On a small section of highway near the exit for the small town of West Point, Georgia, a new experiment is underway: The shoulder next to the road is now planted with Kernza, a perennial grain that can help fight climate change.

Until recently, like most roadsides, the area was planted with grass, and this particular stretch of highway in a relatively rural part of Georgia might seem like an unlikely place for sustainable innovation. But it happens to be part of “The Ray,” a project to create the world’s first sustainable highway.

On a nearby part of the highway project, which was created with seed money from the Ray C. Anderson Foundation, a solar farm in the shoulder generates energy while native plants provide food for pollinators. In another section, 50 square meters of the road is paved with “solar pavement” that generates power within the road surface. The new planting of the Kernza crop is the latest pilot along the road.

The plant was bred at the Kansas-based Land Institute from a type of wheatgrass related to wheat, but unlike more common grains, like corn, wheat, and barley, it grows perennially, rather than having to be plowed and replanted every year. As it grows, its roots stretch as far as 10 feet underground, helping make the plant more resilient, preventing erosion, and capturing more carbon in the soil.

The plant was highlighted in Paul Hawken’s book Project Drawdown as an effective tool for fighting climate change. Hawken, who has connections to The Ray, helped introduce the organization to the plant. They’d previously considered growing other plants, such as bamboo, but realized that the roots of fast-growing bamboo could be destructive to pavement.

The pilot will be the first time that Kernza is grown in the Southeast, and the first time that it is planted next to a highway. “If we are successful, this plant has very deep root systems that will be much more viable and resilient to sun exposure and drought and other changing climate conditions–much more resilient on the roadside than grass, which is what is normally sown and maintained on the shoulder,” Allie Kelly, executive director of The Ray, tells Fast Company.

Grass has roots that are typically only two to four inches deep, and the plant is difficult to maintain on degraded soils and in the harsh conditions next to roads. It also captures less carbon as it grows.