Verra publishes VT0014, a tool that lets soil carbon projects use machine-learning soil maps in place of some sampling

August 2025 — Verra published VT0014 on Aug. 26, 2025, a tool that sets rules for using digital soil mapping models to estimate soil organic carbon stocks in agricultural carbon projects. Here's what happened, what it cost, and what went wrong.

Cost and outcome (as of Aug. 26, 2025)

Outcome: a published Verra tool, v1.0, for VM0042 and VM0032 projects. (Verra, Aug. 26, 2025)
Cost: development cost not disclosed; savings to projects not quantified.
Model behind it: Perennial says its ATLAS-SOC model has integrated over 350,000 soil samples. (Perennial, Aug. 26, 2025)
Adopters: Bayer, rTek, Anthesis and Cool Path have committed to use it with Perennial, Perennial says. (Perennial, Aug. 26, 2025)

What the tool does

Verra says VT0014 gives guidance for developing, calibrating and validating data-driven models that estimate soil organic carbon stocks spatially, including estimates of model uncertainty. (Verra, Aug. 26, 2025)

Compared with traditional soil sampling, Verra says digital soil mapping gives broader coverage, better spatial resolution and precision, and more cost-effectiveness. It said it would soon issue a corrections and clarifications document on applying the tool under current and upcoming methodology versions. (Verra, Aug. 26, 2025)

Verra says the tool's development was led by Perennial and Verra, with support from TerraCarbon and a multidisciplinary working group, and that it underwent independent expert review. (Verra, Aug. 26, 2025) Perennial says it took four years with input from more than 30 experts. (Perennial, Aug. 26, 2025)

How Perennial says it works

Perennial describes digital soil mapping as using soil samples, machine learning and biogeochemically informed predictors. Its ATLAS-SOC model is trained for each project on selected local samples and then fills in the gaps, producing "hundreds to thousands of times more SOC data points than sampling alone," it says. (Perennial, Aug. 26, 2025)

It says the method needs a fraction of the samples of traditional approaches and improves accuracy, but gives no numbers for either, and it doesn't publish the per-acre or per-sample price of its service in the release. (Perennial, Aug. 26, 2025)

Perennial co-founder David Schurman pointed to rTek, which he said is regenerating 500,000 hectares of degraded grassland in Kazakhstan and can now access carbon markets under VM0032. (Perennial, Aug. 26, 2025) Bayer's Leo Bastos said Bayer chose Perennial as one of its global partners "after extensive validation studies." (Perennial, Aug. 26, 2025)

Perennial says it has raised over $25 million from investors including GenZero, Bloomberg LP and Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund. (Perennial, Aug. 26, 2025)

Who said what

"Digital soil mapping is critical to reducing the costs associated with the implementation and scaling up of Agricultural Land Management projects," said Verra CEO Mandy Rambharos. (Perennial, Aug. 26, 2025)

Verra notes that farm and livestock activities with agroforestry could cut or remove up to 9.6 GtCO₂e a year by 2050 with widespread adoption, a projection it bases on the 2019 IPCC land report. (Verra, Aug. 26, 2025)

Later use

In February 2026, Verra said Boomitra had committed to use VT0014 for future verifications of its northern Mexico grasslands project. (Verra, Feb. 4, 2026)

What went wrong

No numbers on savings. Neither Verra nor Perennial says how many fewer samples a project needs, or how much money it saves.
Developer conflict. Perennial co-led the tool and sells the modeling service that uses it. (Verra, Aug. 26, 2025, Perennial, Aug. 26, 2025)
Rules still being clarified. Verra said a corrections and clarifications document on applying the tool was still to come. (Verra, Aug. 26, 2025)
What we don't know yet: how many issued credits have relied on VT0014, and how its uncertainty estimates compare with sampling-only projects.

Our follow-up question for Verra

How many projects have used VT0014 for verified credits, and what uncertainty deductions applied?

Sources

Verra, “Verra Releases Innovative Digital Soil Mapping Tool,” Aug. 26, 2025. verra.org
Perennial, “Perennial Announces VT0014, the First Verra-Approved Tool to Unlock AI-Powered, Scalable Soil Carbon Quantification,” Aug. 26, 2025. perennial.earth
Verra, “Verra Approves Three Million Credits from Mexico Grasslands Project,” Feb. 4, 2026. verra.org

Disclosure: [not in copy] Editor placeholder