**The transformation of agricultural systems represents one of the most powerful levers available to companies to reduce their carbon footprint and strengthen the resilience of their supply chains. As organizations seek to align with science-based decarbonization pathways, the SBTi FLAG framework—specifically dedicated to sectors linked to land use—has emerged as a structuring reference. Understanding its implications and knowing how to apply it in practice has become an essential step for any company dependent on agricultural and forest-based raw materials.**

## Understanding SBTi FLAG: a structuring framework for supply chains

### What are the SBTi and its sector-specific guidance, SBTi FLAG?

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is today the leading international framework enabling companies to adopt greenhouse gas reduction pathways aligned with the objectives of the Paris Agreement. Drawing on IPCC recommendations and a rigorous methodological foundation, the SBTi provides both guidance and validation of corporate climate commitments, ensuring their credibility and alignment with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.

Within this overarching framework, the SBTi FLAG (Forest, Land and Agriculture) sector-specific guidance occupies a distinct position. It translates SBTi principles to the specific context of emissions arising from land use, with particular relevance for sectors such as forest and paper products—including forestry, timber, pulp and paper, and rubber—as well as crop and livestock production, agri-food processing, food distribution, and the tobacco industry. While these sectors are among the most directly concerned, the determining criterion remains the share of FLAG emissions within a company’s overall emissions inventory.

By integrating the biological specificities of these sectors and their unique capacity to sequester carbon, the SBTi FLAG framework provides companies with a dedicated methodological approach, enabling them to define ambitious trajectories that remain grounded in the realities of their value chains.

### A framework designed to address the specificities of land-related emissions

Whereas companies previously focused their carbon reporting primarily on emissions from fossil fuel consumption and land-use change—defined as the conversion of one ecosystem into another through human activity, such as deforestation or the conversion of permanent grasslands into cropland—they must now broaden their analytical scope. Carbon accounting now includes emissions linked to land use itself, understood as the management of land for agricultural production. This broader approach enables a more comprehensive assessment of carbon footprints by accounting for changes in carbon stocks within soils and biomass, whether through depletion or additional storage.

Under the SBTi FLAG framework, organizations whose activities rely on land use are therefore required to set science-based reduction targets over a five- to ten-year time horizon. Moreover, companies operating outside these core sectors, but for which FLAG emissions represent more than 20% of total greenhouse gas emissions, must also establish specific FLAG targets. This requirement ensures comprehensive coverage of land-related impacts, regardless of a company’s primary activity.

Companies whose FLAG emissions account for less than 20% of their total carbon footprint are not required to set SBTi FLAG targets, but may choose to do so voluntarily, provided that the objectives defined are rigorous, measurable, and credible.

### A mandatory dual objective: reduce and sequester

The distinctive feature of SBTi FLAG lies in its dual requirement to both reduce absolute emissions and increase carbon sequestration within the value chain. Companies concerned are expected to achieve at least a 30% reduction in FLAG emissions by 2030 under the default pathway—unless a commodity-specific pathway is available—while simultaneously investing in agricultural or ecosystem-based practices that enhance carbon stocks in soils and biomass. This dual requirement reflects the hybrid nature of agriculture as both a source and a sink of carbon, and calls for a profound transformation of practices.

### An imperative of permanence and robust monitoring

SBTi FLAG does not merely require results; it also mandates that these results be maintained over time. Sequestration gains may be reversed through changes in practices, soil disturbance, or ecosystem degradation. Companies must therefore commit to robust monitoring, based on measurement, reporting, and verification systems adapted to living systems. This requirement fosters a new type of relationship with producers, grounded in long-term partnership.

![SBTi FLAG EN.png](https://backoffice.reforestaction.com/uploads/SB_Ti_FLAG_EN_bd27cd482d.png)

## Putting SBTi FLAG into practice: key levers for action

### Building a robust approach based on measurement, partnerships, and financing

To ensure the credibility of a FLAG trajectory, companies must begin with a detailed understanding of emissions associated with their raw materials and the geography of their sourcing. This mapping exercise helps identify high-risk areas, priority practices for transformation, and opportunities for sequestration. On this basis, co-construction with farmers becomes essential. Shared diagnostics, technical training, innovative contractual arrangements, payments for ecosystem services, and co-financing of agroforestry projects all help create a conducive framework for transition.

