Land
Sustainable agricultural practices focus on soil health for crop nutrition, as well as mitigating erosion and nutrient runoff that negatively impact water quality. Agricultural production is one of several land practice priorities for Greenleaf.
Our staff and service partners have extensive experience managing and coordinating projects including:
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- Agriculture and soil health
- Carbon sequestration
- Real estate and sustainable development
- Conservation land and water transactions
- Stormwater management
- Policy and strategic consulting
View our Partner Resources for information on research on gypsum and other farming practices to reduce nutrient loading.
Our work:
Healthy Soils for Healthy Waters Initiative
Soil and water research and policy leaders, headed by The Ohio State University with support from Greenleaf Advisors, LLC, Greenleaf Communities, NFP and the University of Arkansas launched a workshop and symposium series dedicated to the development of multidisciplinary and whole system management practices for the agricultural lands that impact our nation’s waters. A collaborative multi-year effort, the series has been organized around the development of data-driven, region-specific case studies highlighting best practices on agricultural soil health for water use efficiency, carbon sequestration and plant nutrient availability. We are continuing work to advance carbon sequestration on farms through regenerative agricultural practices and carbon markets.
Gypsum as Watershed Management Best Practice
When our client, GYPSOIL, needed help reaching out to environmental groups and policy-makers regarding the benefits of gypsum as an agricultural soil amendment, they came to Greenleaf. We were able to promote better awareness of gypsum across many sectors. This resulted in an opportunity for GYPSOIL to engage with the highest levels of government and affect the future of agricultural policies and to expand its markets.
Perennial Biomass to Reduce Nitrates
Agricultural production in the Midwest has been associated with nutrient resource losses through water, causing eutrophication in Great Lakes and Mississippi River watersheds, local impairment of drinking water sources, and Gulf Hypoxia.
Greenleaf provided communications, development, and outreach for Argonne National Laboratory on its agricultural research in Illinois where they studied the growth of native grasses in otherwise unproductive farmland to produce bioenergy crops, thereby reducing nutrient pollutant flows into streams and sequestering greenhouse gases in soils.
Electric Power Research Institute
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) conducts research, development and distribution relating to the generation, delivery and use of electricity, and is committed to supporting and developing innovating solutions to the challenges that face electricity producers and consumers. One such challenge is what to do with the millions of tons of synthetic gypsum (calcium sulfate) that power plants produce each year. EPRI hired Greenleaf to advance research into the use of gypsum as an agricultural amendment to improve soil and water quality.
Eagle Creek Watershed Gypsum Project
Our research is being led by Dr. Pierre Jacinthe, Associate Professor of Earth Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and is being conducted on working farm fields Brownsburg, IN in the threatened Eagle Creek watershed. Fields with historic use of gypsum applications are being compared to fields with similar soil types, crops, and other management practices, but no history of gypsum use. Soil and water samples are collected regularly to compare the movement of nutrients (fertilizers) from the field and into the drainage ditches that eventually lead into Eagle Creek Reservoir.