We capture carbon for communites
The Good Carbon Farm stores carbon locally by converting plant waste into biochar.
We connect with school and community gardens that would like to use biochar in their soils and composts. Together, we ensure biochar is a good match for their gardens and gardeners, and then donate it to them. Our biochar is also donated to conservation projects that restore and regenerate indigenous forest and wetlands.
Not only do these gardens and projects do amazing work in their communities to grow food and protect the environment, they also create micro-carbon sinks by providing a home for our biochar. As well as storing carbon for hundreds of years, biochar triggers a reaction that makes soil better, and better soil grows better plants.
We’re taking simple, circular, and tangible climate action
We produce carbon you can see and use, for good
Because there is more carbon entering the atmosphere than the earth can naturally absorb, we need other ways to keep carbon out of the sky.
Our approach to storing carbon is simple and circular. Instead of allowing surplus green waste from farms, forests, and gardens to rot, be disposed of, or displaced during big weather, we upcycle it to biochar.
Using a controlled process, green waste is baked into solid form, capturing carbon that would have otherwise returned to the atmosphere. When biochar is added to the ground, a carbon sink is created, and the ongoing benefits stay in the soil for hundreds of years.
What are carbon sinks and biochar?
forests
soil
the ocean
and of course, biochar.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recognises biochar as one of few negative emissions technologies we have to address the climate emergency.
Plants are rich in carbon, so when they die and decompose, carbon is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and methane. The process of making biochar captures up to half the carbon that would otherwise have been emitted. Internationally, biochar carbon credits are traded on voluntary carbon markets, like stocks and shares.
Biochar is made from heating organic materials in a reduced oxygen, high temperature, low emissions environment called pyrolysis. Depending on how biochar is made, the pyrolysis process can generate renewable energy, and produce other beneficial by-products. One kilo of carbon stored in biochar is equivalent to approximately three kilos of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere. Each batch of biochar we make is unique, so the amount of carbon stored may vary.
A carbon sink is anything that can store carbon for a long time, like:
Researchers have found many ways to use biochar to reduce the impacts of climate change. As well as creating a carbon sink, when properly added to the ground, biochar becomes a long-term haven for beneficial microbes and nutrients. Biochar can:
regenerate soil
improve plant health
save water
reduce the need for fossil-fuel based fertilisers.
Watch the one-minute video below for more about biochar.