Cotierra

🖋 Signing for Sustainable Change in Coffee! 🖋 Cotierra signed alongside Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin to become an inaugural member of the Swiss Sustainable Coffee Platform (SSCP), marking a significant leap towards a greener coffee industry! The SSCP is a collaborative effort uniting the Swiss #Coffee industry, government, civil society, and academia to create a coffee sector that respects #HumanRights, protects the #Environment, and ensures #Sustainable #Sourcing practices. It focuses on driving sustainable coffee production, fostering peer exchange, encouraging policy dialogue, and co-financing impactful projects in coffee-producing countries. At Cotierra, we're committed to decarbonizing coffee farming with our decentralized #Biochar solution, reducing carbon emissions, enhancing #ClimateResilience, and improving #FarmerLivelihoods. As SSCP members, we're eager to contribute our innovative technology and expertise, collaborate on best practices, and support projects addressing sustainability challenges in the coffee supply chain. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who made this initiative possible: Marco Kräuchi, Krisztina Szalai Ph.D., Riccardo Seitz (Illycafé), Pratyush Singh (Olam), Axel Touzet (Nestlé), Esther Haldimann (Helvetas), Philippe Schneuwly (Swisscontact), Christoph Oberlack (Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern), Michael Von Luehrte, Veronika Neumeier, Stephanie Dreifuss, Peter Lerch, Nicolas A. Tamari, Hans Hegglin, Sarah Sot and all involved. Together, we're paving the way for a #NaturePositive coffee industry! 🌱☕️ #Sustainability #CoffeeIndustry #SSCP #Cotierra #ClimateAction #SustainableCoffee #BiocharSolutions

Coffee brands improve their supply chain sustainability, farmers reap higher yields with lower costs, and consumers enjoy their brew with a good conscience. All this can happen with the biochar produced by Swiss-Colombian startup Cotierra, says the company’s CEO and Co-Founder, Thomas Käslin. If you prefer to absorb your ideas and information in written format, here is a link to my blog post that describes the Cotierra solution and how the young company wants to battle climate change. #FutureMakers #biochar #carboninsetting #carbonoffsets #soilhealth #swisstech #climatetech https://lnkd.in/ex-AjbQg

Biochar as a physical product is biggest in North America, but the fastest growth of biochar carbon credits is coming from the global south. Illustrated by the two biggest biochar credit sales ever being done in the last few weeks in Central and South America. In the global south production costs and competition for biomass are often lower and co-benefits higher. But it's harder to create a market for the physical biochar. I would say most biochar suppliers in the south have carbon credits as their main income. Exceptions include players like Takachar and HUSK (both supported through the Milkywire Climate transformation fund) that spend a lot of effort in trying to transform the fertilizer markets in places like Kenya, India and Cambodia, away from fossil to organic fertilizer with biochar mixed in. Most biochar producers have not sold any credits, including those that depend on it. Demand will need to grow fast for a crunch not to happen soon. See this new article from me and the team at CDR.fyi elaborating on this, incorporating insights from the International Biochar Initiative (IBI) and the US Biochar Initiative (USBI) 2023 Global Biochar Market Report, as well as from CDR.fyi data. https://lnkd.in/gpSVXz79

🥇 The first CEEZER Carbon Coalition cohort has graduated! The seven companies selected for the program's first cohort—Blusink, Carbonsate, Green Sequest, InPlanet, Reverse Carbon , Ucaneo, and Cotierra (formerly Terra Preta)—have now graduated, demonstrating their readiness to make a significant climate impact. In the next few years, these project developers plan to permanently remove 1.1 Mt of CO2e through a variety of novel carbon dioxide removal methods (#CDR). The goal of CEEZER's Carbon Coalition program is to empower start-ups in the voluntary carbon market. It addresses common challenges faced by project developers, such as: • Understanding buyer drivers and challenges, including the context of CDR and market-shaping guidance • Comprehending buyer behavior to get a comprehensive view of buyer groups, sales channels, and decision-making processes • Learning to navigate certifications, registries, inventory management, and pricing • Managing contracts, payments, and legal issues 👉 Discover the accomplishments and key takeaways of the inaugural cohort here: https://lnkd.in/dpWszRG2 Are you a start-up active in the voluntary carbon market and ready to make a significant climate impact? The application window for the second CEEZER Carbon Coalition cohort starts March 15, 2024. Stay tuned! #VCM #voluntarycarbonmarket #carbonmarkets #carboncredits #sustainability #carbonremoval #CarbonCoalition

