Genesis was born from a simple question. During a family trip through California's Central Valley in 2017, entrepreneur Quentin Sannié witnessed landscapes marked by drought, soil degradation and water scarcity – and began to ask how organizations can protect something they struggle to measure. Nearly a decade later, that same ambition continues through the integration of Genesis soil intelligence capabilities into SGS, helping organizations better understand the condition and long-term performance of their soils.
Why soil health is hard to measure
Back in Normandy, Sannié put the question to a group of farmer friends: “What is the simplest thing we could do that might change everything in agriculture?” Their answer led him back to the soil. For decades, they explained, soil had been treated as little more than physical support for plants rather than a living ecosystem – yet it shapes environmental and economic outcomes alike, and measuring its condition and change over time remains complex.
The challenge is significant. According to the FAO’s report Soils are endangered, but the degradation can be rolled back, 33% of the world’s soils are moderately to highly degraded, even as soil underpins food production, biodiversity, water regulation, carbon storage and land resilience.
Seeing soil differently
That insight became the foundation of Genesis, founded as a leading agency on world soil health making the condition of cultivated land and forests measurable, and to assess the environmental impact of farming and land-management practices. Its purpose was, and remains, to give those who finance, source from and manage land reliable evidence to improve production models.
To do this, a soil intelligence approach was developed that combines soil sampling and laboratory analysis with satellite imagery and contextual information, translating complex scientific measurements into clear, comparable indicators of soil condition and change over time.
The result is better insight, not simply more data. By helping organizations establish baselines, compare locations and monitor progress, Genesis supports more informed decisions on sourcing, land management and investment – and by linking soil indicators to farming practices, helps identify what works, where and under which conditions.
When we created Genesis, we wanted to make the effects of land-management decisions visible and comparable, so that businesses and investors could identify what works, where and why.
Our ambition was global from the outset, but achieving it required worldwide reach and the capacity to operate at scale. By bringing Genesis capabilities together with SGS’s scientific expertise, field presence and independent assurance services, that ambition can now be pursued on a global scale.
I am immensely proud that this new chapter can help companies build more resilient supply chains, match farming practices to local conditions and direct investment towards measured risks and solutions demonstrated to work.
Bringing soil intelligence to SGS
Since September 2026, Genesis soil intelligence capabilities have been integrated into SGS’s global portfolio.
Combining Genesis soil intelligence capabilities with SGS's global laboratory network, field expertise and independent assurance services creates new opportunities. This will help stakeholders make well-informed decisions about soil health and improvement opportunities. These actions are key to the global agricultural production of the future
Genesis strengthens our soil health and decarbonization solutions portfolio, adding advanced soil intelligence to a global offering that already includes testing, monitoring and independent verification. As a result, we can help organizations move from understanding actual soil conditions to tracking change and demonstrating positive data and outcomes for the future.
What began as a vision to make soil health measurable and verifiable can now be supported by our global reach, contributing towards positive soil health and agricultural production into the future.
Discover our soil health and decarbonization solutions.
Visit the Genesis website.
