar, Barnard College
