By using shared outcomes and indicators, the industry can accelerate regenerative practices at scale – making change real, measurable and rewarding.
Why Alignment on Outcomes Matters
Regenerative agriculture restores ecosystems, builds healthy soils and strengthens resilient, competitive food systems. Without a shared way to measure and report outcomes, progress is hard to track, compare and scale. Aligning on key outcomes in regenerative agriculture provides a common language to guide businesses, investors and policymakers. It helps turn isolated efforts into coordinated action and measurable impact.
Stakeholders Can Use These Outcomes to:
Measure Progress
across environmental, social and economic outcomes
Align Action
across farms, supply chains and corporate reporting
Scale Impact
to benefit ecosystems, communities and global food systems
Why It Matters
Our Key Messages
WBCSD and One Planet Business for Biodiversity (OP2B) coalition worked together over a two year period to strengthen corporate performance and accountability on climate, nature and equity. Working closely with key partners to align on a core set of cross-sectoral regenerative agriculture outcomes in line with planetary boundaries, the UN SDGs and leading sustainability and disclosure frameworks.
Outcomes and indicators were identified through analysis of existing frameworks* and refined through scientific review and expert deep-dives. This provides a practical, credible foundation for consistent measurement and reporting, helping unlock coordinated public and private investment at scale.
*GHG P-LSR, SBTi FLAG, TCFD, GRI, IFRS, CSRD, CDP, SBTN Land, CDP Forests, TNFD, GRI 304 Biodiversity & Agri Standards, ISSB (based on CDSB Biodiversity), GRI 303 Water, SBTN Freshwater
Our Collective Journey
Global Businesses
52 companies, representing the agricultural value chain for food, fiber and feed, united to support a core set of indicators and methods for measuring and reporting regenerative agriculture outcomes.
Business-Focused Initiatives
33 partner organizations, including Textile Exchange and SAI Platform, representing 1100 businesses, contributed to aligning on core indicators to measure sustainability outcomes. Within their respective sectors, Textile Exchange’s Regenerative Agriculture Outcomes Framework (fashion, apparel and textiles) and SAI Platform’s Regenerating Together Global Framework for Regenerative Agriculture (food and beverage) provide key reference points for sector-specific regenerative agriculture outcomes and impact measurement.
Multistakeholder Ecosystem Alignment
Fostering alignment on regenerative agriculture beyond the private sector requires a collective effort. WBCSD is a partner of Regen10, a global initiative working to support an inclusive, regenerative and equitable agri-food systems transition. WBCSD has been a partner in Regen10 since its establishment in 2023. Engagement in Regen10 offers a multistakeholder platform to further collective objectives, specifically on regenerative agriculture and regenerative landscapes, and provides key connections to build convergence. The Regen10 Outcomes Framework operates within an ecosystem of initiatives advancing regenerative agrifood systems. The Outcomes Framework is designed as an upstream outcomes architecture – a shared reference for what regenerative agrifood systems should deliver, enabling initiatives with different scopes and methodologies to connect their work to common outcomes.
Regenerative Agriculture Outcomes
Leading private sector actors and partners are increasingly taking action and calling for a holistic approach to regenerative agriculture that encompasses environmental, social and economic outcomes.
Our collective vision for regenerative agriculture includes 11 cross-sectoral outcomes, aligned with key sustainability frameworks, planetary boundaries and UN SDGs.
This approach accelerates regenerative agriculture among stakeholders, strengthens corporate accountability, enhances supply chain resilience and enables financing that supports farming communities.
