Biochar Education as a Catalyst

This season, in many places, is a time for celebrating learning — students are finishing exams, graduating, and perhaps setting up internship or fellowship opportunities for the summer.

My own adult-sized children are on the precipice of new education opportunities (college decisions, new schools, etc.) This theme is no different for the team here at IBI as we executed biochar education initiatives worldwide this month.

Late last year, IBI hired a climate change education manager, Hannah Calloway, with the vision of creating prepared and biochar-literate communities and professionals; an essential piece of sustainably scaling the industry from the ground up. Building the public will, investment, and collaborative capacity for biochar as a climate change solution is crucial as we steer towards a vision of biochar removing 6% of all global emissions by 2030. After all — how can we scale for impact when changemakers (both within and outside of the industry) might not fully grasp the landscape and factors at play???

Just before the Thai Academy, I was proud to represent IBI at a “US Biochar Convening” organized by the US Endowment for Forestry and Communities, USDA Forest Service , & US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) . This convening brought together biochar producers, technology and equipment makers, industry supporters, and federal agencies from across the US. Given the growth in the US biochar market — as well as its relevance for the global industry — seeing this strong spirit of shared interests and collaboration was remarkable. On the theme of learning, I came away with key insights for how IBI can better support industry scaling; stay tuned!?

The IBI Biochar Academy, to me, is a catalyst for impact. More than 60+ participants from 18 countries joined us in Chiang Mai, Thailand for the second annual Biochar Academy this month: complete with six days of immersive learning, expert sessions, and site visits. One of the most rewarding experiences of this program is seeing the networking and connections fostered during our time together — researchers connecting with farmers, biochar production companies connecting with companies who have massive amounts of biomass waste.?

We’re already hearing the impact of the training from participants, who are saying things like: “The Biochar Academy this year was awesome! It started with the basics — what biochar even is and how they make it. It turns out that what we can use and how can we cook it matters. We learned all about how biochar can be a game-changer for farms, helping plants grow better and hold onto water. But that's not all! Biochar can apparently help fight climate change and clean up pollution too. They even showed us how to turn biochar into a business. Definitely got me thinking about new possibilities!”

The learning journey of IBI programs is designed to ensure everyone has the same knowledge. At the Academy, this looked like starting on day one with biochar basics and working through the week to cover topics like thermochemical conversion, kiln demonstrations, biochar applications, and carbon markets. I’d like to extend my sincere gratitude to our partners on the ground in Thailand, ECHO Asia; the many speakers who provided their expertise to the program’s participants; and the Academy sponsors HUSK, TSE Group, Circonomy, and Wongphai.?

The strategies that IBI will employ for education are far and wide — from asynchronous online courses, like the two new classes we launched, to immersive peer-learning experiences like the Biochar Academy.? Stay tuned for later this summer when we launch a narrative campaign featuring stories from the Biochar Academy participants!?

We hope you’ll join us at the next in-person IBI event in partnership with ICHAR ???? : the Biochar Study Tour in Italy this 16–18 of October, where you’ll explore biochar in vineyards in the famous “Chiantishire” region near beautiful Florence.??

Sincerely,

Read the full Global Biochar Industry Update