Saving the world from climate extinction and being profitable should go together. Why is it that many people have this notion that doing the right thing should result in lower revenue?
Sustainable Business Growth to Reverse Climate Change
There are numerous ways to address climate change. Doing it sustainably and incorporating waste management are pivotal aspects of a livable future. Biochar production, regenerative agriculture, renewable energy, and other methods are available to us. Which ones should we work on first? The low-hanging fruit, from a marketing perspective, for adoption at scale is biochar production.
The biochar industry knows that, but does the general public? What is the messaging that will talk to the problems people feel are in their lives, and are solvable?
Here are 5 strategic messages that can move the needle on the widespread adoption of biochar technology.
- Quantify carbon permanence
- Differentiate your biochar products
- Educate retailers like they are biochar investors
- Bundle products for impact
- Tell the story of regeneration
Those bullet points are all well and good, but how do you implement them? Let’s look at some examples of what works and what misses the mark.
Changing Minds About Climate Change and The Solutions You Have is Hard
I’m not going to sugarcoat it. Changing minds about anything is hard. Climate change is an abstract concept, and people don’t think of it as affecting them; it’s always impacting someone somewhere else with a drought, flood, or extreme weather event. Now and then it impacts a person directly, then it’s called WEATHER!
So, let’s worry about the weather, and not the climate. How do you impact the weather locally, regionally, nationally – not so much globally? By sequestering carbon in the soil in public places, in agricultural soil, and in industry. By trapping CO2e in the soil and decreasing the amount of CO2 we emit in the area.
Getting folks to buy into storing carbon in the soil is a task. But it isn’t insurmountable. In fact, if you think about it from the consumer’s standpoint, it’s pretty easy. .
Quantify, Prove, the Permanence of Carbon Stored in the Soil
We have an abundance of technologies to measure carbon stored. The methods of removing carbon and storing it long-term include planting trees, CO2 Mineralization, Direct Air Capture + Storage, and Biochar.
Of all these methods, the one that offers the best permanence for the best price, ie, value, is biochar. Planting trees is a sexy activity, and kids love to do it, but the permanence maxes out at 100 years, assuming no forest fires, clear-cutting, disease, or pest issues.
CO2 Mineralization is a premier long-term solution for storing CO2 underground in rock formations, but it has high upfront infrastructure challenges. Direct Air Capture + Storage is one of the most permanent and most expensive ways to remove carbon from our atmosphere at an average of $232/ton of CO2e.
Biochar technology has come a long way in the past 10 years. On-site and large industrial-scale pyrolysis units are sold to fit almost every biomass accumulation issue. Removing waste streams by using those materials as the raw material, feedstock, is a secondary benefit.
The technology to produce high-quality biochar, pyrolysis units, is becoming more sophisticated and easier to use daily. It is also a carbon-negative process that doesn’t use any chemicals to break carbon bonds, as other technologies do.
The process steps from waste material to biochar to carbon stored in the soil are shown in the diagram below
Carbon credit companies like Puro-earth, Verra, Isometric, ACR, and many more validate carbon stored in the soil (called carbon sequestration). It’s critical to let the consumer know how this system works to create trust. The transparency involved in carbon sequestration is a valuable piece in proving you’re doing what you say, and the outcome is permanent.
The buyer of carbon credits today is asking questions that may not be pertinent in another 10 years as the market expands. Individuals who are offsetting some of their carbon footprint will be interested in permanence, although perhaps not as interested in the transparency of the supply chain. That can only happen if you’ve built a reputation with commercial consumers such as Microsoft for delivering on your promises of permanence.
After permanence, consumers want to know what makes your product superior to a competitor’s. And that competitor may be another biochar, or it may be Big Chem.
Highlight Your Biochar Products' Differences for Consumer Awareness
For both the retail and bulk biochar markets, there are a lot of options for the consumer. Many options often lead to overwhelm, which leads to inaction. In other words, if a person can’t tell what’s so great about your product, they’ll probably buy none. They are already using a not-so-environmentally-friendly product and getting results.
At the retail level, there are biochar producers who are taking a play page from the Big Chem soil amendment book. Differentiate your products based on the problem they solve for the end-user. In regenerative ag, in a world of more drought, that’s water retention. For a golf course manager, it’s soil structure for easier grass root penetration, for the home gardener, it’s earlier and longer blooms and harvests.