Our Collective Vision for Regenerative Agriculture
Minimize Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Core metrics
Alignment info
| Indicator | Metric |
| Greenhouse gas emissions | MT CO2 e/yield or metric ton of product |
| MT CO2 e total |
Alignment info
- Framework alignment: GHG Protocol, SBTI Flag, TCFD, CSRD, CDP, GRI, IFRS
- Planetary boundaries: climate change
- Other outcome connectivity: biodiversity outcomes, soil outcomes
Increased Sequestered Carbon
Core metrics
Alignment info
| Indicator | Metric |
| Total carbon sequestration | MT CO2 e total |
| Soil carbon sequestration | MT CO2 e total |
Alignment info
- Framework alignment: GHG Protocol, SBTI Flag, TCFD, CSRD, CDP, GRI, IFRS
- Planetary boundaries: climate change, biogeochemical cycles, novel entities
- Other outcome connectivity: biodiversity outcomes, water outcomes, soil outcomes
Improved Ecological Integrity
Core metrics
Additional metrics
Alignment info
| Indicator | Metric |
| Natural/ restored habitat in agricultural landscapes | Natural/semi-natural habitat (NSH) in agricultural land (% per km2) |
Additional metrics
| Indicator | Metric |
| Natural/ restored habitat in agricultural landscapes | Configuration of habitat: → Connectance index → Proportion of NSH core area → Field border density |
| Presence/abundance of priority species | Farms where priority species are stable or increasing in abundance (% of farms) |
Alignment info
- Framework alignment: SBTN Land, TNFD, CSRD, GRI, ISSB
- Planetary boundaries: climate change, biogeochemical cycles, land system change, biosphere integrity, freshwater use
- Other outcome connectivity: climate outcomes, water outcomes, soil outcomes
Increased Cultivated Biodiversity
Core metrics
Additional Metrics
More information
| Indicator | Metric |
| Crop diversity | Crop diversity per km2 (modification of the Hill-Shannon Diversity Index) |
Additional Metrics
| Indicator | Metric |
| Crop diversity | Soil water holding capacity (%) ([volume of water/total volume of saturated soil] x 100) |
More information
Reduced Pesticide Risk
Core metrics
Alignment info
| Indicator | Metric |
| Pesticide risk | Environmental Impact Quotient field-use rating (EIQ score ecological component x application rate) |
Alignment info
- Framework alignment: TNFD, CSRD, GRI, ISSB
- Planetary boundaries: climate change, novel entities
- Other outcome connectivity: climate outcomes, water outcomes, soil outcomes
Minimized Water Pollution
Core metrics
Additional metrics
Alignment info
| Indicator | Metric |
| Nutrient loss | Nutrient use efficiency (%) |
Additional metrics
| Indicator | Metric |
| Nutrient loss | Nutrient loss at edge of field (kg/ ha) |
| Loading of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) to receiving water bodies (kg/month/ha) | |
| Total suspended solids | TSS of receiving water bodies (mg/L) |
Alignment info
- Framework alignment: CDP, CSRD, GRI, ISSB, SBTN Freshwater, TNFD
- Planetary boundaries: biogeochemical cycles, biosphere integrity, freshwater use
- Other outcome connectivity: biodiversity outcomes, climate outcomes
Improved Environmental Flows
Core Metrics
Additional metrics
Alignment info
| Indicator | Metric |
| Blue water | Blue water withdrawal (m3/ha) split by level of water stress risk |
Additional metrics
| Indicator | Metric |
| Blue water | Blue water withdrawal (m3/ha) aligned with environmental flows |
| Water consumption or Evapotranspiration (m3/ha) | |
| Green water | Soil water holding capacity (%) ([volume of water/total volume of saturated soil] x 100) |
Alignment info
- Framework alignment: CDP, CSRD, GRI, SBTN Freshwater, TNFD
- Planetary boundaries: biosphere integrity, freshwater use
- Other outcome connectivity: Biodiversity outcomes, soil outcomes
Increased Soil Health
Additional Metrics
Alignment info
| Indicator | Metric |
| Soil organic carbon | MT CO2e total [Core climate metric] |
| SOC/Area or tons of carbon/ha | |
| Green water | Soil water holding capacity (%) [Additional water metric] |
| Infiltration rate | mm/hr |
| Bulk density | Dry weight of soil in a given volume, g/cm3 |
| Availability of soil nutrients to plants | Amount (mg/kg) of plant available macro/ micronutrient in soil sample (N, P, K, SOM) |
| Soil invertebrate diversity | Species richness and abundance of macroinvertebrates (incl. earthworms where relevant) |
| Soil microbial diversity | Microbial biomass |
| DNA-based metrics | |
| Soil erosion | Tons/ha |
| % bare ground cover |
Alignment info
- Planetary boundaries: climate change, biogeochemical cycles, land system change, biosphere integrity, freshwater use
- Other outcome connectivity: climate outcomes, biodiversity outcomes, water outcomes, economic outcomes, social outcomes
Increased Financial Benefits
Core metrics
Additional metrics
Alignment info
| Indicator | Metric |
| Farm net income | Farm net income (LCU) / ha / year |
Additional metrics
| Indicator | Metric |
| Farm net income | % of farm households that meet or are above the living income benchmark |
