Solid as a rock:
How Brisbane’s Carbonaught is changing the forecast for sustainable farming
Brisbane-based Carbonaught is turning rock dust into a powerful climate solution. By harnessing the power of enhanced rock weathering, the company is helping farmers increase production, cut fertiliser costs, and play a key role in tackling climate change.
As rocks break down, they release essential nutrients, improve soil structure, and act as a powerful carbon sink, permanently removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This natural process, known as weathering, occurs gradually when rocks are exposed to water, air and biological activity over time.
But with the urgency of climate change demanding faster, scalable solutions, early-stage agricultural technology company Carbonaught is accelerating and expanding this process through enhanced rock weathering, a technique that involves crushing rocks to increase their reactivity and maximise their carbon capture potential.
By crushing basalt, found in abundance near valuable farmland, and spreading it across soil, CEO Andrew Pedley says Carbonaught is ushering in a shift away from imported synthetic fertilisers, and towards decentralised, locally sourced nutrient systems – a shift that will create more resilient economies and better environmental outcomes.
“Carbonaught’s technology can be embedded in supply chains worldwide,” Pedley explains. “It could be a sugarcane grower in Mareeba exporting to Japan, or a mining company in Ghana turning waste rock into a foundation for food production. It’s about rethinking how we grow food in a way that strengthens communities and global trade.”
For its efforts, Carbonaught has been voted one of the world’s top Carbon Removal companies by the XPRIZE Foundation in 2022 and 2024. The company was also honoured with the 2024 Accenture Australia Product Innovation Award at the Brisbane Lord Mayor's Business Awards.
Carbonaught has also received financial backing from Better Bite Ventures, a venture capital firm located in Singapore, reflecting the company’s growing international recognition as a leader in sustainable agriculture and carbon removal.
Sustainability from the ground up
Pedley and co-founders James Lyons and Rhys Heffernan first recognised the potential of basalt while working together at a major mining company, where they saw vast stockpiles sitting unused. In 2021, they founded Carbonaught to put that resource to work, creating an end-to-end system that makes basalt easily accessible to farmers, with modelling tools to optimise its use for soil and crop health.
“We used to think some Silicon Valley genius would come along and solve the carbon problem,” Pedley reflects. “Then we realised – we are the cavalry.”
The company has also introduced rigorous measurement and verification protocols, ensuring that both the carbon sequestration and agricultural benefits can be independently validated.
“Enhanced rock weathering has now advanced to the point where we can perform geochemical attribution,” Pedley explains, “which means we can show farmers exactly how the process improves soil health. This is crucial to scaling the technology, because it’s the intrinsic benefit to their farming operation – a higher ROI per hectare – that drives adoption, with carbon removal as a built-in advantage.”
Carbonaught is already making major strides, with its technology deployed in trials across Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australia and California. While its early focus has been on sugarcane, the company is now expanding into other key agricultural sectors, including horticulture, grains, cotton, beef, dairy and rice – industries critical to Australia’s export economy.
By embedding low-emission practices into mainstream agriculture, Pedley says Carbonaught could also help drive cost reductions that make emerging industries, like sustainable aviation fuel, more commercially viable.
The crossroads of industry and innovation
Carbonaught’s decision to base itself in Brisbane was a strategic one. The city is Australia’s first to receive Gold Certification under the United Nations Habitat’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Cities Global Initiative, recognising its commitment to sustainability and responsible economic growth.
With deep ties to agriculture and mining, access to world-class research institutions, and direct trade links to key export markets, Brisbane provides the perfect foundation for scaling enhanced rock weathering into a global climate and agricultural solution.
“Brisbane is very central to the real economy on the east coast – agriculture and mining – and we straddle both of those worlds,” Pedley says. “Many industry headquarters are based here, which means we’re close to the businesses that can benefit most from our technology.”
Beyond its strong industry connections, Brisbane is also home to a deep talent pipeline, with several of Australia’s top universities producing a steady stream of graduates and providing opportunities to work with researchers at the cutting edge of their fields. Carbonaught has already tapped into this expertise, recruiting leading academics from Queensland institutions to refine and validate its technology.
The city’s proximity to major export markets makes it even more attractive. As Australia’s closest major port to the world’s largest Asian markets, Brisbane offers faster shipping to Tokyo than any other Australian capital city – a significant advantage as international markets shift towards stricter carbon regulations.
“Japan’s new cap-and-trade system, coming into effect in 2026, will require companies to reduce emissions across their entire supply chains – including the agricultural products they import,” Pedley says. “Because Japan is such a prolific importer, this cap-and-trade system will effectively be exported to other countries. It’ll have a major impact on the sugar industry, for instance, because Japan imports most of its sugar from Queensland.”
That shift is creating new business opportunities for Australian farmers who can verify their emissions reductions. Carbonaught’s technology is helping unlock these markets by allowing farmers to prove their sustainability credentials.
“That now becomes part of the end-to-end business model we can offer local farmers,” Pedley explains. “We can approach a Japanese beverage manufacturer, and say, ‘You have an emissions challenge, and we have a proven technology that can help reduce your supply chain footprint. Is that something you’d be willing to invest in?’
“If the answer is yes, that commitment strengthens the business case for farmers. It’s not just about soil health, fertiliser cost savings or supply chain stability – it’s about unlocking access to high-value international markets that are actively seeking lower-emission agricultural products. By stacking these benefits together, we create a model where farmers can increase their profitability while contributing to a more sustainable food system.”
Helping Carbonaught navigate these international opportunities is the Brisbane Economic Development Agency (BEDA), which has played a critical role in the company’s global expansion. Carbonaught participated in BEDA’s Future Food Initiative, a program designed to help innovative agribusinesses scale internationally.
“One of the biggest reasons we joined the Future Food Initiative was the strategic advice on export markets,” Pedley says. “The program was designed to streamline the process of entering those markets, helping businesses like ours understand the key frameworks and requirements for exporting. It gave us the context we needed to say, ‘If you want to access international markets, here’s what you need to know, and here’s how you prepare for it.’
“That knowledge has been invaluable, not just for us but for the farmers we work with, because we can take those insights and integrate them into our approach, making it easier for farmers to tap into high-value overseas buyers.”
The power of connection
While Carbonaught’s participation in the Future Food Initiative helped sharpen its export strategy, Pedley says the informal support the company has received from BEDA has been just as impactful. He describes a network of people within the agency who have consistently gone out of their way to help, whether by providing strategic advice or simply connecting the company with the right people over a coffee.
“The BEDA team has really rallied around us,” he says. “Being engaged in their programs created this knock-on effect where people were actively looking for ways to help – introducing us to industry contacts, making connections, and offering insights. That kind of support, without any expectation of investment or equity, is rare for an early-stage company, but it’s been incredibly valuable.”
For Pedley, the mission is both urgent and deeply personal. “I always compare it to watching Kieren Perkins win Gold in Barcelona in ‘92,” he says. “I still remember that feeling of national pride, when suddenly, everyone across Australia realised, ‘We’re really good at this.’
“I want to recapture that feeling – I want a future where even Australians who don’t necessarily understand the intricacies of food systems recognise that their country is leading the world in sustainable agriculture.”
With every tonne of basalt spread and every farmer brought on board, Carbonaught is laying the groundwork for a more sustainable, resilient global food system. And for Pedley, that’s reason enough to get up every morning and keep going.
“There are certainly easier ways than this to make a buck,” he laughs. “But this? This is worth it.”
