Spreading Soil Wealth Collaborative

A cross-sector group advancing the utilization of compost on working lands. Coming Spring 2025.

The Future of Compost

With grant funding from Volgenau Climate Initiative, Zero Foodprint is teaming up with The US Composting Council and other leading organizations to develop a cross-sector collaborative advancing the utilization of compost on working lands for agronomic, ecological, and public benefit.

The collaborative will be composed of businesses, jurisdictions, funders, and communities who champion the compost’s benefits: climate resilience, imporved hydrology, biodiversity, public health, and economic prosperity.

Together, we’ll work to shift prevailing narratives that view compost as a mere waste management improvement, to an understanding that compost is a vital and vast natural resource with a range of benefits for our collective future.

Climate resilience

•

Improved hydrology

•

Biodiversity

•

Public health

•

Economic prosperity

Climate resilience • Improved hydrology • Biodiversity • Public health • Economic prosperity

Our Goals

The Spreading Soil Wealth Collaborative is just beginning to convene key stakeholders across sectors to develop a set of actionable projects inspired by the following goals. Click each to learn more.

  • Modeled after successful cross-sector collaborations, the Spreading Soil Wealth Collaborative will work to establish public-private funding models to support compost applications projects. Possible funding sources include:

    • Business collective funding from programs like $1 per trash bill, 1% from food businesses, roundups, 1 penny per lb from distributors, or other similar programs.

    • Cost-share from community foundations and philanthropy

    • Federal, state, and local government funds for conservation, water, or climate programs.

    • Farmers, ranchers, and land managers (of whom only a small percentage presently use compost, primarily due to cost).

  • Advance critical work in research, markets, and policy, including:

    • Advance research and quantification of compost’s region-specific climate, water, and biodiversity benefits.

    • Advance the compost market (ensuring offtake and incentivizing quality/purity)

    • Mobilize local and state-level policy changes to integrate compost use into Climate Action Plans and General Plans and lessen permitting barriers.

  • Advance distributed (on-farm and a community) composting by:

    • Generating incentives for expanded infrastructure and operations.

    • Improving permitting processes and reducing barriers to implementation.

  • Track key metrics across the collaborative and disseminate case studies and findings to drive progress in other regions and supply chains. Example metrics include:

    • Compost applied

    • Acreage impacted

    • Modeled carbon and water benefits