CERAWeek continues to be one of the most important convenings of energy, technology, and infrastructure leaders.
Last week, Grassroots Carbon CEO Brad Tipper presented at CERAWeek. We wanted to share a few of his reflections from the week:
“It was an honor to attend CERAWeek and present on behalf of Grassroots Carbon, representing 655 million acres of grazing lands and grasslands across the United States. Sitting alongside leaders from Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft to Dow, ExxonMobil, Williams Companies, and TotalEnergies, you could feel just how quickly the world is moving. The scale of investment going into AI, data centers, and energy infrastructure is unlike anything we’ve seen before.
There was an undercurrent in many of the conversations that stuck with me: The pace of data center development is starting to outstrip the pace of trust. Many hyperscalers are finding themselves in communities asking harder questions about water, land use, and what this means for the people who live there.
Texas is at the center of this conversation. During my presentation, “From Cowboys to Carbon: Grazing Solutions for Carbon, Water, Biodiversity, and Climate Resilience,” I wore a tie from my friend Chad Ellis and the Texas Agricultural Land Trust, featuring the brands of ranches and families they’ve worked with to ensure working lands stay in working hands. Many of these ranches have also partnered with Grassroots Carbon and it felt important to share their stories at CERAWeek. Behind every acre is a family, a cattle operation, and a community that has stewarded that land for generations.
What we’ve seen at Grassroots Carbon is that these working lands are not just part of the backdrop. They are part of the solution. Healthy soils store carbon, but they also hold water, and at a time when water is becoming one of the most sensitive issues tied to data center growth, that matters. A 1% increase in soil organic carbon can allow a single acre to retain up to 20,000 gallons of water. At scale, that begins to change how you think about infrastructure.
We’ve now partnered with ranchers across more than 2.3 million acres in 22 states, and we’re continuing to grow. In many ways, we are starting to think about Grassroots Carbon as a hyperscaler as well, just in a different layer of the system. Scaling across land instead of servers, but with the same ambition to deliver at a level that matches the moment.
If there was one takeaway for me coming out of the week, it’s that the companies that will lead in this next chapter are the ones that recognize that license to operate is something you earn through real investment in the land, water, and communities that support that growth.
I’m grateful for the conversations and excited to keep building with partners who see that same opportunity.
If you’re thinking about investing in land, water, and communities alongside your infrastructure footprint, we’d welcome the conversation.”
