Climate change can sometimes seem like the proliferation of bizarre ‘reality TV’, a problem so huge and entrenched only those with a Quixote complex would be crazy enough to tackle it. 

I’ve found no one with the audacity to take down ‘Toddlers & Tiaras’, but every day I’m inspired by the boldness, creativity, and commitment of Northwesterners working in their various ways to advance climate solutions. 

I want to draw your attention to a handful of them now. The Northwest Biocarbon Initiative (NBI) is unveiling our first set of NBI Innovation Partners: companies and non-profit agencies whose projects increase the capacity of the planet to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in plant life and soils. 

In isolation, the contribution of these projects to solving global climate change would barely make a drop in a very large bucket. But the Northwest Biocarbon Initiative is galvanizing a wide range of the region’s biocarbon doers – farmers, foresters, community groups and businesses – to build the Northwest into the nation’s leading laboratory and incubator for biocarbon solutions. As a region, we can influence the nation; and our nation once mobilized can influence the world.

So come meet our first NBI Innovation Partners: American Farmland Trust, Build Local Alliance, DePave, Ecotrust Forest Management, Hyla Woods, Pacific Northwest Biochar Initiative, Oregon Wild, The Climate Trust, Trout Mountain Forestry, and the US Biochar Initiative. 

These innovators are pioneering the type of biocarbon solutions that we’ll need to scale planet-wide in the coming decades: 

We plan to add dozens more Innovation Partners from across the Northwest this year. Do you know of a company or non-profit that should be part of the Northwest Biocarbon Initiative? Introduce us!

To stay in touch Sign up for the NBI E-digest and ‘like’ NBI on Facebook.