Sustainability & Impact
A Promising Climate Solution
Synthetic fertilizer has, until now, been the primary way for farmers to grow food the world needs, but it is one of agriculture’s leading contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions and a significant driver of poor water quality, biodiversity loss, and air pollution. Synthetic nitrogen is also unpredictable for growers, due to leaching and volatilization. Our crop nutrition technologies harness nature to solve agriculture’s biggest challenge: delivering nitrogen to plants to feed a growing population without the negative impacts of synthetic fertilizer.
Pivot Bio's 2022 Impact
Nitrogen pollution is a critical environmental challenge because it impacts so many areas: air and water pollution, biodiversity loss, ozone layer depletion, human health. The glass-half-empty view is that it makes all of these worse. The glass-half-full view is that if we better manage our relationship with it, the positive impacts are far-reaching.
Harnessing Nature To Solve The Nitrogen Dilemma
It’s estimated that half of the global population is supported by synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, and demand is escalating. By 2050, it’s estimated that 50% more fertilizer will be needed to feed the world.
Synthetic fertilizer has, until now, been the primary way for farmers to grow the food the world needs, but it is one of agriculture’s leading contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions and a significant driver of poor water quality, biodiversity loss and air pollution. Synthetic nitrogen is also unpredictable for growers, due to leaching and volatilization.
Our microbial nitrogen is safer to handle and weatherproof. It does not leach or contribute to nitrous oxide pollution. Simply put, the more farmers replace synthetic fertilizer with microbial nitrogen, the cleaner our air and water will be.
Pivot Bio vs. the Synthetic Nitrogen Fertilizer System
The Flaws of Synthetic Nitrogen
1.31 gigatons of GHG
The production and use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer contributes 1.31 gigatons of GHG emissions annually.
Up to 60% loss
On average, only half of the synthetic fertilizer that farmers pay for and apply reaches their crop.
The Benefits of Microbial Nitrogen
2% manufacturing emissions
Our microbial nitrogen has just 2% of the manufacturing emissions of synthetic
10.5%-14%+ N/plant
Side-by-side comparisons show a win rate of 88-94% depending on in-season growing conditions, with 10.5-14% more nitrogen in the plant and 10.8-12% more in plant biomass compared to untreated plants.
On a typical 1,500-acre Iowa corn farm, replacing 40 lbs/acre of synthetic fertilizer with PROVEN® 40 would eliminate over 27 metric tons of synthetic fertilizer and avoid 260 metric tons of CO₂e emissions. That’s equivalent to the annual electricity demand of over 53 homes or the carbon sequestration from 310 acres of U.S. forest - from a single farm.
Our 2022 Impact
Farmers across the globe rely on nitrogen to deliver the yields necessary to sustain the food supply. Yet synthetic fertilizer is inaccessible to much of the world due to its supply chain infrastructure and high cost.
We’re committed to creating a more equitable nitrogen landscape for growers globally. Unlike synthetic fertilizer, microbial nitrogen can be manufactured domestically within any country. Microbial nitrogen also has a 1,000 times weight reduction compared to the fertilizer it replaces, a game changer for the supply chain. With more affordable, more accessible nitrogen—nitrogen whose price isn’t dictated by fossil fuel volatility or global shocks to supply chains—we can change the way our world grows food.
As we look forward, we will continue to expand our commercial registration into other countries where agriculture contributes to 33% of GDP and employs more than 40% of the total population.
“I use nitrogen fertilizer on my crops to boost my production, but it hasn’t been easy getting it as the price keeps appreciating. It’s challenging to get fertilizer and seedlings, and the weather is unpredictable.”