Not every biochar product will fit every end-use. That is an asset, not a liability. It’s a great way to make your product stand out. Differentiating your biochar from all the others lets buyers know two things
- Not all biochars are the same
- There is a biochar that’s perfect to solve their specific problem
Your marketing should talk about all the ways your product impacts the outcome of your target market person’s life. For example, if your biochar is the perfect solution for improving the structure in sandy soil, that’s all you talk about in that communication. Not the science behind CEC and SOC, and not all the other problems biochar can solve.
That same biochar product may also loosen clay soil, but that’s content for a different message. We all have multiple chances to explain how biochars improve people’s lives. That’s what the messaging about YOUR biochar should focus on. IMPROVING PEOPLE’S LIVES.
As the biochar industry grows, there will be more opportunities to partner with retailers and distributors. They need to know how your product solves their clients and customers’ problems.
Educate Your Retailers and Distributors Like They’re Your Investors
In a very real way, they are. They have a vested interest in getting the right biochar mix to a client or customer for the greatest success. Repeat sales are where the profit margins are the highest.
They need to know what biochar is, how it’s produced, and the transparent supply chain. This knowledge is more for their own understanding and confidence. Customers may ask for this information, but really…the customer is interested in two questions
- Does it work?
- Is it in my budget?
After those are answered with Yes, then the retailer (but probably the distributor) can get into the weeds, so to speak. The diagram below is an indication of the issues different end-users will be asking about.
People care about soil health and biochar for all kinds of reasons, whether it’s growing better veggies, fighting climate change, or living more sustainably. Your marketing has to be tailored to your audience. (Yes, we know there are many market segments for biochar, just pick your lane – it’s like a freeway)
If you have packaging, good design will tell a lot of the story of the benefits to the consumer.
As the manufacturer, you should provide training on the benefits, application rates, and times, and any certifications. It’s not just about maintaining inventory. For many younger consumers, biochar is a climate investment, not just a garden product.
In many ways, educating your retailer or distributor is a lot like operating a franchise. Educational materials, SOPs on what agriculture calls the 4 Rs (right place, right time, right amount, right product), and even staff workshops on proper use of the product are valuable. When your distributor has confidence in the outcomes, they become advocates for your biochar products.
After you’ve created advocates, you have to give them a biochar combination that solves their customers’ needs. Consider taking a page from the playbook of Big Chem.
Bundle Your Biochar Products for a One-Stop Solution
If you’re marketing to the agricultural sector, you’re competing with Big Chem. And Big Chem is already into the biological soil amendments space. They can offer outcomes based on the availability of many different chemicals for specific purposes. They have also developed trust at the local level. Farmers and ranchers are risk-averse, and they know how chemical fertilizers and pesticides work.
There is a learning curve with any biochar products. Make your product as easy to use with existing equipment as possible. When a producer has to invest in new machinery, especially in today’s market, that is a huge obstacle that probably won’t be overcome.
Bundling biochar with charging materials makes sense to the farmer or rancher. They will balk at the phrase “nutrient tie-up.” Put yourself in their shoes. Would you want to spread something on your fields that’s going to keep nutrients from your cash crop? This is already a discussion with cover crops and water.
If you’re targeting the retail market, consider how your product will appeal to horticulturists, both professional and amateur. Your competition includes the entire Miracle-Gro and Scotts line of soil amendments. They offer the full line of horticultural products for gardeners, from potting mix to minerals to processed manure mixes.
These products offer short-term benefits, while biochar offers long-term benefits. But those 3-4 year benefits do not sell the biochar product. The biochar and charging materials need to be explained in terms of benefits for germination, bloom, and harvest, from year 1.
Samples and “test kits” are valuable sales tools in the retail sphere. Create “Regenerative Garden Kits” or “Carbon Smart Soil Packs” to get biochar into the hands of your end users. These can reduce their hesitation about trying something new.
Another extremely valuable sales tool is your presence at home and garden shows in your area, end-user industry events, field days, and your chamber of commerce. These are opportunities to listen to problems and discover how your product solves them. Present your problem/solution in the language of the consumer. They’ll know you heard them and understood their issues.
Almost everyone has heard about sustainability, but regeneration is the next level for Earth healing.
