The groundwork for current work on soil carbon was the Cluster's huge soil data collection project with Rothamsted Research involving 39 farms, with 50% of funding by Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL). This was completed in 2022.

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Data about soil carbon content helps towards making decisions about farmland and what can be done and where: Where to improve soil structure? What restoration measures may be needed? Ultimately testing soil carbon helps identify opportunities for soil carbon capture and storage.

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This baseline data now enables farms to

- develop a regenerative farming plan to optimise productivity and carbon sequestration 

- predict soil carbon sequestration rates from regenerative practices

- monetise/realise the carbon (and co-benefits to flooding, water quality and biodiversity). Farmers can participate in an ISO accredited Greenhouse Gas emissions scheme to trade or in-set future additional carbon emissions reduction, or capture and storage.

Multiple Cotswold businesses are in discussion to purchase (or inset) the carbon from Cluster farms.