Letter from the Executive Director

As we wind down the year, we can all look back at 2024 as a transformational year for biochar. The industry is thriving — facilities are being designed and built, international climate organizations are recognizing the power of biochar as a carbon dioxide removal technology, bankers and financiers are digging into biochar business models, researchers are advancing biochar production and use technologies, markets for physical biochar are growing, and interest in biochar has never been greater. Our collective efforts have yielded real success. 

As we look forward to 2025, we see another transformational year, both for USBI but also for the broader North American biochar industry. At USBI we are working hard to increase our impact and reach, particularly by supporting the development of markets for physical biochar as a soil amendment, as ingredients in high efficiency fertilizers, as horticultural potting media, as a stormwater filtration media component, and as an additive to concrete. Beyond market development, we aim to: 

• Develop a USBI Industry Roundtable to strengthen our ties with the biochar industry so that we can best support its growth. 
• Release an American National Standard (ANSI) for the analysis of biochar. 
• Host the 2025 North American Biochar Conference in Minneapolis, MN, September 15-18, which we hope will be the largest biochar conference yet held. 
• Refresh the USBI brand to highlight the biochar industry. 
• Collaborate on a position paper to support the use of biochar as a decarbonization tool for value-chain emissions 

I wish you all a happy holiday season, and that you may all return refreshed in the New Year to help write the next chapter of the biochar industry in 2025. 

Myles Gray 
Executive Director