Reversapalooza

Event Description

Reversapalooza is an invite-only summit that will convene organizations and people who want to participate in, benefit from or play a role in shaping a breakthrough voluntary carbon dioxide removal marketplace built on blockchain technology. The summit is for all who are willing to roll up their sleeves and be at the ground floor of launching a new trackable and cost-effective way to facilitate and pay for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. We’ll talk, listen and collaborate (with breakfast and lunch, of course) and hopefully empower people like you who believe in making large-scale carbon removal a reality.

Who Came

Reversapalooza is the event for all marketplace stakeholders to join in on the ground-floor of launching a new voluntary carbon dioxide removal marketplace. If you self-identify as one of the following, please see the “How to get involved” section below to join us at the summit.

• Suppliers - individuals, aggregators, or businesses that would be doing the work of removing carbon dioxide and thus driving the creation of carbon removal certificates (CRCs) (e.g. practicers of regenerative agriculture, large landowners, agroforestry, managed mine tailings, direct air capture tech, etc.).
• Buyers - individuals or businesses with a strong sense of environmental responsibility and commitment to reducing their carbon footprint who would ultimately participate in the market to reverse the carbon footprint of their projects.
• Project backers - those who might not necessarily purchase CRCs but who might purchase NORI tokens and hold/exchange them as they see fit based on market price of carbon dioxide
• Academics and Nonprofits who are actively pursuing projects in carbon dioxide removal, including but not limited to carbon dioxide removal technology or carbon dioxide and GHG accounting methodologies
• Other entrepreneurs who are working to create technology or databases to further the advancement of carbon dioxide stock accounting and measurement Blockchain enthusiasts who are actively contributing to the improvement of this technology for social impact
• Key policymakers - people who have worked in the past or who are currently working on carbon markets and carbon tax policies

Speakers

Amanda Joy Ravenhill

Amanda Joy Ravenhill is Executive Director of the Buckminster Fuller Institute and an active member of the international community focused on addressing imminent global challenges. She previously held the role of Co-Founder and Executive Director of Project Drawdown, a comprehensive plan to reverse global warming. She also serves as advisor to the Center for Carbon Removal and is a member of the steering committee for the Nexus Global Regenerative Culture Working Group. Other positions she has held include lecturer at Presidio Graduate School, teaching the Principles of Sustainable Management course; co-founder of The Hero Hatchery, a climate activist fellowship program; Business Partnership Coordinator at 350.org; and Americorp Sustainable Communities and Education Fellow. Ravenhill is driven by her experience living and working internationally as well as her enthusiasm to integrate art and science. She lectures and speaks publicly on such wide-ranging topics as biochar, regenerative design, carbon drawdown strategies, mindfulness, and systems thinking.

Aldyen Donnelly

Aldyen Donnelly has been a small business developer and consultant for over 40 years. In the mid-1990s, Aldyen started to work on market-driven strategies to reduce atmospheric carbon concentrations. Having gathered together an "emission reduction credit" or "ERC" buyers group, Aldyen developed and executed the world's first major forward ERC purchase agreement to finance carbon sequestration in agricultural soils, as well as the first ERC sales-financed carbon capture and storage project.

Andrew Himes

Andrew was founding editor of MacTech, the leading Apple technology journal, then co-founded the Microsoft Developer Network. He led the first web development project at Microsoft, and then led Microsoft's Platform Web Team. After leaving Microsoft, he founded Project Alchemy, an NGO focused on elevating the technology expertise and effectiveness of grassroots social justice advocates. IHe is convinced that climate change is the singlesignal challenge of our time, He has founded or partnered in a series of startups, and am inspired by a conviction that business and business leaders can be a force for positive change. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

David R. Montgomery PhD.

David R. Montgomery studies the evolution of topography and the influence of geomorphological processes on ecological systems and human societies. He received his B.S. in geology at Stanford University (1984) and his Ph.D. in geomorphology from UC Berkeley (1991). His published work includes studies of the evolution and near-extirpation of salmon, fluvial and hillslope processes in mountain drainage basins, the evolution of mountain ranges (Cascades, Andes, and Himalaya), and the analysis of digital topography. Current research includes field projects in eastern Tibet and the Pacific Northwest of North America. Montgomery is an acclaimed author of several books on soil science including: "Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations" (2008) and "Growing A Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life" (2017).

Dorn Cox PhD.

