Eco Profit’s development of the Hemp Platform for carbon offsetting

Offsets face recurring critiques: additionality doubts, over-crediting, and leakage that shifts emissions elsewhere. Permanence is fragile as fires, droughts, or pests can cause reversals. Australia’s former Human Induced Regenerative offsets were accused of crediting rainfall-driven regrowth and, via stocking cuts, reducing pastoral jobs. Critics also warn of the moral hazard of using offsets to delay real decarbonisation whilst market price volatility and complex rules undermine confidence.

Given this, Eco Profit has been seeking to develop carbon offsets that address all these issues and provide a sound basis for carbon credit creation underpinned by the promotion of economic activity i.e. social benefits. To do this, Eco Profit selected industrial hemp as the crop to provide this opportunity.

Industrial hemp is a rare “triple win” crop for climate, farming, and manufacturing. It grows fast, captures significant CO₂ during a short season, and thrives in diverse rotations with comparatively low chemical inputs. On farm, hemp’s deep roots can improve soil structure and water-use efficiency; off farm, its biomass becomes high-value products from hurd for hempcrete to fibre for insulation, packaging, and composites. But to move from promise to proof, the sector needs consistent, verifiable data on inputs, yields, processing energy and product pathways. That’s where a live, product-level lifecycle approach, anchored in transparent tracking, can turn hemp’s climate potential into credible carbon outcomes and financeable projects.

Eco Profit is developing its unique platform called the Hemp Platform (HP) which is essentially a live lifecycle traceability tool designed to provide an auditable record of the inputs and outputs in the industrial hemp value chain from farmer to end product use and to calculate the net carbon dioxide removal for each tonne of biomass. It is intended that the HP will adopt GS1 barcoding to track 100% of the biomass through its value chain journey. 

The HP is being developed to underpin the proposed methodology to support carbon offset projects that involve the sequestration of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by growing industrial hemp and storing it in situ hempcrete constructed walls or other building products that are deemed to ensure the permanent storage of the CO2. 

The methodology focuses on sequestration rates using selected varieties of hemp. For instance, the calculation of sequestered carbon dioxide is taken from the weight of hurd processed by hammer/decorticating processing machines for bio carbon capture and storage purposes. 

It is proposed that other carbon removal/mitigation benefits of growing and utilising hemp will not be included in carbon offset calculations. This includes sequestration increasing soil organic carbon, avoided emissions from less energy use in the binder manufacture (compared to cement binder manufacture) or the avoided emissions of ongoing passive cooling & heating benefits of a hempcrete building. The idea of HP is to provide clarity and transparency of carbon offset creation to avoid any confusion in calculation or the impacts of naturally occurring carbon reversals. It will also reduce greenwashing risk and the product-level data will support procurement, finance, and market access.

Additional applications for hemp fibre, such as producing insulation batts or biochar, can be considered when calculating available offsets. In such cases, the processes and guidelines of the HP, as previously described for hurd and carbon offset creation, will be applied according to the same criteria.

Help set the gold standard for hemp carbon accounting.

Eco Profit’s Hemp Platform is building a transparent, auditable foundation for high-integrity hemp-based carbon credits — and we need real-world data to make it unshakable. If you’re a farmer, processor, or end-product manufacturer, join our pilot cohort and contribute anonymised, primary data on your operations.

We’ll provide a simple template, clear data-sharing terms, and recognition for your role in shaping the future of credible, financeable hemp offsets. Together, we can give buyers, investors, and regulators the confidence they need — and open new market opportunities for your business.

[Express your interest and join the pilot →]