Gaining adoption of new practices, behavioral change, and convincing team members to adopt new sustainability measures has never been simple. Today, with so many additional external pressures, costs, and demands, it’s even more confusing- even for companies that have goals they truly desire to hit. So, what’s the best way to encourage participation?

During the month of October, I spent some time writing about becoming an early adopter in the sustainability space and pros and cons of further regulating markets and standards, especially around carbon. I guess for me, it boils down to the simple things: do we want to take advantage of opportunities or would we rather wait it out and hope there are no penalties?

What are three main disadvantages of creating a regulated carbon market? That’s this week’s discussion topic!

Do we want standards to follow or not? That is the question - at least for carbon markets.

We know that technology and innovation are constantly evolving. For some, being an early adopter is a badge of honor, while others prefer a more cautious approach. When it comes to agricultural sustainability, we could easily argue that the early adopters did so decades ago.

It is good to be first-first place in a show, first in line at the Thanksgiving dinner, or first in a race, as Ricky Bobby so elegantly says in the quote above. But what about when being ‘first’ means being an early adopter, especially in the emerging space of agricultural carbon markets?

We are just five days away from the second annual Indiana Climate Summit, titled the 'Ag as the Solution’ Summit. While we are hosting in Indiana this event has taken on a Midwest flair with last year’s attendees and speakers hailing from 10 states and Canada. I’m getting excited, giddy almost, the way I always do when a live event is close.

It’s our last installment of this first ‘just for farmers’ series and we’ve been discussing climate smart farming. More specifically, the definition (s) of climate smart agriculture, the potential benefits, and the possibilities of marketing your farm -as it is today- as climate smart.

This week we’ll pick up where we left off on May 11th about using the term ‘climate smart’, what that term means, and how it might benefit your farming operation.

The term climate-smart has entered the vernacular of American agriculture faster than even the most modern planter can cover a field. If it’s not already in Webster’s Dictionary its surely a candidate for addition soon.

In our last issue we talked about using the term sustainability to describe a company or organization’s climate-related work. Though not synonyms, there are aspects to sustainability that work to begin identifying and making sense of a company’s climate-related goals.

In this blog we are focused on exploring strategies for engaging in the climate conversation while maintaining values. It is crucial for those in agriculture and energy sectors to reclaim the term "climate" from its commonly perceived one- sided, politically charged agenda.

As it turns out, my articles titled ‘What the heck is...’ has become thought of as a series by some readers. Thank you and let’s keep that going every month. This time, I’ll talk about ESG.

Think back to the last wedding reception you attended. About halfway through the evening, a guest that’s likely had too many trips to the punch bowl approaches the dance floor with a long stick while the music gets turned up and the DJ calls out "How Low Can You Go?”

Same Story. Different Year. Still leading and Still 'Risking it all' for IN-CLIMATE to lead this space.

Time for reflection – something we rarely have enough of, it seems. But, this Thursday I felt compelled to reflect after a big push to pull off our recent event, The Indiana Climate Summit.

It’s been about a year since we started IN-CLIMATE, the emerging network of agriculture, energy, and natural resources professionals seeking to create a practical, productive dialog around climate topics. What a first year it has been!

I always return home from an international trip with something pretty cool. I’m not talking about the usual shopping items or a large credit card bill.

Recalling Issue One of Climate Conversations where I mentioned that we would ‘start at the beginning’ on the topic of climate, I realized maybe I haven’t done that so well.

Say the word climate and you’ll get very different results, largely depending on to whom you speak. Some folks will assume you’re talking about the type of temperature in an area.