# Advancing Soil Carbon Measurement for Sustainable Food Systems with Chris Tolles of Yard Stick

- Show: [Hardware to Save a Planet](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hardware-to-save-a-planet)
- Published: 2024-08-29
- Length: 42m
- Episode: 60
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hardware-to-save-a-planet/2024-08-29-advancing-soil-carbon-measurement-for-sustainable-food-systems-with-chris-tolles
- Listen: https://podcasts.fame.so/e/m84xjr28-advancing-soil-carbon-measurement-chris-tolles

## Summary

Chris Tolles, Co-Founder and CEO of Yard Stick, explains how his company uses spectroscopy to reduce soil carbon measurement costs by 90%, enabling scalable carbon removal and improved agricultural economics. Tolles details the hardware challenges of integrating commercial spectrometers into durable, handheld field instruments and the critical need for extensive calibration libraries across diverse soil types. He argues that affordable measurement unlocks the economic viability of nature-based solutions for major emitters, contrasting the low cost of soil carbon with the high expense of engineered solutions like Direct Air Capture (DAC).

## Chapters

- [0:03](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hardware-to-save-a-planet/2024-08-29-advancing-soil-carbon-measurement-for-sustainable-food-systems-with-chris-tolles#t=3) Introduction: Chris Tolles and Yard Stick's mission
- [3:57](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hardware-to-save-a-planet/2024-08-29-advancing-soil-carbon-measurement-for-sustainable-food-systems-with-chris-tolles#t=237) Tolles' background in science commercialization and finding co-founders
- [8:15](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hardware-to-save-a-planet/2024-08-29-advancing-soil-carbon-measurement-for-sustainable-food-systems-with-chris-tolles#t=495) The economic case for soil carbon vs. engineered solutions
- [17:23](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hardware-to-save-a-planet/2024-08-29-advancing-soil-carbon-measurement-for-sustainable-food-systems-with-chris-tolles#t=1043) Climate impact vs. agricultural productivity incentives
- [22:33](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hardware-to-save-a-planet/2024-08-29-advancing-soil-carbon-measurement-for-sustainable-food-systems-with-chris-tolles#t=1353) How Yard Stick data is used by food brands like General Mills
- [28:21](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hardware-to-save-a-planet/2024-08-29-advancing-soil-carbon-measurement-for-sustainable-food-systems-with-chris-tolles#t=1701) Hardware engineering challenges: durability, spectroscopy, and calibration
- [32:11](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hardware-to-save-a-planet/2024-08-29-advancing-soil-carbon-measurement-for-sustainable-food-systems-with-chris-tolles#t=1931) Using Cambridge Consultants for multidisciplinary hardware development
- [34:58](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hardware-to-save-a-planet/2024-08-29-advancing-soil-carbon-measurement-for-sustainable-food-systems-with-chris-tolles#t=2098) The intersection of climate change, inequality, and techno-optimism

## Topics

- [Materials & manufacturing processes](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/materials-and-processes)
- [Pricing, margins & unit economics](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/pricing-and-unit-economics)
- [Scaling production](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/scaling-production)
- [Direct-to-consumer & e-commerce](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/direct-to-consumer)
- [Starting a product company](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/starting-a-company)
- [Policy, trade & tariffs](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/policy-trade-and-tariffs)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- Yard Stick (company)
- Counten Powers (company)
- Indigo (company)
- General Mills (company)
- Planet Labs (company)
- SpaceX (company)
- Charm Industrial (company)
- Cambridge Consultants (company)
- Makita (company)
- N cycle (company)
- Soil Health Institute (company)
- Synapse (company)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [The challenges of building a carbon removal portfolio](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/catalyst/2024-02-29-the-challenges-of-building-a-carbon-removal-portfolio) (Catalyst)
- [Growing the Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) market](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/catalyst/2022-05-05-growing-the-carbon-dioxide-removal-cdr-market) (Catalyst)
- [How well does soil actually store carbon?](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/catalyst/2022-10-06-how-well-does-soil-actually-store-carbon) (Catalyst)
- [Ag residue and carbon removal](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/catalyst/2025-09-25-ag-residue-and-carbon-removal) (Catalyst)
- [Kickstarting a $1 trillion market for carbon removal](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/catalyst/2021-11-18-kickstarting-a-1-trillion-market-for-carbon-removal) (Catalyst)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/hardware-to-save-a-planet/2024-08-29-advancing-soil-carbon-measurement-for-sustainable-food-systems-with-chris-tolles. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to Hardware to Save a Planet.