Our 2030 commitment
Enable growers to adopt sustainable and productive agricultural products and practices on 75 million acres globally.
Adopting sustainable solutions is critical to ensuring growers are resilient to climate change and can sustainably grow more per acre while protecting the environment and natural resources.
Our 2022 progress
In 2022, we measured and documented approximately one million acres in North America and Australia. We continue to provide growers with whole-acre solutions that support sustainable and productive agriculture and aim to deliver improved environmental outcomes. Our three-tiered approach helps define outcomes and measures to execute this target. The first tier involves collaborating with growers to apply sustainable products, conservation practices and technology solutions. The second tier leverages our digital platform including Agrible® to track and measure outcomes such as crop quality, soil health, water quality and biodiversity. The third tier aims to independently verify sustainability outcomes, such as GHG emission changes through third-party verifiers such as SustainCERT and the Climate Action Reserve. By working with value-chain partners, we are seeking to collectively advance global agriculture sustainability goals for the broader supply chain.
Our Programs
Nutrien’s whole-acre solutions involve a suite of sustainability programs including carbon, measurement and traceability projects. With these programs, Nutrien develops input strategies that increase grower profitability while also improving and measuring environmental outcomes.
Our goal is to build connections and drive farm productivity, profitability and natural resource management together through customized, scalable solutions. We work with our grower customers, downstream partners and third-party experts to determine and incentivize optimal practices and products for continuous improvement.
In 2022, we expanded these pilot programs into Australia to support the adoption and measurement of sustainable solutions.
Sustainable Nitrogen Outcomes
In the US, Nutrien’s Sustainable Nitrogen Outcomes program, launched in 2022, is designed to achieve emissions reductions associated with the use of nitrogen fertilizer through the implementation of whole-acre solutions that enable growers to reduce nitrogen application rates while managing for increased yields. The carbon equivalent outcomes generated in this program can potentially be validated and verified for carbon monetization into the voluntary offset market or utilized for supply chain insetting. Both programs are designed for easy implementation for growers, with streamlined eligibility requirements, a short-term contractual agreement, and outcomebased incentive payments, as well as sustainability performance reporting through our digital sustainability platform, Agrible®. Learn more
Sustainable agricultural production supports the global food system and enhances grower resilience and prosperity. Crop input management and regenerative practices can improve soil health, carbon sequestration, nutrient-use efficiency and water retention while conserving and restoring nature. As a result, crop yields increase, which further builds soil organic matter and reduces the pressure to convert additional land to food production.
Nutrien is uniquely positioned with our direct relationships with over 500,000 growers globally to provide year-round agronomic solutions. We enable growers to deliver higher crop yields while providing benefits from the adoption of sustainable products, services and practices.
Our network of more than 4,000 agronomists and field experts provides advice on best management practices such as environmental farm plans, leveraging 4R Nutrient Stewardship, integrated pest management plans, conservation tillage or no-till, cover crops, and crop rotation.
We provide over 2,000 proprietary products including those that enhance sustainability practices and value-added services including custom application and soil and tissue sampling.
In addition, our Digital Hub provides historical and real-time information, grower-specific analytics, and performance measurements to help growers make informed decisions.
Check out our products, services and programs that support our efforts to foster a more sustainable and productive agriculture sector.
Nutrien’s sustainable agriculture approach aligns with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) principles to increase productivity while protecting natural resources and enhancing grower resilience. Productive and sustainable agriculture is enabled by regenerative practices and precision agriculture and has the following dimensions:
At Nutrien, we believe that we succeed when growers succeed. In today’s world, growers must thrive in ever-changing and unpredictable environments. The solutions we offer growers help strengthen food security; advance climate-smart agricultural practices; and enhance our technological capabilities and those of our growers.
We consider a sustainable acre as one acre where one or more of our whole-acre solutions is applied in a phased approach.
- Fundamental: Application of sustainable products, conservation practices, technology and/or services.
- More advanced: Use of our digital platform, including Agrible®, to track and measure outcomes such as yield, soil health, water quality and biodiversity outcomes to support precision agriculture.
- Most advanced: Verification of sustainability outcomes, including GHG emission reductions/removals through third-party verifiers such as SustainCERT and/or verified by our execution partners utilizing industry accepted protocols and standards.
Learn more about our approach to sustainable agriculture and page 21 of our 2023 ESG Report.