Dorn Cox is a founding member of the Farm Hack community, the executive director for GreenStart, and a farmer working a 250-acre a multigenerational family farm with his wife, Sarah, and two boys. His participatory research focuses on collaborative open source research and development for regenerative agricultural systems. He is a co-founder of the FarmOS software platform and have developed and shared systems for small-scale grain and oil seeds processing, biofuel production, and no-till and low-till equipment and cover crop systems to increase carbon capture and soil health. He is also a founding member of the New England Farmers Union, the Great Bay Grain Cooperative, and the Oyster River Biofuel Initiative and an active member of Soil Renaissance as a member of the Measurement Committee. He serves as a county supervisor and vice-chair of the Strafford County Conservation District and is . cCurrently the, vice president of the New Hampshire Association of Conservation Districts. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University and a PhD from the University of New Hampshire in Natural Resources and Earth Systems Science.

Ethan Steinberg

Ethan is a startup growth expert who is focused on turning ideas into reality. He is a Co-Founder of Propagate Ventures, an agroforestry asset management company focused on the integration of tree crops in broadacre agriculture. Propagate is on a mission to make agriculture work for 100% of humanity, one farm at a time. Ethan has helped scale ventures both domestically and internationally in industries such as the sharing economy, consumer packaged goods, and B Corp businesses. He holds a B.A. in Social Justice & Sustainability from Miami University and is a member of the Young Professional Advisory Board at Spark Ventures. Ethan is passionate about building purpose-driven businesses and enjoys living at the intersection of regeneration and technology. At Propagate Ventures, Ethan leads business development, operations and growth strategy. He is also the editor of Propagate.org, a curated news site on regeneration.

Greg Austic

Greg is an open technology advocate, co-organizer of the Gathering of Open Science Hardware GOSH and the Gathering for Open Ag Tech (GOAT). He’s a jack of all trades capable of getting an idea off the ground quickly and inexpensively. Prior to Our Sci, he helped create the MultispeQ, a low-cost photosynthesis meter, and PhotosynQ, a platform for collecting and sharing plant health data.

Greg Dipple PhD.

Dr. Greg Dipple is a Professor of Geology in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia, where he has taught for 25 years. He received his PhD in Geology from Johns Hopkins University in 1992. His research examines mineral-fluid interactions in environments from the Earth’s deep interior to the near surface. He has worked extensively with the mineral exploration industry on processes of mineral deposit formation and implications for ore genesis, including development of new methodologies and technologies for mineral exploration. He leads an international team that is developing carbon capture and fixation capabilities within mine wastes to mitigate industrial greenhouse gas emissions.

Gregory Landua

Gregory Landua is co-author of the ground-breaking book, Regenerative Enterprise (2012). He dwells humbly at the intersection of ecology and economics. He has studied marine and terrestrial ecology in the Galapagos Islands, translated for Amazonian rainforest guides, fought wildfires in the wilderness of Alaska, lived in established ecovillages, and founded a direct trade chocolate business to help reforest tropical Latin America through regenerative trading relationships. He is is founding member and CEO of Terra Genesis International LLC, a dynamic consultancy focused on resourcing the growing movement towards Regenerative Agriculture and Supply. Recently Gregory and Terra Genesis International have been leading the creation of a distributed ledger solution to unlock the potential of regenerative agriculture and land use to reverse climate change: regen.network

Hadi Dowlatabadi PhD.

Hadi Dowlatabadi’s research is focused at the interface of nature, humans, technology and policy. He uses a systems approach to capture the dynamics of such systems as well as what is known and unknown about it. This permits the use of a value of information approach to focusing on research that matters most. Once the bare bones of a problem are combined with the psychology and sociology of public perception and problem definition the research will identify the paths that have led to the problem and barriers to finding solutions that avoid repeating similar challenges. Hadi has served as Lead Author for the IPCC, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and reviewer for WHO’s Global Burden of Disease. He has co-founded half a dozen non-profit and for profit initiatives to bring better solutions for meeting human needs. Hadi is a Professor in IRES and Liu Institute for Global Issues, University of British Columbia. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Engineering & Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA and a University Fellow at Resources for the Future in Washington DC.

Jay Carpenter

Jay Carpenter has been an active member of the Blockchain community for over three years. His primary interest in this space is in the realm of naming, numbering, addressing and identity. Jay is the founder of Desert Blockchain which is the largest Blockchain meetup in Arizona. He has an extensive background in technology, entrepreneurship and finance. He is a graduate of Arizona State University with an undergraduate degree in business with emphasis in finance. He obtained an MBA from the University of Southern California with an emphasis in finance. Jay is passionate about the emerging new realms of communications, finance and the societal possibilities associated with a Blockchain centric future.

