Sustainability
Sustainable Values
Interra Energy’s core business is the production of a product called biochar, but we don’t stop there. We look at environmental problems holistically and have designed our entire business around the “cradle-to-cradle” concept. Our process revolves around using waste biomass to create biochar for use within sustainable agriculture practices, which will create waste biomass and thus complete the sustainable loop.
Interra’s purpose is to ensure that the emense benefits of biochar production and use are realized in each and every activity we affect. Below is a organized list of some of these benefits broadly categorized for easier digestion.
- Improved soil fertility
- Less fossil-fuel based fertilizers required in agricultural activities
- Higher cation exchange capacity in soil
- Greater on-farm profitability
- Less nutrient runoff in agricultural activities
Locks atmospheric carbon back into the earth, counteracting the carbon extraction done with fossil fuels
Reduces the need for fossil-fuel based energy
Substantially less methane and NOx emissions than composting and landfilling practices
Combats desertification
Increases agricultural lands capacity to deal with effects of climate change
Clean, efficient, and renewable biomass energy production with “waste” biomass
Combined heat, power, and cooling from the Interra Forge operation
Potential for liquid fuel, electricity and/or hydrogen production
Job creation with local ownership rights
Can alleviate poverty in third-world countries
Low cost means of water purification in developing countries
Alternative to slash-and-burn agricultural
Can be financed through carbon markets and offests
Diverts organic waste from landfills
Can use wide variety of feedstocks, including “waste” biomass products
Provides profitable additional activity for existing composting operations