Webinar - Compost: Carbon Sequestration & Climate Change
With all the buzz in the news about carbon sequestration, greenhouse gas emissions and soil health, it is imperative for compost operators, compost marketers, municipalities, and consultants to understand where composting and compost itself fit into climate change issues. Composting can be a critical component in addressing global climate change. This webinar will cover the carbon cycle as it relates to composting organic wastes, and the sequestration of carbon in soils when finished compost is applied back to the land. The webinar will discuss factors that affect the ability of soils to sequester carbon from composts, as well as the effect of that sequestered carbon to promote soil health, and will discuss current methods for quantifying soil carbon, and its benefits in compost-amended soils. We will cover some potential carbon debits, such as methane and nitrous oxide emissions, that may need to be controlled during composting to ensure the maximum benefit of composting to composters’ total carbon footprint. Finally, the webinar will briefly discuss some of the existing models for estimating greenhouse gas debits and credits from the composting process and from compost use.
Webinar Speakers
Andrew Carpenter, founder of Northern Tilth, is a certified soil scientist, certified crop advisor and certified nutrient management planning specialist. Andrew has recently joined the CREF Board of Trustees.
Sally Brown, PhD is a Research Associate Professor, Ecosystem Science Division, College of Forest Resources, University of Washington in Seattle. Sally has done other projects for CREF including as one of the editors of the Compost & Climate Connection.
Ginny Black is the CREF Trustee Chair and also the President of Black Gold Recycling, LLC. Ginny has been a Trustees since 2010. She also serves on Minnesota Composting Council (MNCC) Board of Directors. Ginny retired from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) where she worked as a technical staff person assisting in setting up recycling and composting programs throughout the state.
Thank you to our generous sponsors for the support of this webinar
