Biochar & Sustainability

• We are all one, a universal community. We as a group, in this room, right now, are all living this moment together. We are existing on this planet at the same time..

• We are living NOW but there is a tomorrow.

• We have a personal individual responsibility to ourselves and future generations to live in a manner which does not do damage to our planet but actually improves it. Positive energy is key in this effort.

A Universal Community

The Precautionary Principle

"In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation."

Earth Summit, Rio, 1992

Sustainability

“Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”

Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development,” United Nations, 1987

Renewable resources…

…must be carefully managed to avoid exceeding the natural world's capacity to replenish them.

Biochar Professionals

• “Every profession bears the responsibility to understand the circumstances that enable its existence.”

-Robert Gutman

Shake It

“If we take a survey of the greatest actions…in the world…we shall find the authors of them all to have been persons whose Brains had been shaken out of their natural position.”

-John Adams

Reorientation

“The economics of permanence implies a profound reorientation of science and technology, which have to open their doors to wisdom and, in fact, have to incorporate wisdom into their very structure......  Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology towards the organic, the gentle, the non-violent, the elegant and beautiful...."

 

EF Schumacher

Declaration ofSustainability for Biochar Production

To set forth a shared vision and direction for the future of this technology among Biochar proponents to prevent unintended consequences that could potentially arise from this process.

To make clear to a broader stakeholder group that the pioneering efforts in Biochar production are directed toward helping people

and the planet and creating value.

Whereas Biochar Production creates value in all the following ways:

• Creates energy

• Sequesters carbon

• Creates a valuable soil amendment

• And whereas, each of these means of value creation could lead to a single end goal of wealth creation at the expense of people and the planet…

Let it be known that we Biochar producers, marketers and organizations shall:

• strictly adhere to protocols that promote the health of people and the planet as the process creates value.

• Inherent in this process is the fact that Biochar must be created from terrestrially derived carbon (non-fossil) in a manner that ensures ecologically sound landscapes remains, with minimum production impacts and positive

outcomes in a complete life-cycle analysis.

These Sustainability Protocols are based on Quantifiable Baseline Practices:

• 1. Biomass sourced primarily from agricultural/silvicultural residues

• 2. Minimal carbon debt from land-use changes (10-yr. maximum payback time, < 22 Mg CO2-Ceq ha)

• 3. No previously unmanaged lands converted to biomass for biochar production; for example, abandoned croplands, yes; native forests or grasslands, no. (Measurements based on 2010 certified regional and local land classification systems and landscape history.)

• 4. Modern pyrolysis technology use eliminates soot, methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions and captures energy released as process heat, bio-oil, and flammable gases.

• Let's be the wisdom in the machines and technology.