Transforming Low-Carbon Agriculture

Goldman Sachs’ AIMS Imprint group allocated capital with external managers investing in companies with climate- or inclusive growth-related goals

Despite negative environmental impact and high costs, synthetic fertilizer production has not changed in more than 100 years. While synthetic nitrogen fertilizers help farmers produce higher crop yields, nitrous oxide emissions are a major contributor to climate change, and nitrate runoff poisons the aqueous ecosystem. Our Imprint group has allocated funds to a manager investing in a transformative solution, Pivot Bio — one of the first sustainable alternatives to synthetic nitrogen.

Pivot Bio uses proprietary microbes that fix nitrogen from the air into the soil, which supplies nitrogen to a plant’s roots without washing away or volatilizing into the air like traditional synthetic fertilizers. The genetic blueprints of each microbe are mapped and programmed to provide nitrogen levels that are adapted to each crop’s nutrient needs. The end result is fuel-scalable, low-carbon agriculture with higher yields, lower emissions, cleaner water and healthier soil.