It is with great exhaustion, occasional disaster, and much pride that I present Western Kenya’s newest factory: re:char Shop-In-A-Box #001. In the end, delivery took 4 and a half months: over twice as long as we had hoped and planned. The delivery truck had performance issues, to put it mildly: if I shifted our Land [...]
As leaders in the biochar space, the re:char team tries to stay at the bleeding edge of emerging trends. We’ve come up with a list of predictions for the coming year and beyond. Comment around this time next year to see what we got right (assuming the world doesn’t end in 2012): The Black [...]
In November, re:char leased a nearly 6-acre piece of land in Bungoma, Kenya. Located on the highway less than a kilometer from downtown Bungoma, the property is ideally situated. Farmers from town and the interior can easily arrive by public transport, and larger 18-wheeler transporters can also conveniently pull off from the road that connects [...]
I presented some of my ideas about shipping containers to Dorkbot Austin yesterday, and a good time was had by all (especially me). Here’s video: And, here’s the presentation: I think I’ve got a useful (and sexy!) object of my infatuation:)
As we’ve written before, there are many exciting and technically advanced efforts in the field of clean cookstoves. These efforts seek to solve the indoor air pollution problems associated with wood fuels, thereby improving the lives of millions of women and children worldwide. Many of these stove technologies also cite reductions in carbon [...]
We’re excited any time one of our climate kilns is purchased. But, one recent deployment was particularly thrilling: our friends at Carbon Roots International have successfully deployed a climate kiln as part of their CharBon Project in Haiti. To minimize shipping costs, they chose the DIY kit; a local tinsmith easily handled the 55-gallon drum conversion. Here are [...]
With the growing trend of converted shipping container homes popping up all over town, re:char has decided to join the revolution, but with a twist; we are building a metal workshop out of a shipping container instead. Complete with lighting, ventilation, electrical wiring, re:char’s container will house a most exciting spin on the shipping container [...]
We recently paid a visit to David Guerena (PhD Candidate in soil science at Cornell University under Prof Johannes Lehmann) at his field sites in Vihiga, Kakamega, South Nandi and North Nandi, Western Kenya (about 30 minutes drive from Kisumu and Lake Victoria). David and his group have been working in the region for the [...]
We’ve all heard the quotes circulating around the internet– “We’ve experienced a 300% improvement in crop yield from adding <500kg of biochar/ hectare!” “My biochar stove will burn any type of waste biomass with zero emissions!” “Biochar is [insert any number of miraculous claims]!” We in the biochar community are all excited and enthusiastic about [...]
re:char’s work in Western Kenya was recently featured on an episode of BBC World’s Horizons Business. This episode covered innovative business approaches to solving food insecurity in Africa. The Horizons Business team visited us in Bungoma, interviewed some of our farmers, and produced a great 5 minute segment on our work. Our segment was then [...]
