How Biochar Cools and Climate and Warms the Heart
The story of Warm Heart Worldwide and Biochar Life
In northern Thailand, Warm Heart Worldwide and its impact venture, Biochar Life PBC, are pioneering efforts to integrate environmental sustainability with economic development through biochar production.
This blog post explores their origins, their joint missions, and how their activities are creating widespread benefits for both the environment and local communities.
Origins of Warm Heart Worldwide
Warm Heart Worldwide was founded by Dr. Michael Shafer and Evelind Schecter. The couple’s history of humanitarian efforts — adopting four children from Korea, fostering over 20 more, and their involvement in global relief efforts — laid the groundwork for their future endeavours. Following a significant initiative to aid tsunami-affected regions in Thailand in 2004–5 with support from faculty at Rutgers University, the seeds were sown for what would eventually become Warm Heart Worldwide.
Since its inception, Warm Heart has tackled significant challenges in its community, with remarkable achievements in education, healthcare, and environmental sustainability:
Education for the Poor: Their Children’s Homes and educational programs have had a transformative impact on the community. They provide access to education, nutritious meals, comprehensive medical care, and a supportive environment. Their efforts have resulted in over 155 children participating, with a 100% completion rate for 9th-grade students and 59% of high school graduates moving on to higher education. These programs are crucial in breaking the cycle of poverty and empowering children to aspire to greater futures.
Support for the Elderly and Disabled: The Access to Care project addresses the needs of the elderly and disabled living in poverty and isolation. This program ensures basic needs are met and improves the quality of life through better healthcare, companionship, and necessary aids like wheelchairs. Over 100 clients are served annually, with 1,100 meals provided and 1,000 home visits, demonstrating a commitment to dignity and care for all community members.
Environmental Impact through Biochar: Addressing environmental and social concerns, Warm Heart’s initiative to train farmers in biochar production has significantly reduced the harmful practice of open field burning and improved the lives of thousands. This effort has trained over 20,000 farmers across 8 countries, producing 4,000 tonnes of biochar and converting 20,000 tonnes of agricultural waste, thereby sequestering 8,000 metric tonnes of CO2 and eliminating 125 metric tonnes of smoke annually. This not only combats air pollution and climate change but also enhances soil fertility and biodiversity.
These initiatives and results reflect Warm Heart’s holistic approach to community development, combining immediate assistance with long-term sustainability projects; and through innovative solutions such as biochar training, the foundation continues to create substantial environmental and social impacts, providing a blueprint for community-driven change.
Expanding Beyond Borders — Biochar
The decision by Warm Heart to train farmers in biochar production was driven by the pressing need to address severe air quality issues in northern Thailand, particularly in Chiang Mai. Each year, the region’s “burning season” sees farmers using fire to clear agricultural waste, leading to significant air pollution. This traditional practice not only obscured the skies but posed serious health risks due to the dense smog filled with fine particulate matter. Recognising the dire consequences of these practices, Warm Heart looked to biochar as a sustainable alternative that could help mitigate the environmental impact while also providing economic benefits to the farmers.
Warm Heart’s shift toward biochar was not just an environmental initiative but also an economic strategy. By converting agricultural waste into biochar, a substance that improves soil fertility and locks carbon away, farmers could reduce air pollution and enhance their crop yields simultaneously. This approach aligns with broader global environmental goals, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving air quality; and the expansion into biochar production provided farmers with an additional source of income from selling this valuable byproduct in the carbon removal markets. The expansion of Warm Heart into Africa followed a similar rationale. The organisation saw an opportunity to replicate its successful model in other regions facing comparable challenges with agricultural waste and poor soil health. By teaching farmers in Africa to produce biochar, Warm Heart extended its impact, helping more communities turn agricultural byproducts into a resource rather than a pollutant.
To date Warm Heart has trained more than 20,000 farmers across Asia and Africa and undertaken additional training programs in Burundi, the DRC, the Gambia, Liberia, Nigeria and Uganda involving thousands more!
