London, U.K.: Materra, a company designing solutions to grow and source future-proof cotton, has launched a guide called Digging Deep: Soil Carbon Sequestration Explained, meant to help the fashion industry understand soil carbon better.
Soil carbon sequestration is a complex process that demands soil health restoration, sustained commitment and diligent monitoring. The challenge lies in the diversity in approaches, particularly in quantifying, monitoring and addressing issues like permanence and additionality,
Comparing offsets vs insets, navigating the difference between protocols and looking at what makes a good sequestration project, Materra’s free guide is intended to help fashion brands take more informed action in their supply chain to meaningfully reduce their impact. With the help of their experienced in-house impact team, they have created an illustrated guide that explores some of these areas and breaks down what brands can practically do.
Ed Hill, CSO & Co-Founder says “Soil carbon is an amazing opportunity to create novel income opportunities for smallholder communities, but it requires long-term planning and partnerships. Our conversations with the brands we work with made us realise there’s still a fair amount of uncertainty in this topic. So we decided to write a guide to simplify this complexity and enable fashion brands to support the transition to regenerative farming in a holistic way; no tunnel vision here. We’re also particularly excited that In 2024 we will be working with nearly 5000 farmers in India creating a new paradigm in cotton sourcing focusing on multi-year relationships!”
Alyssa Kang, Impact Analyst and key contributor says “Soil carbon sequestration is far more complex than simply burying carbon in the soil and expecting it to remain indefinitely. This process requires joint efforts from scientists, businesses, implementation partners, verification bodies and most importantly, farmers. At Materra, we're fortunate to work hand-in-hand with farmers, offering data-driven solutions to showcase the positive impact and drive for long-term cooperation. Stay tuned for more free guides from us!“
Materra plans for it to be the first in a series of guides, aimed at exploring various practices in regenerative agriculture while providing detailed insights shaped by their experience working with over 1000 farmers in India.
About Materra: Materra builds solutions to grow and source future-proof cotton — with the data to prove it. Working with and for farmers, they design and implement custom cotton farming and sourcing programs for fashion and textile brands that are climate resilient, transparent and equitable. Critical impact data needs to come directly from the source, and their digital technology complements their programs and raw fibre so brands and their customers know exactly what went into making their cotton. Their Cotton-As-A-Service is setting the template for supply chain transparency, making direct sourcing the new normal.
Co-founded by Edward Brial, Edward Hill and John Bertolaso in 2019, Materra’s growing multidisciplinary team is made up of designers, engineers, farmers, agronomists, implementation experts and impact analysts, is based in London, UK and Ahmedabad, India. Their mission is to make farmers the stewards of the land, give nature a voice and make cotton a force for good once again
Materra’s accolades include its founders being recognized on the Forbes 30u30 Europe list in 2021, the company receiving the Common Objective Leadership Award in 2022 and being finalists for the ANDAM Innovation Prize and the Regenerative Agriculture & Textiles Innovation Showcase in 2023 and the legal team receiving the Award for Sustainability at the LexisNexis Legal Awards in 2024,