| ROI (profit / ha) – including yield, input prices and crop prices | |
| Farm worker remuneration | % of farm workers whose remuneration (LCU) meets or is above the living wage benchmark |
| Farm economic resilience | Inter-year variability of farm net income (LUC) / ha (5-year rolling average) |
Alignment info
- Framework alignment: GRI, CSRD, CSDDD
- SDG connectivity: 1. No Poverty, 2. Zero Hunger, 8. Decent Work & Economic Growth
Increased Social Benefits
Additional metrics
More information
| Indicator | Metric |
| Food security | % of farm households classified as food secure (i.e., that do not fall within the moderate or severe food insecurity categories) in the past 12 months |
| Mental health | % of farmers reporting moderate to high well-being (i.e. > threshold |
More information
Increased Social Benefits
Additional metrics
More information
| Indicator | Metric |
| Food security | % of farm households classified as food secure (i.e., that do not fall within the moderate or severe food insecurity categories) in the past 12 months |
| Mental health | % of farmers reporting moderate to high well-being (i.e. > threshold |
More information
Increased Financial Benefits
Core metrics
Additional metrics
Alignment info
| Indicator | Metric |
| Farm net income | Farm net income (LCU) / ha / year |
Additional metrics
| Indicator | Metric |
| Farm net income | % of farm households that meet or are above the living income benchmark |
| ROI (profit / ha) – including yield, input prices and crop prices | |
| Farm worker remuneration | % of farm workers whose remuneration (LCU) meets or is above the living wage benchmark |
| Farm economic resilience | Inter-year variability of farm net income (LUC) / ha (5-year rolling average) |
Alignment info
- Framework alignment: GRI, CSRD, CSDDD
- SDG connectivity: 1. No Poverty, 2. Zero Hunger, 8. Decent Work & Economic Growth
Increased Social Benefits
Additional metrics
More information
| Indicator | Metric |
| Food security | % of farm households classified as food secure (i.e., that do not fall within the moderate or severe food insecurity categories) in the past 12 months |
| Mental health | % of farmers reporting moderate to high well-being (i.e. > threshold |
More information
Increased Social Benefits
Additional metrics
More information
| Indicator | Metric |
| Food security | % of farm households classified as food secure (i.e., that do not fall within the moderate or severe food insecurity categories) in the past 12 months |
| Mental health | % of farmers reporting moderate to high well-being (i.e. > threshold |
More information
Resources & Knowledge Hub
Companies worldwide are already leveraging these outcomes at both corporate and landscape levels, accelerating the transition to more competitive, sustainable and resilient food systems worldwide.
11
holistic outcomes aligned
1100
businesses engaged directly and indirectly
52
businesses aligned on outcomes
33
partners operating in the ecosystem united
Explore the Resources Below to Learn More About Our Work and Its Impact:
Evidence of Momentum Across the Agri-Food Sector
Explore how 52 leading agri-food companies manage a clear shift from commitment to action. Companies are moving beyond alignment to implementation and are increasingly reporting progress against best-practice outcomes, indicators and indicators. Learn more here.
Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV): Enabling Alignment and Scale
We are supporting companies to adopt these holistic outcome-based indicators for regenerative agriculture through effective and harmonized MRV:
The Global MRV Guidance - Regenerative Agriculture & Sustainable Land Use; Scaling impact through effective MRV
The Europe MRV Guidance - Delivering Impact at Scale; Europe’s MRV Guidance for Regenerative Agriculture & Nature Indicators
The Brazil MRV Guidance - MRV in Brazil; Technical Guidance for Regenerative Agriculture and Nature Indicators
The Rice MRV Guidance - New Business Guidance equips companies to cut rice methane emissions; Actionable strategies to scale low-emission, sustainable rice value chains
The Global MRV Guidance - Regenerative Agriculture & Sustainable Land Use; Scaling impact through effective MRV
The Europe MRV Guidance - Delivering Impact at Scale; Europe’s MRV Guidance for Regenerative Agriculture & Nature Indicators
The Brazil MRV Guidance - MRV in Brazil; Technical Guidance for Regenerative Agriculture and Nature Indicators
The Rice MRV Guidance - New Business Guidance equips companies to cut rice methane emissions; Actionable strategies to scale low-emission, sustainable rice value chains
Collective Action in High-Impact Landscapes
We work with partners to drive the adoption of regenerative agriculture outcomes and indicators where impact matters most:
LAB - Landscape Accelerator Brazil
RMA - Rice Methane Action Alliance
OP2B - One Planet Business for Biodiversity
LAB - Landscape Accelerator Brazil
RMA - Rice Methane Action Alliance
OP2B - One Planet Business for Biodiversity
Partners
FAQ
What is regenerative agriculture and how does it work?
