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An environmental outcome is a measurable and verifiable change to soil health, water quality, air quality or ecosystems that comes from changes in land management.
In agriculture, environmental outcomes are generally linked to the management practices used on farms.
Examples include:
Farmers can implement climate-smart practices in their operations to produce environmental results and benefit their operations at the same time.
Positive environmental results can create shared value — rewarding good environmental stewardship, increasing resiliency, and encouraging investment in strong, low-carbon food systems.
Minimizing soil disturbance helps to keep the soil’s natural structure and ecosystem intact, as much as possible.
It helps with moisture retention, reducing erosion, moderating soil temperature, increasing water infiltration and retention, supporting nutrient cycling, and improving overall soil health.
Soil disturbance often comes from activities like tilling or ploughing, which can break up or compact the soil, disrupt soil organisms, and expose organic matter to the air, leading to faster erosion and decomposition.
These practices help protect against wind and water erosion, reduce soil loss and weed growth, improve soil moisture retention, and build soil organic matter and fertility faster.
Examples include reduced tilling, cover cropping, and growing perennial crops such as forages.
These practices help reduce pest pressure and nutrient deficiencies, and support a wider range of beneficial soil organisms, which build resilience against climate extremes and disease.
By diversifying crop rotations, farmers can also help to increase the resiliency of their operations against crop failures and price drops.
Examples include interseeding, companion planting, and crop rotations.
Livestock help to cycle nutrients when they graze on pasture, resting fields, or cover crops.
Livestock manure is also an important organic soil amendment.
It is important to consider nearby groundwater and surface water to protect water quality.
Using fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides efficiently provides both environmental and economic benefits.
This approach can reduce input costs while protecting beneficial insects, water quality, and soil health.
The Million Acre Challenge Program provides financial and agronomic support to incentivize the adoption of beneficial management practices (BMPs) on farms in Southwestern Ontario.
For the first cohort of this program, we selected a short list of ten BMPs. In the table below, you can see how each BMP may generate positive environmental results.
Potential Outcomes
Controlled release of N reduces the risk of leaching into water or into the air as GHG emissions, while also improving N use efficiency.
Potential Outcomes
These inhibitors reduce the risk of leaching into water and denitrification into the air as GHG emissions, while also improving N use efficiency.
Potential Outcomes
This application method helps to ensure the right time of application, thus reducing the risk of leaching into water, volatilization, and denitrification (into the air as GHG emissions).
It also helps to optimize nitrogen use, which can reduce fertilizer costs and increase yields.
Potential Outcomes
This application method helps to ensure the right rate of application, thus reducing the risk of leaching (into water), volatilization, and denitrification (into the air as GHG emissions).
It also helps to optimize nitrogen use, which can reduce fertilizer costs and increase yields.
Potential Outcomes
These biofertilizers can improve N-fixing in the soil and lead to reduced use of synthetic fertilizers.
Potential Outcomes
Lowering manure pH decreases the amount of methane released into the atmosphere.
Potential Outcomes
Applying manure to farm fields can help to improve the overall health of the soil by adding a natural, nutrient-dense amendment. Using manure in place of synthetic fertilizers can also increase soil carbon sequestration and bring more biodiversity into the soil and the farm.
Potential Outcomes
Strip tilling helps to maintain soil structure and organic matter while reducing soil erosion by reducing disturbance.
Potential Outcomes
As with strip tilling, no tilling helps to maintain soil structure and organic matter while reducing soil erosion by reducing disturbance.
Potential Outcomes
Cover crops can store and fix N, which can be used by subsequent crops. Cover crops can also decrease soil erosion, improve water infiltration and increase biodiversity on the farm.
The practices supported for Cohort 1 were selected based on feedback from key industry stakeholders and over 30 farmers who were consulted during the program’s initial design phase.
We expect the list of supported BMPs to expand with future cohorts as measurement systems evolve.
For an environmental outcome to be “real” or credible, it must be confirmed through measurement or modelling.
Approaches to validating changes in environmental conditions can be informal and qualitative, such as hearing more birds or seeing less dust, to formal quantification methods such as carbon credits or verified emissions reductions.
While farmers have long observed these outcomes on their land, only recently have affordable systems become available to measure, compare, and value them consistently.
At the same time, new funding opportunities are becoming available to farmers through the measurement and sale of environmental outcomes.
Consumer packaged goods companies, agri-food firms, and financial institutions are under increased scrutiny for their emissions, and consumer demand for corporations to participate in environmental protection has also risen sharply.
Together, these pressures are creating record demand for outcomes that Canadian farmers have been delivering for decades through the adoption of sustainable BMPs.
The missing link has been the measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) of those outcomes.
In the past, farmers have had limited ability or incentive to formally measure and verify environmental results. Greenhouse gas emissions reduction, soil carbon, water quality, and biodiversity are complex to measure.
Methods have not been standardized, and the process can be time-consuming and costly. The need for specialized tools, technical expertise, and third-party verification has also limited participation.
This made it harder for farmers to access new markets or show the full value of their practices.
To support this shift, the CANZA Marketplace is developing to connect farmers who generate environmental outcomes with investors and buyers seeking credible, high-quality opportunities.
Through the CANZA Marketplace, farmers can access measurement and validation options that align with their in-field practices and positive environmental outcomes, while clearly understanding what is being measured, how it is valued, and what commitments are required.
At the same time, CANZA is developing a robust Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MMRV) framework to ensure outcomes traded through the Marketplace are consistent, credible, and aligned with scientific best practices and evolving policy requirements.
This framework enables investors and buyers to invest with confidence. It also ensures farmers receive clear and fair payment for the environmental value they create.
By lowering barriers to participation and creating a shared structure for interaction, the CANZA Marketplace supports a new economic model for climate-smart agriculture — one where farmers are rewarded for environmental outcomes, investors gain access to credible and scaling opportunities, and environmental benefits are delivered with trust and confidence.
To learn more about and how you can participate, go to: What is the long-term vision for the CANZA Marketplace?
