Isometric's new Improved Soil Management Protocol sets a higher bar for soil carbon credits in the UK. As the first project developer under it, here's what Great Yellow is building - and what it means for buyers, farmers and land managers.
Soil is the largest carbon store on land, holding almost three trillion tonnes of carbon - this is roughly three times what's held in the atmosphere. Better management of the world's croplands and grasslands alone could remove up to 430 million tonnes of CO₂ every year, more than the UK's entire annual carbon footprint. But soil isn’t just a carbon store, it is the foundation of our food systems and farming businesses, holding water, producing nutrients and creating the foundation for crops to thrive.
However, the challenge is making soil investable, so it is protected. The soil carbon market has for a long time been one of the least trusted parts of the voluntary carbon market. Questions about permanence, measurement and additionality have made buyers cautious, and rightly so. Too many projects have overpromised on sequestration and underdelivered on verification.
Until now.
This week, Isometric - the certification platform trusted by buyers including Microsoft and JPMorgan Chase - has set a new and more rigorous standard for soil carbon credits. Its new Improved Soil Management Protocol establishes the scientific and verification standards needed to measure, monitor and certify soil carbon removal credibly and at scale. We're proud to be the first UK landscape regeneration company to register with Isometric adn commit to the new soil carbon Protocol.
What is the new Isometric Protocol?
Isometric's Improved Soil Management Protocol sets out exactly how carbon removal from improved cropland and grassland management is measured, monitored and certified. It requires direct soil sampling combined with validated modelling approaches, with all results independently verified by an accredited third party before any credits are issued. It accounts for all associated greenhouse gas emissions, from equipment use to ongoing land management, so that what gets credited delivers genuine impact, not just paper sequestration.
The protocol was developed by Isometric's Science Team and independently reviewed by its Science Network of more than 400 academic experts. Certification is supported by Isometric's Certify platform, which combines AI-assisted data review with independent third-party verifiers - making the process faster without compromising rigour.
For corporate sustainability, procurement and risk teams who need proof that what they're buying is real, additional and durable, this is the kind of assurance that has been missing from soil carbon markets.
Contact us to learn more about how you can be involved.
How does Great Yellow support and add credibility to landscape recovery projects?
A credible standard solves one half of the problem. The other half is what the supply actually looks like.
Most soil carbon projects have been built around carbon alone. Great Yellow's approach is different. We structure landscape recovery programmes that generate carbon alongside biodiversity, water quality and flood resilience outcomes. It's nature restoration that happens to generate soil carbon credits, not a carbon scheme that happens to mention nature.
Registering as a project developer under Isometric's protocol lets us bring that model to market with the credibility corporate buyers now demand. It also opens a new, long-term revenue stream for the land managers and farmers delivering these outcomes on the ground.
Our role also goes beyond any single project. Through PACE, our aggregation vehicle for landscape-scale carbon supply, we give land managers a route to market that would be difficult to access individually, bringing meaningful volumes of high-integrity soil carbon credits UK-wide up to the Isometric standard. We consider ourselves to be the market infrastructure for UK landscape regeneration, because we aggregate hundreds of thousands of hectares into investable, verifiable carbon and nature outcomes.
How are soil carbon credits future-proofing UK farms?
Soil carbon as a solution isn’t an unrealistic dream, but a real opportunity for farms in the UK.
The Evenlode Landscape Recovery project (ELR) is the UK's largest farmer-led landscape recovery project. With more than 3,000 hectares across 50+ farms in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire, it is led by the North East Cotswold Farmer Cluster CIC and supported by Great Yellow. The project has secured over £111.5M in blended public and private finance, with anchor partnerships from infrastructure operators including Network Rail, Thames Water and Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN).
This project has been 5 years in the making and soil carbon has been at the front of it since inception. Now 800 hectares are expected to be eligible for high-integrity soil carbon credits under the Isometric protocol. Improvements in land management practices are projected to sequester approximately 100,000 tonnes of carbon over the project lifecycle. First credit issuance is expected in 2027.
As we experience yet another heatwave across the UK, and The National Drought Group reports severe challenges to UK farmers due to the heat, these credits function as a drought resilience tool, not just a carbon offset scheme. The new Isometric protocol requires carbon removal to be measured through direct soil sampling combined with validated modelling, with all results independently verified before any credits are issued. In the case of ELR, research by Rothamsted Research and AtkinsRéalis also modelled how the resulting soil carbon gains improve water retention. This has been peer reviewed and published in Agronomy as how we map soil carbon sequestration potential across UK farm landscapes.
ELR is the template we expect to repeat across our wider 300,000-hectare pipeline of UK landscape recovery projects.
Read more about ELR's high-integrity soil carbon credits under the Isometric protocol.
What is the wider UK opportunity for high-integrity soil carbon credits?
The UK is unusually well-placed to lead on high-integrity soil carbon credits. We have extensive grassland and cropland, a growing pipeline of landscape recovery projects, and now a credible framework to certify the carbon they generate. Every tonne of soil carbon restored is also soil that holds water better, feeds crops more reliably and gives the supply chains that depend on it a more resilient foundation.
With that framework now in place, we're ready to move.From fragmented pilots to landscape-scale, our Isometric-certified soil carbon supply is built on land that's genuinely healthier, not just better accounted for.
When will soil carbon credits be available under the Evenlode Landscape Recovery project?
Credits from ELR's cropland programme are expected to be available from 2027, following baseline sampling and first verification. Our grassland programme, which covers the majority of our portfolio, including ELR, follows once Isometric's Grassland module is certified, expected in Q1 2027. Our ambition is to have a certified Grassland project in Q2 2027, and at that point, when the same rigour now available for cropland applies across the full landscape, we'll be able to bring meaningful volumes of high-integrity UK soil carbon to market.
If you're sourcing high-integrity carbon credits, investing in UK nature markets, or managing land that could qualify under the protocol, get in touch.
Sign up for our newsletter today.
