A very fond farewell from the Board Chair
After eight years as a Board Member and four as Board Chair, the time has come for me to bid a very fond farewell to the IBI Board at the end of December.
I have immensely enjoyed moderating countless webinars, hosting four successful (and fun!) study tours as well as the recent Biochar Academy. I am thrilled with how far we have come and know that I am leaving the Board in excellent hands as my friend and colleague Lucia Brusegan takes the helm.
The biochar industry is almost unrecognizable from the nascent, fledgling industry that I joined over a dozen years ago. Especially in the past few years we have seen so many new individuals and companies join us. The diversity of skill sets in our industry has moved well beyond the traditional researchers and agronomists, to include Finance and Carbon Market professionals, Project Developers, material scientists, policy wonks, engineers of all stripes, builders, landscapers, composters, waste management professionals, and many, many more. It’s mind boggling. It’s breathtaking. It’s hopeful.
Above all else I think that is what brings so many people into this industry — hope. Hope that biochar can not only help bend the Keeling Curve in a meaningful timeframe but also that it can positively impact lives and livelihoods across the globe.
IBI too has gone through its own hopeful evolution over the past few years; this is in large part thanks to a generous capacity building grant from the Woka Foundation. We could not have accomplished many of the things we’ve done over the past two years without this support.
We now have paid staff for the first time in many years. We’ve developed and are continuing to develop and deploy new educational opportunities such as our first ever Biochar Academy held in June 2023. We’ve freshened up our brand, our website, and our social media presence. We’ve been able to represent the biochar industry at more events to promote the benefits of biochar. And we funded a recently published paper that provides a framework for quantifying biochar’s carbon sequestration potential for 155 countries; something which I hope will be the first step in motivating countries to include biochar in their Nationally Determined Contributions and decarbonization plans.
I am definitely not leaving this exciting and ever-evolving industry, and I do plan to support IBI moving forward, but in the background on a select few projects that are near and dear to my heart. I will be announcing more about the next chapter in my biochar journey soon. I look forward to staying in touch with many of you in a new capacity in the very near future.
In the meantime, thank you all for your continued support of IBI and the industry overall,