Chris Kerston

Chris Kerston is the Director of Events and Public Outreach for the Savory Institute. Chris utilizes media in concert with traditional marketing techniques to help ranchers share their stories and build long lasting relationships with partners. Prior to joining the Savory Institute, Chris ranched for nearly 15 years, including 6 yrs co-managing a 2,000 acre diversified farm based on holistic grazing and permaculture in the Sacramento Valley. Chris has also been recognized as a leader in the emerging agri-tourism market and a champion for stronger connections between grower and eater by providing training to help build those connections. He advocates for the recognition of alternative agricultural models as well as the consumers' right to access healthy local foods at the state and federal level. He is very enthusiastic about fostering creative solutions to removing barriers of available land and capital that will ultimately help cultivate the next generation of holistic land stewards.

Josh Margolis

Josh Margolis leads the Environmental Defense Fund’s efforts to develop and deploy CarbonSim, a carbon market simulation tool. Over his 35+ year career, he has provided policy analysis, market assessments, emissions brokerage services, environmental credit regulation evaluation/development, and simulation services to stakeholders that administer, advise on, or are subject to emissions trading system (ETS) programs. Josh has worked closely with Mexican, Korean, and Chinese ETS stakeholders to adapt CarbonSim to suit their needs. He provided capacity building assistance to stakeholders involved in the launch of China’s original seven pilots and the forthcoming national ETS, worked with the International Energy Agency to deliver a simulation for China’s major power producers, and delivered a flare consents simulation for an North Sea oil producer. Josh is also a co-inventor of a patent that provides for the neutralization/offsetting of equities.

Karen Haugen-Kozyra

Karen is President of Viresco Solutions Inc. – a network of leading advisors making sustainability real for public and private clients in the agriculture, energy and food sectors across North America and globally. Viresco Solutions provides clients from across North America with support from strategy and policy development through to project implementation and measuring, Reporting and Verification platforms. She has over 20 years of experience in agricultural greenhouse gas measurement and modeling and climate change/environmental policy development – spanning her tenure at the provincial Department of Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD), Climate Change Central and now in the private sector. During her tenure at ARD, Karen was part of the cross-governmental team who developed Alberta’s Bioenergy Policy Framework, which was approved by cabinet in 2008. Other works include implementation of market processes for a carbon offset market in Alberta.

Keith Berns

Keith Berns combines over 20 years of no-till farming with 10 years of teaching Agriculture and Computers. In addition to no-tilling 2,500 acres of irrigated and dryland corn, soybeans, rye, triticale, peas, sunflowers, and buckwheat in South Central Nebraska, he also co-owns and operates Green Cover Seed, one of the major cover crop seed providers and educators in the United States. Through Green Cover Seed, Keith has experimented with over 100 different cover crop types and hundreds of mixes planted into various situations and has learned a great deal about cover crop growth, nitrogen fixation, moisture usage, and grazing utilization of cover crops. Keith was honored by the White House as a 2016 Champion of Change for Sustainable and Climate-Smart Agriculture. Keith also developed the SmartMix CalculatorTM one of the most widely used cover crop selection tools on the internet. Keith has a Masters Degree in Agricultural Education from the University of Nebraska and teaches on cover crops and soil health more than 30 times per year to various groups and audiences.

Keith Paustian PhD.

Keith Paustian is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences and Senior Research Scientist at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University. A major focus of his work involves modeling, field measurement and development of assessment tools for soil carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions from soils. Previous and current research activities include development models and inventory methodology used to estimate US soil C and N2O emissions that are reported annually by EPA to the UNFCCC; development of a web-based tool for estimating on-farm greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and carbon sequestration used by USDA and project-scale systems for GHG assessment of sustainable land management projects in developing countries.

Klaus Lackner PhD.

Dr. Klaus Lackner is the director of Center for Negative Carbon Emissions (CNCE) and professor at the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, Arizona State University. CNCE at ASU is playing a pivotal role in opening a dialogue for restoring the carbon balance and discussions about climate change technologies from maturity, demonstrations to commercial global deployment. Lackner’s research interests include closing the carbon cycle by capturing carbon dioxide from the air, carbon sequestration, carbon foot-printing, innovative energy and infrastructure systems and their scaling properties, the role of automation, robotics and mass-manufacturing in downscaling infrastructure systems, and energy and environmental policy.

Kyle Birchard

Kyle Birchard founded Integrative Economics in 2013. With more than 17 years of experience in the environmental and natural resource fields, he works in a variety of areas, including benefit-cost analysis, feasibility studies, land use economics, environmental valuation, and resilience planning. Since 2000, he has provided strategic planning support to businesses, public agencies, and NGOs, assisted with program development and outreach efforts, and conducted original research on environmental, agricultural, and socioeconomic issues. He has also worked on market design issues in the agricultural sector, from commodities to specialty crops. More recently, he has been developing new methods to estimate the provision of ecosystem services over space and time, and is currently working on the network economics of distributed environmental sensing devices. Kyle holds a bachelor's degree in Environmental Economics and Policy from the University of California, Berkeley, with a minor in City and Regional Planning. He is based in Portland, Oregon.

