After months of planning, the Stockholm Biochar Project is now ready to spread the word and get citizens excited about the many benefits of using biochar. We visited the team at the end of September and followed them as they held a public launch for the media, and gave free cinnamon rolls and bags of biochar to citizens dropping their garden waste at the local recycling centre – which is the future site of the biochar plant.
How can black charcoal make the city greener?
Have you heard about biochar? It is charcoal that can be made out of twigs and branches from your garden and the city parks.
Biochar has been mixed into soil for thousands of years all over the world to make trees and other plants feel better. Biochar is also a simple way to fight climate change by sequestering carbon. Good for you, for the city and for the future!
Let’s start a biochar project!
Stockholm Biochar Project uses park and garden waste to produce biochar and renewable energy.
Biochar is a fantastic soil conditioner that retains water, air and nutrients in the soil. Once in the soil biochar is a carbon sink that contributes to a greener city and that decreases the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for hundreds to thousands of years.
The energy becomes heat for the city’s district heating network within Open District HeatingTM – a project to recycle excess heat in Stockholm city. Stockholm Biochar Project’s goal is to produce heat for 400 apartments and to create a carbon sink corresponding to the yearly carbon dioxide emissions from 3500 clean cars.
This way we are doing a small – but important – action to save the world.
Much thanks to Mayors Challenge Mayors Challenge is an innovation competition for cities arranged by the American organisation Bloomberg Philanthropies to initiate and spread innovative projects. 155 cities participated in the European version of Mayors Challenge but only five where awarded with winnings to implement their projects.
Stockholm was one of the five winners. The project will run for three years with the support of Bloomberg Philanthropies, aiming to spread the biochar system to
more cities all over the world.
To find out more about biochar and how the team plan to use it in the city, follow this link: stockholm.se/PageFiles/980309/Biokolsfolder_EN_webb.pdf