And the 1st place winner of our #ClimaNowSpotlight 2023 Pitch Night is Terra Preta! 🤩   Terra Preta enables farmers to produce biochar from agricultural waste, leading to improved soil quality and CO2 absorption. They implement this in the Global South with coffee and cocoa suppliers, supported by net-zero companies that receive transparent carbon sequestration credits and take credible climate action measures. The startup was presented by Thomas Käslin, one of the co-founders.   The jury was impressed by Terra Preta because they addressed a fundamental issue in the value chain and provided a direct solution through decentralized biochar production. A large portion of the Swiss FOODprint is created abroad (e.g. cocoa and coffee). As a result, biochar can play a significant role in the removal of greenhouse gases while simultaneously enhancing the livelihoods of rural communities.   We are looking forward to accompanying Terra Preta on their next milestones! 🌱🌍 🏆 The first-place winner will receive 100,000 Swiss Francs. Additionally, they will become part of our Horizon Program, which supports them in the implementation with various inputs, conducted by Impact Hub Zürich and One Planet Lab Schweiz. Nathalie Moral Claudia P. Juliana Schneider Anna Alexandra Staubli Marco Schneider Martin Meili Franziska Heidenreich Flavio Hagenbuch Freddy Hunziker Anna Peters Michelle Grant Mauricio Benitez

We have our #climanowspotlight 2023 winners!🚀🎉 🏆 1. Place: Terra Preta 🏆 2. Place: ProSeed.co 🏆 3. Place: SmartRegenAg from AgriCircle AG 🧡 Audience Award: Voltiris Yesterday was one for the books and we thank all seven finalists for pitching your ideas on the Spotlight stage. You all did a fantastic job! GoNiña Kora Labs Yuki Cheeze 🙏Thank you to Tanya König for being a wonderful MC 🎤and Nora Wilhelm for an inspiring key note✨and Michael Schoch for your musical contribution 🎶 Thank you also for everyone attending - you made Spotlight to what it is: a true community event, where people not only get a voice but also a vote 🤝 Nathalie Moral Lucie Kern Anna Alexandra Staubli Marco Schneider Juliana Schneider Claudia P. Martin Meili Daniel Meili Franziska Heidenreich Ruedi Gerber Michelle Grant Mauricio Benitez Freddy Hunziker Flavio Hagenbuch Anna Peters Ferdinand von Hagen Matthieu Ochsner, CFA Matteo Turchetta Luca Corinzia, PhD Aurélien Ducrey Mateo Aerny Phillippe Schläpfer Thomas Käslin Jonas Roch Xavier Da Costa Chanelle Youssefi Nora Wilhelm Tanya König Picture credits: Henrik Nielsen

📣 Exciting announcement, everyone! We've just added an exceptional biochar startup to our portfolio – Introducing Terra Preta! 🌱 We've been searching for a team specializing in biochar, and here's why. Biochar has an amazing capacity to capture and store carbon, and the technology to do this is all set and ready for action today. 🚀 So, what's Terra Preta all about? They offer affordable, mobile pyrolysis reactors to farmers in the Global South, transforming biomass into biochar which in turn restore soil health. This ingenious process captures CO2 and generates sellable certificates simultaneously. 🌍 We're dubbing this a Triple-Win situation 🏆: 1️⃣ Carbon is permanently removed by biochar production and application - Hooray! 🎈 2️⃣ Fertilizer emissions are reduced which further reduces the footprint of the agricultural supply chains - Embrace Local, Impact Global! 🌾 3️⃣ Farmer margins are increased by improved yields and reduced fertilizer costs - Great bonus! 🍃 We're thrilled to support Thomas Käslin and Lorenz Buser and their team in their mission to combat climate change with biochar. A huge shoutout to Markus Sudhoff and his Climate Founders for partnering with us as co-investors. 🤝 Time to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty! 🙌 #NewInvestment #Biochar #CarbonRemoval #SustainableFarming 🌿