SBTi FLAG also requires the implementation of reliable monitoring and tracking systems. Field data, digital tools, and independent verification methods must be mobilized to document changes in practices and ensure the permanence of achieved gains. Finally, the agricultural transition requires financing commensurate with the scale of the challenge. Companies must design risk-sharing mechanisms, economic incentives, and remuneration models capable of encouraging producers to transform their practices sustainably.

### Reducing emissions at source through changes in agricultural practices

Reducing emissions within agricultural value chains first requires better control of inputs, both in terms of quantity and type. Nitrogen fertilization is a central issue, not only because of the nitrous oxide emissions it generates in the field, but also due to the high carbon footprint associated with the production of mineral fertilizers, whose industrial processes are particularly energy-intensive. By optimizing nitrogen applications, adapting fertilizer forms, and diversifying crop rotations—especially through the introduction of nitrogen-fixing crops—it is possible to significantly reduce emissions while improving agronomic and economic performance.

In livestock systems, emission reductions also rely on a combination of complementary levers. Adjusting feed rations, improving herd genetics—through the selection of animals that convert feed into useful energy more efficiently, thereby reducing relative methane emissions—and valorizing manure through anaerobic digestion all help lower the climate footprint of livestock production. In all cases, implementing these changes requires close technical support and a durable relationship of trust with producers, which is essential for the effective transformation of practices.

### Increasing on-farm carbon storage through agroecological practices

Soil carbon sequestration constitutes a second major pillar of strategies aligned with SBTi FLAG. Agroecological practices—such as permanent soil cover, diversified rotations, reduced tillage, and organic matter inputs—gradually increase soil organic matter and, consequently, stored carbon. Although their effects materialize over several years, these approaches strengthen soil fertility, resilience, and biodiversity.

Agroforestry fully embodies this dynamic by combining two complementary sequestration levers: carbon storage in soils and carbon accumulated in tree biomass. By integrating trees within agricultural plots, these systems enable long-term carbon capture in both aboveground and belowground biomass—including wood, branches, and root systems—while enhancing organic matter flows into the soil. Scientific research increasingly demonstrates that transitioning from conventional agricultural systems to agroforestry significantly enhances overall carbon storage. 

A [meta-analysis](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10457-017-0147-9) published in Agroforestry Systems, synthesizing several dozen studies across diverse pedoclimatic contexts, highlights a substantial increase in soil organic carbon stocks following the introduction of trees into agricultural plots. These findings confirm that agroforestry contributes durably to biological carbon sequestration, both in soils—particularly in topsoil layers—and in tree biomass, while delivering agronomic, microclimatic, and economic benefits for farms.

### Restoring natural ecosystems to preserve carbon sinks

Adopted in 2022 for application as of 31 December 2026, the [European Union Deforestation Regulation](https://www.reforestaction.com/en/magazine/european-law-deforestation) (EUDR) requires companies to demonstrate, on a product-by-product basis, the absence of deforestation after 31 December 2020. In this context, strengthening traceability, integrating strict purchasing criteria, and contractualizing sustainable management practices with suppliers becomes indispensable. These approaches may be complemented by programs to restore degraded agricultural or forest landscapes within sourcing territories, contributing both to carbon sequestration and regulatory compliance.

For many companies, protecting ecosystems located within or upstream of their value chains therefore represents a major impact lever, particularly when sourcing raw materials from regions exposed to deforestation or land conversion risks. By reorienting sourcing strategies toward land preservation and sustainable ecosystem management, companies can simultaneously meet the requirements of the EUDR and SBTi FLAG, while reinforcing the environmental and social resilience of the territories on which their activities depend.