Regenerative agriculture provides a practical pathway to improve environmental outcomes, build resilience in farming and value chains, and support long-term productivity. It supports and improves soil health, biodiversity, water resources and climate, while supporting farmer livelihoods.
What are the key principles of regenerative agriculture?
Regenerative agriculture principles often manifest in the adoption of context-specific agronomic practices that lead to improved outcomes (observed in the Regenerative Agriculture Outcomes section). They often encompass restoring carbon, water, and nutrient cycles in order to enhance soil health, limiting disturbance, armoring the soil, increasing biodiversity and improving farming livelihoods. This approach aims to promote sustainability, resilience, and environmental stewardship in agriculture. Additional principles may apply to specific farming systems.
How does regenerative agriculture differ from organic, sustainable or conservation agriculture?
Regenerative agriculture encompasses a broader and less prescriptive approach as it is focused on outcomes. While these other methods share common goals and environmentally friendly practices, regenerative agriculture has a holistic approach, grounded in agroecological principles, of (1) supporting farming livelihoods, (2) increasing biodiversity in and around farms, (3) restoring and maintaining soil health and water retention in soil, (4) promoting above- and below-ground carbon sequestration, (5) reduce pesticide risks and improve nutrient use efficiency.
What is the connection between WBCSD's private sector alignment, SAI platform and Regen10 initiative?
These initiatives are complementary. Companies implementing SAI Platform’s RTF can reference the Regen10 Framework to see how their farm-level work connects to broader regenerative outcomes – helping them understand the full picture of what regeneration requires, communicate their contributions more credibly, and identify at a strategic and organizational level where they might deepen their engagement over time. WBCSD provides a further corporate connection point, driving convergence on core environmental and socio-economic outcomes and indicators together with partners representing more than 1,100 leading businesses, and connecting corporate reporting with farm- and landscape-level platforms for consistency across the value chain.
How aligned is WBCSD's private sector alignment with other sector specific frameworks?
Within individual sectors, Textile Exchange’s Regenerative Agriculture Outcome Framework Global Framework for Regenerative Agriculture (fashion/apparel/textile sector) and SAI Platform’s Regenerating Together (food & beverage sector) provide the reference point for key sector-specific regenerative agriculture outcomes and measurement of impact. WBCSD is working with these initiatives to drive convergence on outcome-based indicators that link corporate, policy and investor decision-making with actions at the farm and landscape levels. WBCSD supports frameworks from Textile Exchange and SAI Platform which focus on the technical guidance for the implementation of regenerative agriculture at the farm level and its reporting throughout value chains.
How does regenerative agriculture positively impact communities?
Healthier soils resulting from regenerative agriculture practices are more resilient to the impacts of climatic events and can lead to yield and quality increases. That, paired with the reduction of pesticide use and improved nutrient use efficiency all contribute to helping improve farmers’ livelihoods and promoting economic stability within communities.
