Carbon, Capital, Credibility: This Week's Regeneration in the Headlines

What Caught My Eye: Readings and reflections on regenerative finance, farming, and the forces reshaping sustainability.

Nov 01, 2025

From soil carbon to circular capital, this week’s stories capture a an ongoing shift from pilot projects to measurable, verifiable, and financeable systems change. Across sectors—from farming and fashion to finance and accounting—new alliances and methodologies are linking ecological outcomes to investment-grade data, helping regeneration move beyond narrative toward accountability.

In the stories below, we explore how soil health underpins global SDGs, how daily food choices can drive climate action, and how partnerships are stitching regenerative standards into textile supply chains. Meanwhile, investors and regulators are redefining what “green” means in finance and corporate reporting—moving from offset-heavy claims to integrated, true-and-fair accounting for people and planet alike.

Read on for highlights and links on the following topics:

Soil Regeneration Power – How soil carbon, biodiversity, and AI-enabled monitoring are making regenerative agriculture measurable and scalable
Regenerative Plate – The ecologist showing how everyday food choices can rebuild soil and cut emissions
Textile Regeneration Alliance – A new partnership bridging regenerative agriculture and fashion certification
Green Finance Limits – Why many “green” financial products risk sciencewashing without strong governance and equity
Regenerative Capital Flows – Major investors shift from pledges to tangible, nature-positive investments
True & Fair Accounting – Embedding environmental and social value directly into financial reporting standards
Cover Crop Gains – How multispecies cover crops regenerate soil and enhance profitability on U.S. farms
Feeding with Less – Rethinking global food systems to produce more with less land, water, and waste

Soil Regeneration Power

Regenerative agriculture serves as a systems solution advancing multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). By treating soil as a living ecosystem rather than a crop substrate, farmers can enhance food security, biodiversity, water retention, and carbon sequestration while supporting climate action and community wellbeing. Scaling this transformation relies on investments in soil carbon credits and AI-powered digital monitoring (dMRV) to make regenerative agriculture measurable, verifiable, and financially viable at scale.

Regenerative Plate

An interview with ecologist Mark Easter shows how everyday meals can cut emissions through regenerative practices: rebuilding soil carbon with regeneratively grown grains, choosing low-impact proteins like farmed mussels and clams, and expanding tree-crop orchards that store carbon. He argues that scaled regenerative agriculture—especially on degraded lands—can boost yields with fewer inputs while offsetting a meaningful share of emissions.

Read more: The ecologist who serves up climate science on a plate (Yale Climate Connections)

Textile Regeneration Alliance

FoodChain ID and IDFL have formed a global partnership to connect regenerative agriculture certification with textile supply chain verification. The collaboration integrates FoodChain ID’s Regenerative Agriculture Standard with IDFL’s testing and certification for different standards, creating a seamless framework linking on-farm regenerative outcomes to finished textile products. The alliance aims to make sustainability in fashion traceable, credible, and scalable worldwide.

Green Finance Limits

Many “green” financial products—green bonds, ESG screens, science-based targets, net-zero roadmaps, and “high-integrity” carbon credits—often amount to sciencewashing, delivering weak ecological outcomes and sometimes creating “green sacrifice zones.” Genuine, regenerative outcomes (rather than offset-heavy schemes that can displace communities) require robust public regulation, transparency, and equity so that finance serves collective wellbeing, not just markets.

Read more: Why ‘green’ finance isn’t always as sustainable as it seems (The Conversation)

Regenerative Capital Flows

Major investors are shifting from broad climate pledges toward targeted impact and circular investments such as regenerative agriculture, sustainable forestry, and infrastructure for resilience. While appetite for new net-zero targets is slowing amid regulatory uncertainty, long-term capital is flowing into private markets that align financial returns with nature-positive outcomes and ecosystem restoration.

True & Fair Accounting

The University of Cambridge’s Centre for Climate Engagement and Social Value International are partnering on the True & Fair Project to integrate sustainability directly into financial reporting. Building on legal findings that directors may already be required to account for material environmental and social impacts, the project develops guidance for boards, investors, and auditors on reflecting carbon, nature, and labour costs in company accounts. The collaboration aims to make regenerative, sustainability-linked accounting a core standard of corporate governance.

Read more: Sustainable Spreadsheets: Reframing company accounts for people, planet and profit (University of Cambridge)

Cover Crop Gains

Farms in Wisconsin demonstrate how cover crops can regenerate soil while boosting farm profitability. By planting multispecies mixes like peas, oats, and radishes after harvest, they improve soil moisture, reduce fertilizer and herbicide use, prevent runoff, and provide nutrient-rich forage for cattle. Supported by research from the University of Missouri’s Center for Regenerative Agriculture, his approach shows how soil stewardship and livestock integration can enhance yields and resilience.

Read more: What benefits can you see from planting cover crops? (Farm Progress)

Feeding with Less

Global food systems must shift from maximizing yields to regenerating ecosystems through soil-centric farming. The article calls for producing more with less—reducing land, water, fertilizer, and waste—by restoring soil carbon, improving nutrient efficiency, and rewarding farmers for ecosystem services like carbon storage and biodiversity protection. Such regenerative practices could meet global food needs while repairing the planet’s ecological balance.

Read more: Can We Produce More Food With Less Land? (Inside Climate News)

The regenerative business practices and sustainability innovations highlighted in this week’s Regenerative Insights directly tackle the critical issues of corporate responsibility explored in my recent book explored in my recent book, The Profiteers: How Business Privatizes Profit and Socializes Cost.

Regenerative Insights