As deforestation remains one of the primary sources of FLAG emissions, recent evolutions of the SBTi FLAG framework further clarify corporate commitments in this area. Companies now have up to two years after the validation of their FLAG targets—and no later than 31 December 2030—to achieve deforestation-free supply chains. In addition, commitments must cover the seven commodities defined by the EUDR—cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy, and timber—whenever each represents at least 5% of a company’s gross FLAG emissions. This evolution, opened for consultation at the end of 2024, strengthens coherence between SBTi FLAG and European regulatory requirements, facilitating convergence across compliance systems.

## Reforest’Action supports companies in the agricultural transition

Reforest’Action provides companies with tailored support to integrate regenerative agriculture directly into their value chains. Drawing on more than 15 years of expertise in agroforestry, we design projects adapted to local contexts and to corporate strategic objectives, whether to secure supplies, reduce carbon footprints, or enhance land resilience. Our approach unfolds in four key stages—feasibility assessment, project engineering, implementation, and long-term monitoring—to ensure tangible and lasting results.

By combining soil restoration, agroecological practices, agroforestry, ecological monitoring, and support for local communities, our approach delivers multiple benefits: carbon storage, enhanced biodiversity, improved soil health, water quality protection, yield security, and positive socio-economic impacts. For companies, this represents not only a concrete response to SBTi FLAG requirements, but also a structured contribution to the environmental and social sustainability of their production chains.

**Meeting SBTi FLAG requirements is not merely a matter of adopting an additional methodology. It represents a paradigm shift that entails a profound transformation of agricultural practices, commercial relationships, and territorial investments. By acting simultaneously on emission reductions, biological carbon sequestration, and ecosystem restoration, companies can not only meet scientific criteria, but also strengthen the resilience of their supply chains and create a lasting competitive advantage. SBTi FLAG thus emerges as a major opportunity to anchor climate action at the very heart of agricultural landscapes and contribute to the regeneration of living systems.**

**Are you a company looking to evolve practices related to the production of your raw materials? Our experts are available to discuss your challenges and support your strategic thinking. [Contact us.](https://www.reforestaction.com/en/contact)**

## RESOURCES

[White paper: Regenerative agriculture.](https://info.reforestaction.com/white-paper-regenerative-agriculture) This white paper provides a comprehensive overview of why initiating an agroecological transition is essential to ensure the long-term sustainability of your activities and create value for your company. Discover why and how to implement a regenerative agriculture project that will help you achieve your SBTi FLAG objectives.



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SBTi FLAG: Understanding and Steering the Transformation of Agricultural Value Chains

**Reforest'Action's expertise in developing projects certified by international carbon standards is based on a dedicated team with complementary skills, specialized know-how and specific experience in each field.** 

**A close synergy is at work between our engineering skills in the field, our experience in raising financing and providing tailor-made support for investors, and our financial and legal expertise in the service of robust governance. In this way, we collectively ensure that our nature-based carbon sequestration projects meet the most stringent integrity criteria, to support both the needs of investors and the requirements of carbon certification.** 

**Meet 5 of the key profiles who make up this combined expertise, and who contribute to making Reforest'Action one of the most recognized and reliable players in the voluntary carbon market today.**


## Developing sequestration projects while maximizing fundamental benefits

### Sabrina, Senior Carbon Project Manager

High-integrity carbon sequestration projects aim not only to create carbon sinks, but also to maximize environmental and socio-economic impacts on local communities, while identifying potential risks associated with each project and ensuring their mitigation.

As Senior Carbon Project Manager, Sabrina is responsible for developing carbon sequestration projects, particularly in Africa and Southeast Asia. From the origination of potential projects to their design, coordination, monitoring, and mitigation of related risks, her engineering expertise is used to develop projects with a robust, sustainable design that is adapted to local issues.
 
One of the key aspects of her role is finding trusted partners in the field and establishing close, long-lasting working relationships between Reforest'Action and local project implementers, which is essential for developing high-integrity projects. Thanks to her experience in designing agroforestry and reforestation projects in tropical areas, Sabrina brings a more global vision to the teams in the field, which maximizes the fundamental social and environmental benefits generated by the projects, aligns their design with the various certification standards, fine-tunes project objectives to take into account investor expectations, and ensures financial balance through ongoing budget management.