Glossary
| Above- and below-ground carbon sequestration | Increasing the uptake of CO2 and storage of carbon in biological sinks.24 Includes carbon stored in the carbon pools of specific habitats, such as trees, above-ground biomass, roots and soil. |
| Above-ground biomass carbon pool | Carbon in terrestrial living woody or herbaceous vegetation 2mm in size or greater. Example: carbon in trees, shrubs, plants. |
| Agroforestry | Growing trees and shrubs with crops and/or animals in interacting combinations on the same unit of land. |
| Below-ground biomass carbon pool | Carbon in terrestrial live roots 2 mm in size or greater. Example: carbon in roots. |
| Biodiversity | According to IPBES, “The variability among living organisms from all sources including terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are a part. This includes variation in genetic, phenotypic, phylogenetic, and functional attributes, as well as changes in abundance and distribution over time and space within and among species, biological communities and ecosystems. |
| Bulk density | The density of a volume of soil as it exists naturally, it includes air space, organic matter, and soil solids. |
| Blue water | Rivers, lakes, reservoirs and renewable groundwater stores. |
| CO2 equivalent (CO2-e) | The universal unit of measurement to indicate the global warming potential (GWP) of each of the six greenhouse gases, expressed in terms of the GWP of one unit of carbon dioxide. It is used to evaluate releasing (or avoiding releasing) different greenhouse gases against a common basis. |
| Ecosystem services | According to IPBES, “A service that is provided by an ecosystem as an intrinsic property of its functionality (e.g. pollination, nutrient cycling, nitrogen fixation, fruit and seed dispersal). The benefits (and occasionally disbenefits) that people obtain from ecosystems. These include provisioning services such as food and water; regulating services such as flood and disease control; and cultural services such as recreation and sense of place. In the original definition of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment the concept of ecosystem goods and services is synonymous with ecosystem services |
| Emissions scopes | The GHG Protocol classifies a company’s GHG emissions into three scopes. Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from owned or controlled sources. Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy. Scope 3 emissions are all indirect emissions (not included in scope 2) that occur in the value chain of the reporting company, including both upstream and downstream emissions. |
| Environmental flows | The quantity, timing and quality of water needed for functioning ecosystems. |
| Green water | Terrestrial precipitation, evaporation and soil moisture. |
| Indicators | Values or characteristics that provide insight into a particular phenomenon or situation. |
| Natural habitat | According to IPBES, “Areas composed of viable assemblages of plant and/or animal species of largely native origin and/or where human activity had not essentially modified an area's primary ecological functions and species composition. |
| Natural or semi-natural habitat | A habitat within or outside a crop made up of a community of primarily native, non-crop plant species, which human activity may modify but is able to contribute to enhanced ecosystem services. |
| Metrics | System or unit of measurements |
| Planetary boundaries | Those considered indicators of healthy agroecological systems that can help to maintain the functioning of key ecosystem services. This can include taxa of importance for ecosystem services provision, functionally important groups or indicator species of ecosystem integrity. |
| Riparian buffer | Riparian refers to an area along a stream or riverbank. A riparian buffer is essential to preserving water quality on farmland. |
| Soil carbon pool | → Mineral soil organic carbon (SOC): Carbon in soil organic matter that is smaller than 2 mm in size in soil types not classified as organic soils. Example: carbon in topsoil of croplands from particulate organic matter or microbial biomass. → Organic SOC: Carbon in soil organic matter that is smaller than 2 mm in size in organic soils that have organic horizon >10 cm or which have greater than 12-20% organic carbon by weight. Example: carbon in peat soils or wetland organic soils. |
| Soil inorganic carbon | Carbon in soil carbonates and other mineral carbon forms. Example: carbon in calcium carbonates in desert soils. |
| Soil organic carbon (SOC) | Soil organic carbon is the carbon component of soil organic matter. |
| Soil organic matter (SOM) | Any material produced originally by living organisms that is within or returned to the soil. It is composed of soil microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi as well as decaying material from once-living organisms and fecal material. |
| State-pressure-response framework | State of nature Refers to measures of the direct state of the environment in three categories: the state of ecosystems (extent and condition), species (abundance and extinction risk) and ecosystem services (or the state of nature’s contribution to people). Pressure Human activities that directly or indirectly change the state of the environment and ecosystem. Following the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES),57 five key pressures contribute most to the loss of nature globally: land- and sea-use change, direct exploitation of organisms, climate change, pollution and invasion of alien species. Response Actions taken by companies or farmers to address pressures or to improve the state of nature on farmed land. |
| Total suspended solids (TSS) | The overall mass of particles suspended in a water sample. The TSS are usually captured by a filter during sampling. This is distinct from total dissolved solids, which measures the dissolved fraction. |
| Outcomes | Quantitative or qualitative parameters that measure achievement or reflect changes over time; may be short or long term. |
| Water consumption | Sum of all water withdrawn and incorporated into products, used in the production of crops or generated as waste, has evaporated, transpired or been consumed by humans or livestock, or is polluted to the point of being unusable by other users and is therefore not released back to surface water, groundwater, seawater or a third party over the course of the reporting period. |
| Water discharge | Sum of effluents, used water and unused water released to surface water, groundwater, seawater or a third party, for which the organization has no further use, over the course of the reporting period. |
| Water withdrawal | Sum of all water drawn from surface water, groundwater, seawater or a third party for any use over the course of the reporting period. |