Tell the Story of Regeneration in the Local, National, and Global Context
People buy stories, not specs. You have to make biochar part of a much larger narrative. Even if you’re targeting the agricultural sector, you’re still talking to a person. Farmers and ranchers are parents, children, neighbors, and community members who value the soil and their relationship to it. No farmer or rancher willingly destroys their land.
But the habits we grew up with are hard to break. This is why the bigger narrative is so important. You have to connect biochar to climate action (aka local weather), farm legacy, soil health, and human health.
We’ve all heard that “farmers trust other farmers,” and that’s almost true. Farmers pay attention to other farmers who farm more acreage, who are pillars of the community, and are obviously profitable in their ag operation. Farmers tend to wear the same clothes, no matter how prosperous or poor; sometimes it’s hard to tell if an agricultural producer is doing well.
From a marketing perspective, ag producers who are using biochar and increasing soil health, yield, brix, and plant health are the stars. They need to be highlighted in video testimonials, Instagram reels, and write-ups in local papers (print is not dead), their stories are gold. In the agricultural sector, producers who have incorporated biochar into their practices are the first adopters (as I write this). Regenerative ag practices don’t necessarily call for biochar, but when it is incorporated into cover crops and no-till soil improvement happens at a much greater pace.
We all need to remember that biochar has a more pronounced effect on poor and marginal soils. To move the needle on biochar adoption, start a biochar amendment program on the worst soil on any property. After all, what does the landowner have to lose? For years, that soil hasn’t grown anything but unwanted weeds. With a charged biochar soil amendment, that field may turn into soil instead of dirt.
The Story of Regeneration Includes the Entire Supply Chain
Regeneration also includes the transformation of waste products into value-added materials. Biochar, compost, aged manure, and algae combine to create a substrate for enhanced microbial activity. The biochar is the structure for the microbes, and the charging materials are the fuel.
In non-jargon words, paint pictures of the synergies created with biochar and organic materials. The biochar is the housing, and the organic materials are the feed or fuel. The question “What is biochar?” will be asked. The answer DOES NOT include an explanation of pyrolysis, feedstock, or charging materials. Biochar is a type of charcoal.
Not all charcoal is biochar. Not all biochar is the same. Just like not all compost is the same. It matters what you put into it as the raw materials.
Most people understand that when you put mostly kitchen scraps into a compost bin, it will be smelly, slimy, and will attract flies. When you add some material like leaves or straw, it doesn’t smell as bad, it’s less slimy, and it attracts fewer flies. What happens when you add biochar to that mix? You get even less smell, no flies, and a dark, rich soil. A product that is great for garden beds.
This is the same picture you’d paint to a dairy farmer with a slurry pit, or a municipality with a wastewater treatment plant. Talking business to business in these cases, you will have to add some stats and a case study or two. But only to back up the picture you’ve created in their minds of how biochar can dramatically change their lives and work for the better.
The physical, chemical, and biological explanation of how that happens is available in academic journals, from extension agents, and from those crop consultants, retailers, and distributors you’ve made into advocates.
What the consumer wants to know is what set you on this biochar path. Why do you see it as the future? How do you use it on your own property?
Human to human. That’s how the biochar industry will expand and save the world. That’s how biochar companies will be profitable when other sectors of our economy are in decline. The biochar industry DOES HAVE the answers to extremes in climate change and local weather.
What Can You Do Today to Save the Planet and Make a Profit?
This list is a starting point. What speaks to you, is in your control to achieve, and pertains to your market segment?
- Quantify carbon permanence
- Differentiate your biochar products
- Educate retailers like they are biochar investors
- Bundle products for impact
- Tell the story of regeneration
Regeneration isn’t just a mission—it’s a model. Biochar producers have a unique opportunity to align profitability with planetary impact, but it requires more than just making a great product. It demands strategic storytelling, smart bundling, retailer education, and a deep understanding of carbon permanence. These five approaches aren’t just tactics: they’re pathways to building trust, expanding markets, and creating lasting value.
So whether you’re refining your product line, training your distributors, or quantifying your climate impact, remember: you’re not just selling biochar. You’re offering a tool for regeneration. And when you position it with clarity, purpose, and precision, you’re not just saving the world, you’re building a business that thrives because of it. Now’s the time to lead with impact. Let your biochar speak for the future.
At 3 Pillars Marketing, we believe in the power of regeneration. We understand the value of biochar and regenerative agriculture as solutions to our climate problems.