Because project monitoring is essential, Sabrina also co-develops and oversees monitoring plans in collaboration with project implementers. This monitoring involves both operational monitoring, to ensure the effectiveness of operations in the field, and impact monitoring, to ensure that the objectives set for the selected fundamental benefits are achieved, particularly within the four pillars of impact defined by Reforest'Action: climate, biodiversity, soil and water systems, and the socio-economic sphere. The underlying objective of this initial monitoring is to enable local communities, in the medium term, to take ownership of the project and benefit from the establishment of sustainable governance, as well as a system for the equitable distribution of monetary and non-monetary benefits among the project's stakeholders (benefit sharing).

Sabrina is also responsible for the entire certification process for the projects she develops. Her ongoing monitoring of market conditions, major international agreements and the position of governments on the regulatory framework for the carbon market is complemented by her in-depth knowledge of standards, methodologies, eligibility criteria and additionality, which enables her to save time and target the right carbon certification framework in line with investors' needs from the project feasibility study stage.

![Sabrina-Giorgi.jpg](https://backoffice.reforestaction.com/uploads/Sabrina_Giorgi_b21702ac75.jpg)

## Maintain in-depth knowledge of the field to optimize permanence
 

### Hugo, Remote sensing & GIS Analyst

Maximizing project permanence is a crucial issue in large-scale ecosystem restoration. It is essential to analyze and understand the specific challenges and risks of the project area, as these factors directly influence the sustainability of the activities implemented, the achievement of the expected impacts, and the return on financial investments. 

As a remote sensing and geomatics (GIS) analyst, Hugo carries out continuous analyses of the project area and the local context prior to the development of each project, as well as during their implementation and long-term monitoring phase.

He creates various maps that enable him to acquire and maintain in-depth knowledge of the landscape matrix and the challenges of the project area, using remote sensing data: biome maps, administrative maps, forest cover connectivity maps, land use maps, vegetation indices, biomass density indices, etc.
 
Hugo also conducts geospatial analyses to demonstrate the absence of risks (deforestation, fires, floods, etc.) in the project area, or to study potential risks in order to better mitigate them as part of a mitigation plan. All of this remote sensing and geomatics work is therefore crucial to contextualize the project, understand the specific challenges of its ecosystem type, and optimize the permanence of the restored ecosystems.
 
Hugo's expertise is also applied to the regular monitoring of the project's control plots, on which the reference scenario is based, in order to take into account their natural evolution over time. This benchmark performance protocol thus ensures a dynamic, rather than static, reference scenario, in line with the new VM 0047 certification methodology of the Verra standard. Regular updating of the baseline, compared to the project scenario, allows for greater rigor and accuracy in assessing the impacts generated by the project, and thus constitutes a valuable tool for project design and monitoring, increasing the effectiveness of our activities and providing even greater transparency to investors in terms of results.

![Hugo-Treuil-Dussouet-2.jpg](https://backoffice.reforestaction.com/uploads/Hugo_Treuil_Dussouet_2_c4cbfb3ed3.jpg)

## Supporting investors in securing high-integrity carbon credits

### Flora, Senior Carbon Sales Advisor

Nature-based solutions account for one-third of the mitigation efforts needed to combat climate change. Investing in nature-based sequestration projects, which offer multiple co-benefits, allows companies and other types of financial actors to diversify their investment strategies while strengthening the quality and credibility of their climate claims and addressing urgent environmental and social challenges.

As such, Flora, as Senior Carbon Sales Advisor, works with companies that are required, under the SBTi's Net Zero Standard, to reduce their emissions by at least 90% by 2050, as well as natural capital investment funds that bring together various investors who have committed funds to finance sequestration projects and purchase carbon credits (Carbon Dioxide Removal - CDR).

Flora supports investors throughout the process of selecting and financing a certified project – understanding the client's needs, formulating legal, technical and financial proposals tailored to those needs in a co-construction approach, managing the technical, legal and financial due diligence processes in conjunction with Reforest'Action's in-house teams of experts, and more. All of these challenges are addressed by its in-depth knowledge of the voluntary carbon market and high-integrity carbon sequestration criteria. Flora thus builds a relationship of trust with investors and works directly with them on various aspects of project design to enable them to align it with their ESG objectives.

