Originally posted on June 5, 2026 by realagriculture.

etween federal cost-shares, conservation programs, philanthropic funding, and corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) demands, the sustainability landscape has become increasingly crowded over the past decade.

While the metric of carbon emissions has dropped down the priority list for some politicians, funding momentum for sustainability practices on farms remains strong across government, philanthropic, and corporate supply chain channels, according to Ashley Honsberger, interim executive director of Canadian Alliance for Net Zero Agri-Food (CANZA).

In many cases, the focus has shifted beyond carbon to soil health, water quality, and biodiversity, she notes.

To cut through the noise, CANZA is launching the first phase of its Marketplace—a digital tool designed to help farmers track and share environmental outcomes from their farm, while retaining ownership of their data.

“Where we are today is that we have corporate demands in terms of ESG goals… and for a farmer, it’s very difficult to know exactly where to plug in and how to trace that information across the supply chain,” says Honsberger.

Their platform aims to reduce friction by serving as a secure hub that matches a farm’s specific practices to funding. The first phase is currently live for Ontario farmers, featuring around 50 existing programs.

“CANZA enters this space from a perspective of collecting and being a safeguard for data, turning that data into something tangible for the corporate side, and making that process have a lot less friction for the farmer,” she says.

While the first phase is focused on programs available in Ontario, CANZA plans to expand the platform to Quebec, the Maritimes, and Western Canada.

Honsberger notes they’re also looking to introduce AI-driven features this fall to streamline the process.

“We feel there’s a role for AI to play in the efficiency side,” she says. “So farmer could apply once, and then the program could take their information, reformulate it, and then help them to apply to other programs, so a little more turnkey, a little more tailored to saving time and helping people who don’t want to sit on a computer all day.”