Laura Kowalski, Head of Global Sustainability at Primient, is responsible for leading sustainability initiatives across the value chain at Primient, a leading provider of plant-based solutions. Laura is an environmental engineer by training and has worked in corporate sustainability throughout her career.
In the past five years, the rise in the adoption of science-based targets in the private sector has driven multinational organizations to converge around one key sustainability metric: carbon emissions. With nearly half of S&P companies committed to science-based targets, a common language has emerged for discussing corporate sustainability initiatives.
Don’t get me wrong—there are many positives to the fact that organizations have rallied around the singular metric of carbon. As a sustainability professional, I appreciate that a simplified message has streamlined executive-level conversations, enabling clearer and faster decision-making. However, other critical metrics—such as water quantity, water quality, and biodiversity— have local impacts and deserve to be part of the conversation. These metrics are much harder to explain at a company-wide or global scale because they affect each region differently. One part of the country may struggle with drought, while another faces flooding, making discussions around water management highly nuanced and complex. This complexity can make it difficult to create a cohesive company strategy.
While the sustainability conversation has heavily focused on carbon emissions, we must remember why companies implement climate-related sustainability strategies in the first place: to reduce risk to the organization
In the agriculture space, carbon works well as a central metric because practices that reduce carbon emissions often have positive ripple effects on other environmental factors. This makes carbon a useful primary decision-making metric—but it shouldn’t be the only one. On the ground, carbon isn’t a metric that resonates with farmers. They don’t see the direct impact of carbon emissions when measuring their farm’s profitability or yield. However, if you ask a farmer in California about drought or a farmer in Iowa or Nebraska about water quality, they can immediately share how these issues affect their daily operations.
For every carbon-driven regenerative agriculture project, a mini-materiality assessment should be conducted to identify other relevant environmental metrics based on the region and the farmers involved. These material issues can be quantified, and progress can be measured to better assess the investment’s success.
While the sustainability conversation has heavily focused on carbon emissions, we must remember why companies implement climate-related sustainability strategies in the first place: to reduce risk to the organization. Tracking progress against all relevant environmental metrics can help quantify the decrease in supply chain risk. Environmental costs are often externalized, but by identifying key local metrics in need of improvement, we can demonstrate how sustainability initiatives tangibly mitigate risks that typically threaten agribusiness supply chains.
For example, planting cover crops—a widely recognized practice for reducing carbon emissions—also has other field-level benefits. It improves water infiltration, reduces runoff, enhances soil health, boosts crop yields, and promotes biodiversity. These benefits can decrease the need for on-farm irrigation and reduce the strain on municipal groundwater treatment.
With a shift from petroleum-based products, demand for innovative plant-based solutions is rising. To meet this demand, companies must continue investing in their agricultural supply chains to build climate resilience. Implementing regenerative practices reduces carbon emissions and other environmental risks and minimizes the need for farm inputs, improves farmer profitability, and increases crop yields over time. These improvements benefit the entire agricultural value chain, driving long-term growth and sustainability.
At Primient, we have partnered with Truterra to ensure our regenerative agriculture programs measure more than just carbon. Our program helps us and our customers assess both economic and environmental insights, including average yield, water and wind erosion risk, nitrogen use efficiency, soil health, and pest management practices. In 2024, we participated in a pilot study to examine the impact of regenerative practices—such as cover crops and reduced tillage—on water quantity and quality in the U.S. Midwest. Primient remains committed to building programs around the most relevant risks for farmers in our supply shed, with the ultimate goal of reducing risk and enhancing resilience across our shared value chain.
