Hello IBI Community –
How many of you will I get to meet (virtually) at IBI’s Members-Only Meet & Greet on 14 Sept.? We are creating a brand-new member benefit which we hope will facilitate opportunities for meeting others in the biochar industry from all over the world. Join us!
The momentum within the biochar industry was palpable at the recent North American Biochar and Bioenergy Conference, organized by our colleagues at UBSI, where I had the great pleasure to be in person with so many colleagues – over 350 from North America, Europe, and beyond – and it reminded me of the importance of gathering. We also see industry energy in Verra’s newly released methodology for biochar, creating the first ICROA-backed methodology, and joining two others from IBI members, Carbonfuture and Puro.
IBI is hugely grateful to the Starfish Alliance for a very generous donation of nearly $70,000. Starfish was responsible the highly successful Biochar for Sustainable Soils program which set up biochar demonstration and educational projects in seven different countries.
IBI now has over 500 members in 63 countries, so we made the decision to have the second-best option that will allow us to gather, but virtually. Using an interactive platform that allows participants to move around, we will have 16 thematic tables, including:
- Carbon Markets
- Life Cycle Assessments for Biochar
- Prioritized Research
- Biochar Standards
- UN Sustainable Development Goals
- Non-Agriculture Biochar Uses
- Regional tables for Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America.
Coming together to discuss extremely pressing issues for the biochar industry will also help IBI make sure our work is laser focused on what our members and the industry needs. (Speaking of members, you must be one to join us on 9/14, so if you aren’t already, please do so!)
On the IBI side, in addition to the ongoing work I shared last month, IBI is also working on a rebranding project, as well as an updated website in the few weeks. Something I’m especially excited about is a new “Nationally Determined Contributions” biochar framework IBI is working on with Rochester Institute of Technology researchers. This will give countries a tool to estimate how biochar could be a part of greenhouse gas emissions reduction through biochar creation with locally available agriculture byproducts and other forms of biomass.
Finally – saving perhaps the best for last – I am extremely excited to share a very early announcement of IBI’s new Biochar Academy. Slated to start in the Spring of 2023, this “train the trainers” program seeks to address the high demand for biochar educators, researchers, and consultants to help our industry continue to thrive and grow.
Until next month, keep putting the carbon in the black!
Char-fully Yours,
Kathleen Draper
IBI, Board Chair
Ithaka Institute for Carbon Intelligence, US Director