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Carbon Gold is the world’s leading
sustainable biochar company. It was established in
2008 by Craig Sams, founder of Green & Black’s
Chocolate and Daniel Morrell, founder of The Carbon
Neutral Company, to research a solution
to two major environmental problems: the degradation
of soil due to industrial farming and climate change
due to man-made emissions of carbon dioxide and its
equivalents.
Carbon Gold’s main product is a
biochar-based range which acts as both a soil supplement
and as a means of carbon capture and sequestration.
Biochar is biomass that has been converted by pyrolysis,
a low-emission method of making charcoal.
Biochar offers a fresh solution
to the challenge of climate
change. Carbon Gold is developing
a portfolio of projects that uses the latest technology
to turn surplus biomass into biochar - a form of
fine-grained charcoal that is high in carbon and
largely resistant to decomposition.
Biochar offers
a unique tool to combat global warming because it
can capture the carbon dioxide that has been absorbed
by growing plants and tie it up in the soil for hundreds
of years, so preventing it re-entering the carbon
cycle.
Biochar also increases soil productivity,
retains moisture and reduces nutrient leaching, thus
reducing the need for irrigation and artificial or
organic fertilisers. Unlike charcoal, biochar can
be sourced from various types of biomass, typically
from surplus agricultural materials, such as crop
residues, tree prunings and agro-processing by-products.
The conversion into biochar results
in carbon savings, which can be marketed as carbon
credits. Unlike most carbon credits which are either
carbon neutral or virtual, Carbon Gold’s carbon credits
are in the form of tangible sequestered carbon: a
product that customers can see and touch.
Carbon Gold has set up projects across the world including the UK, Belize, the Maldives
and Mozambique. The company has identified additional,
larger projects in the Dominican Republic, Ghana,
Nevada (USA) and Brazil. Carbon Gold projects convert
locally produced biomass into biochar that can be
used to improve soil fertility.
Biochar will only help to reduce
atmospheric carbon dioxide if it is sustainably produced.
The
Carbon Gold Methodology and the Statement
of Principles will ensure that all Carbon
Gold projects adhere to strict sustainability, biodiversity
and environmental standards, that the carbon savings
can be independently verified, and that all projects
improve the prosperity of the communities involved.
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