The Inception of Biochar Life
In 2022, recognising the need for a dedicated focus on biochar production and its potential to significantly impact both environmental and economic spheres, Dr. Shafer and Evelind Schecter founded Biochar Life as a public benefit corporation — a Public Benefit Corporation wholly owned by Warm Heart Worldwide. This strategic move was guided by several pivotal considerations:
- Dedicated Resources and Expertise: Establishing Biochar Life as a separate entity allowed for the creation of specialised teams focused solely on advancing biochar production, research, and distribution. This organisational structure ensured that all efforts could be streamlined towards enhancing the efficiency and scalability of biochar output, without the distractions that might come from the broader array of initiatives at Warm Heart.
- Sustainable Business Model: Unlike traditional non-profits that rely heavily on donations and grants, Biochar Life was structured as a social enterprise. This model leverages commercial strategies to address social and environmental problems, allowing the venture to generate its own revenue through the sale of biochar and carbon credits. This shift not only promises greater scalability and financial sustainability but also enables Warm Heart to reinvest profits back into its community and environmental programs, thus creating a self-sustaining loop of funding and impact.
- Access to Carbon Removal Markets: The global carbon offset market presented a substantial opportunity for environmental initiatives to tap into new sources of funding. By positioning Biochar Life within this market, the organisation could directly monetize the environmental benefits of biochar, such as carbon sequestration. This not only provides a financial incentive for continuous improvement and expansion of biochar production but also aligns with global efforts to combat climate change through carbon removal strategies.
Symbiotic Growth and Impact
The partnership between Warm Heart Worldwide and Biochar Life exemplifies a perfect model of symbiotic growth, where the success of one directly feeds into the prosperity of the other. This relationship is pivotal for several reasons:
Reinvestment in Community Programs: Biochar Life’s commercial success translates into substantial financial support for Warm Heart Worldwide. The profits generated from the sale of biochar and carbon credits are funeled back into Warm Heart, enabling it to expand and enhance its wide array of community development programs. This includes educational initiatives, healthcare projects, and environmental sustainability efforts. Each successful sale not only represents a step towards environmental restoration but also a direct contribution to the welfare of the communities Warm Heart serves.
Feedback Loop for Innovation and Improvement: The ongoing operations of Biochar Life provide valuable data and insights that fuel continuous improvement in both entities. Innovations in biochar production techniques or new findings from environmental impact studies can enhance programmatic strategies at Warm Heart, ensuring that both organisations evolve based on grounded realities and scientific advancements.
Enhanced Impact and Visibility: As Biochar Life taps into international markets and garners global attention, it also elevates the visibility of Warm Heart Worldwide’s broader missions. This increased exposure attracts more partners, donors, and participants to their causes, broadening their impact and enabling more ambitious projects. Moreover, success stories from Biochar Life serve as powerful demonstrations of how integrated approaches to social enterprise and non-profit activities can lead to substantial local and global benefits.
Scalability and Expansion: The financial independence and sustainability of Biochar Life allow Warm Heart Worldwide to plan and execute larger, more long-term projects without the constant pressure of fundraising. This stability is crucial for scaling their impacts, reaching more communities, and implementing solutions that require significant upfront investments but promise long-term benefits.
Together, Warm Heart Worldwide and Biochar Life illustrate how aligned missions and integrated operations can amplify impact, creating a ripple effect that benefits not just the local communities they serve directly but also contributes to global environmental goals.
A Heartwarming Invitation
Supporting Biochar Life means engaging in a sustainable future for global communities. Every purchase of carbon removal credits supports Warm Heart’s ongoing charitable work, creating a cycle of positive change that benefits both the planet and its people. By choosing Biochar Life, supporters contribute to a larger narrative of environmental care and community empowerment — a proportion of profits generated by Biochar Life are invested back to Warm Heart Worldwide to further support their diverse community projects.
Embracing the opportunity to be part of Biochar Life’s mission is not just about creating profit but about making a profound difference in the lives of people and the health of our planet. Your support enables us to continue pioneering projects that have tangible impacts, inspiring communities worldwide to adopt more sustainable practices.
Let’s work together to write a new chapter in the story of sustainable development, one where everyone, everywhere, can thrive. Join Biochar Life in this transformative endeavour — because when the earth thrives, humanity prospers.
Ready to make a difference? Learn more and consider investing in Biochar Life through our Wefunder campaign at Biochar Life on Wefunder. Your investment can help propel this mission forward, creating a sustainable cycle of benefits that reach communities worldwide. Join us in making the world a greener, healthier place for all!
