Letter from the Executive Director

At the US Biochar Initiative, developing markets for physical biochar has made it clear: standards represent a key foundation for industry growth. They underpin the trust we need — trust in laboratory data for biochar, in the production practices that benefit the environment and sequester carbon, and in the fact that biochar will be effective in different products. Developing these standards has become a central focus of my time at USBI, and they will continue to be a core component of our work for years to come.

First and foremost, US Biochar Initiative is leading an effort to develop an American National Standard (ANSI) for the analysis of biochar, which is critical for the United States biochar industry. Right now, two basic standards have been developed for the analysis of biochar: those developed by the International Biochar Initiative (IBI) and those from Carbon Standards International (CSI), including the European Biochar Certificate and the World Biochar Certificate. IBI's standards, created in 2015, marked the industry's first step toward standardization, but they were never designed with commercial laboratories in mind. As a result, most laboratories in North America struggle to implement them, and often refuse to do so. The CSI standards are based on German laboratory standards, and are a no-go for most laboratories in North America. Because of this situation, very few laboratories in North America offer analysis for biochar, creating backlogs and slowing industry growth

The ANSI standard for the analysis of biochar will address this gap. Developed specifically to simplify the process for commercial laboratories, ANSI follows just two analytical frameworks — EPA methods for those compounds with a regulatory connection, and ISO methods for everything else. USBI, along with a committee of nearly 30 professionals from North America, has worked hard on this for the past year, and we plan to release the public review draft this month.

Analysis standards are just the starting point though, and we are already working on other standards, while thinking about how we can deploy our resources to further advance the biochar sector. Specifically, we are considering the development of “do-no-harm” end-use standards and standards for the production of biochar to strengthen trust in this industry.

If you’re interested in these topics, we invite you to join the Standards Development Workshop on Monday, September 15th, 2025 at 12:30 pm at the North American Biochar Conference. The goal of this workshop will be to assess where we are today, build consensus for what comes next, and define how USBI should work to push forward additional standards. We hope to see you there.

Myles Gray
Executive Director