It also guides companies in anticipating their climate strategy and securing the credits they will need in the medium term to generate multiple environmental and social impacts and meet the expectations of their stakeholders and consumers, both within and outside their value chains.

![Flora-Calandre.jpg](https://backoffice.reforestaction.com/uploads/Flora_Calandre_49edbe2979.jpg)

## Implementing robust governance to ensure transparency, fairness, and traceability

### Louis, Carbon Finance Manager

For climate action to meet market quality requirements, it is essential that all stakeholders align on principles of transparency, traceability, equitable value distribution, and inclusive decision-making. 

Louis, Carbon Finance Manager at Reforest'Action, has responsibilities in several areas of financial expertise. From the project structuring phase, he supports the operational teams in developing a 30-year business plan, which he then monitors financially throughout the project's lifetime by maintaining a solid three-way relationship between Reforest'Action, the investor, and the project implementer in the field. 

Louis also supports the commercial development of projects based on demand and market conditions. From calculating key performance indicators (KPIs) to due diligence processes during the pre-financing phase of a project, his expertise ensures the transparency and traceability of the data collected. At the same time, he works closely with the legal department to support the financial structuring of the project and the drafting of financing agreements.
 
Louis' financial expertise is also essential in designing and proposing innovative investment models, whether to enable investors to secure carbon credits ex-ante through forward purchase agreements (offtake), to directly finance a nature-based carbon sequestration project, or to spread risk through a diversified portfolio strategy.

Because high-integrity project governance requires clear and accessible reporting on cost allocation and benefit distribution, Louis also helps develop optimal transparency in project auditing and financial reporting to investors throughout the project lifecycle.

![Louis-Carre.jpg](https://backoffice.reforestaction.com/uploads/Louis_Carre_6ef06c8112.jpg)

### Valentin, Head of Legal & Risks Management

Working closely with Reforest'Action's operational, commercial, and financial departments, Valentin holds the key position of Head of Legal & Risk Management, thanks to the legal expertise he has acquired throughout his career in audit firms and financial institutions.

One of the main pillars of his role is to ensure compliance with the highest standards, as required by investors throughout their supply chain (combating illegal labor and child labor, money laundering and terrorist financing, fraud and corruption, etc.). He provides training to Reforest'Action teams and develops all compliance procedures for our stakeholders. Valentin also contributes to the ongoing mapping of risks identified for each project and to the development of mitigation plans.

On the legal front, Valentin handles all customized contract coordination with investors and Reforest'Action's various stakeholders, and oversees the creation of local legal structures, where necessary, to ensure the proper receipt of carbon credits and close monitoring of projects in the field. He thus ensures the legal security of the services required by our investors.

![Valentin-Thomas.jpg](https://backoffice.reforestaction.com/uploads/Valentin_Thomas_345142a877.jpg)

**By choosing to work with Sabrina, Hugo, Flora, Louis, Valentin, and the entire Reforest'Action team, you are choosing to secure your investments, reduce risk, and strengthen your impact on the climate, biodiversity, and local communities through nature-based, high-integrity carbon sequestration projects. Reforest'Action offers a diversified portfolio of projects that can be tailored to multiple investment models to best fit your climate strategy. [Contact one of our experts to discuss your needs.](https://www.reforestaction.com/en/contact)**


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Our combined expertise at the service of climate solutions: 5 key profiles

**By 2023, almost 4,000 businesses and financial organisations have established goals for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions that have been validated by the [Science-based Targets Initiative](https://sciencebasedtargets.org/) (SBTi).  This initiative, created in 2015 by the [Carbon Disclosure Project](https://www.cdp.net/en), the United Nations Global Compact and the [World Resources Institute](https://www.wri.org/) has the goal of assisting businesses in reaching the Paris Agreement's collective objective of keeping global warming to 1.5°C by 2050.**

In order to accomplish this, the "Net Zero-Standard" created by the SBTi lays out the four stages that companies must follow:

- Reducing emissions in their value chain in accordance with a short-term target (5 to 10 years);
- Reducing emissions in their value chain in accordance with a long-term target (from 10 years to 2050);
- Taking action to finance carbon sequestration and emission reduction projects outside their value chain (carbon contribution mechanism*);
- Starting in 2050, the "neutralization" of their residual emissions by funding projects to sequester their incompressible emissions outside their value chain (carbon contribution, but only on sequestration projects).

