Since April 2026, GECA is leading the development of a new voluntary standard, “Biochar Properties for Environmental Safety in Common Applications,” supported by the American Biochar Institute.
This initiative defines biochar properties for environmental safety across the most common application categories in the market: soil health and land applications, material and storage uses, non-potable water applications, animal applications, and commercial/retail products.
As biochar adoption accelerates across North America—including the United States, Canada, and Mexico—the lack of harmonized, application-specific guidance on environmental safety is becoming a limiting factor for scaling up. Consistent benchmarks are needed to manage environmental risks associated with contaminants in biochar across different uses.
The standard responds to this need by establishing maximum concentration thresholds for contaminants, tailored to each application category. The objective is to provide clear, science-based reference values that can be applied across regulatory, industrial, and market contexts to support environmentally responsible use.
It is designed to:
- Enable regulators to evaluate environmental safety using consistent criteria
- Provide producers with defined contaminant limits linked to end uses
- Clarify safe use conditions for buyers and end users
- Improve consistency across carbon credit and environmental markets
- Align expectations across the biochar value chain
By focusing on environmental protection through defined contaminant thresholds, this initiative establishes critical infrastructure for the sector and supports more consistent and transparent decision-making across North America.
At GECA, we would like to thank the American Biochar Institute for the confidence placed in GECA to lead this work. This is important to us, and we are fully committed to advancing a framework that supports the industry. We believe this initiative will help structure the sector and support its development through clear and consistent environmental safety guidance.