![Key graphic SBTi Net Zero standard.jpeg](/uploads/Key_graphic_SB_Ti_Net_Zero_standard_de30ec15c7.jpeg)
_Source : https://sciencebasedtargets.org_

Reforest'Action provides nature-based solutions that help businesses meet the SBTi standard as part of its mission to assist businesses in transitioning to a regenerative model.

_*Reforest’Action, like several other actors, prefers to use the expression “carbon contribution” rather than “carbon offsetting”, because it seems to us to be more accurate and more appropriate._

## Prior to 2050, in the phase of emissions reduction

Reforest'Action provides customised regenerative agriculture projects, such as agroforestry, improved soil and crop management, and reducing the use of chemical inputs, for businesses whose value chain is connected to resources derived from living organisms (agri-food, textiles, perfumes and cosmetics, etc.). In certain situations, these methods also reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with farming, in addition to increasing soil carbon sequestration.

As one of the solutions suggested by the SBTi, all companies can also help limit emissions outside their value chain by supporting certified REDD+ carbon projects. These projects aid in the preservation of existing tropical forests. In fact, the SBTi notes that "without safeguarding the planet's remaining tropical forests, there is currently no trajectory that allows us to stay below 1.5˚C.”Reforest'Action offers carbon credits from rigorously selected REDD+ projects that benefit from dual certification: VCS and CCB (or SD Vista) certification, which cover the carbon as well as the social and the environmental aspects. These projects generate numerous benefits, not only for the climate, but also for biodiversity and local communities.

For businesses looking to get involved in France, Reforest'Action offers agricultural and forestry projects that qualify for the Label Bas-Carbone (Low-Carbon Label), a label established by the French Ministry of Ecological Transition with the goal of highlighting the organisations contributing to the National Low-Carbon Strategy.

## As 2050 draws near, in the "neutralization" phase of residual emissions

The SBTi will mandate that, by the latest in 2050, a company that has successfully reduced its emissions by 90–95% should "neutralize" the portion of its emissions that it is not technically feasible to reduce, through the carbon contribution mechanism. The idea of "neutralization" suggests the application of strategies that store carbon over an extended period of time, such as reforesting previously cleared land. To reach their "net zero" point, companies are supposed to contribute to sequestering as much carbon as they still emit into the atmosphere.

To address this issue, Reforest'Action gives businesses the possibility to fund the development of certified forest creation projects (VCS certification in particular), which will produce carbon credits after five years and for approximately 30 years. Although these projects come with a high cost, they have the benefit of allowing big businesses to purchase a set amount of carbon credits at a fixed price, preventing shortages and skyrocketing credit prices that could arise from increased demand for projects of this kind. Furthermore, Reforest'Action directly develops these projects in a number of tropical countries, working with local partners to guarantee operational execution and meticulous oversight.

Companies are specifically urged by the SBTi to "invest now in mitigation outside their value chains to help achieve societal net zero”. To put it another way, in order to contribute to the global +1.5°C target, businesses need to start supporting climate change mitigation projects outside their value chains (Beyond Value Chain Mitigation) right away. This could include long-term CO2 capture and sequestration projects as well as carbon contribution projects that prevent or minimise greenhouse gas emissions.

**It is therefore by starting now to combine the reduction of their own emissions with the financing of projects that avoid emissions and sequester more carbon outside their value chain that companies will be able to implement climate strategies in line with the SBTi recommendations and equal to the climate emergency!**

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Companies committed to SBTi targets:  Reforest'Action's solutions to meet the standard’s recommandations