Lorraine Smith

Lorraine Smith is Associate Director at Volans and has been collaborating with John Elkington and Volans since 2016, helping leaders move from incremental to systemic, breakthrough solutions. Lorraine’s focus with Volans has been to highlight and enable an accelerated path across industry sectors to reverse global warming. She is a board member of Canadian Business for Social Responsibility (CBSR), and a member of the Release Council of the Future-Fit Business Benchmark, an open source tool that quantifies how businesses are contributing to a sustainable future. She also regularly advises on corporate reporting and transparency projects in collaboration with BuzzWord. She was previously a Senior Director at SustainAbility, and working with the New York-based team from 2012-2016 to advance corporate action on sustainability and worked with CBSR as a Senior Advisor based in Toronto, working with over 100 of Canada’s leading corporations committed to corporate responsibility.

Rattan Lal PhD.

Rattan Lal, Ph.D., is a Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science at the Ohio State University since 1987, was Sr. Research Fellow with the University of Sydney, Australia (1968-69) and Soil Physicist at IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria (1969-87). His research focus is on climate-resilient agriculture, soil carbon sequestration, sustainable intensification, use efficiency of agroecosystems, and sustainable management of soils of the tropics. He was included in Thomas Reuters 2014 and 2015 list of World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds. He was president of the International Soil Tillage Research Organization ( 1989-91); World Association of Soil and Water Conservation (1988-90); Soil Science Society of America (2005-2007); and is President Elect of the International Union of Soil Sciences, Vienna, Austria (2014-). Prof. Lal is Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee to UNU-FLORES, Dresden, Germany (2014-), and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program ( SERDP) of the Department of Defense (2013-). Being a member of the IPCC, he received the Nobel Peace Prize certificate in 2007.

Missed Reversapalooza?

Catch up on what happened.

View the recordings of sessions on Nori's Youtube Channel here.

You can also view illustrated notes of each session here, created by Catherine Mule.

Agenda

Thursday

7:30 - 8:30 Breakfast

8:30 - 9:00 Introduction

• Opening Remarks - Amanda Joy Ravenhill, Executive Director at Buckminster Fuller Institute
• Nori's Mission - Paul Gambill (CEO)

9:00 - 10:00 Carbon Markets Today

Nori’s goal is clear: create a new way for anyone in the world to pay to remove excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In this session, we will explore the benefits and pitfalls of past carbon markets and discuss how Nori plans to leverage lessons learned from these in order to launch a voluntary carbon dioxide removal marketplace. We will ask audience members to highlight key pain points from past experiences and what they think needs to be corrected in the new marketplace.

Conversation Leaders:

• Hadi Dowlatabadi PhD., Professor in IRES and Liu Institute for Global Issues, University of British Columbia, Canada Research Chair (t1, Applied Mathematics of Global Change)
• Josh Margolis, Managing Director, Environmental Markets, Global Climate Program at Environmental Defense Fund
• Aldyen Donnelly, Director of Carbon Economics at Nori
• Moderator - Ross Kenyon, Lead Strategist at Nori

10:00 - 10:30 Collaborative Networking Break

10:30 - 11:30 General Methodologies (Including Q&A)

Nori empowers enterprises and individuals with a full range of solutions to begin the reversal of climate change. In this session, we discuss a wide range of solutions for carbon dioxide removal, from mature to nascent, including: soil, managed mine tailings, direct air capture, and agroforestry. We will discuss the technology readiness, advantages, and challenges for scaling each method.

Conversation Leaders:

• Soil - David Montgomery, Professor of Geomorphology in Earth & Space Sciences at University of Washington
• Managed Mine Tailings - Gregory Dipple, Professor in Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences at University of British Columbia
• Direct Air Capture - Klaus Lackner, Professor at the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment and director of the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions at Arizona State University
• Agroforestry - Ethan Steinberg, Co-Founder Propagate Ventures
• Moderator - Christophe Jospe, Nori

11:30 - 1:00 Lunch (provided)

1:00 - 2:30 Nori CRC Trading Game

Nori is on a mission to reverse climate change by connecting buyers and suppliers in the world’s first CO2 removal marketplace. In this fun and engaging trading game, we will illustrate how suppliers can get paid for carbon dioxide removal, and how buyers can pay for carbon dioxide removal certificates (CRCs).

3:00 - 4:00 Nori Marketplace Demo

Nori’s fully transparent blockchain application will verify carbon dioxide removal; duplicate-free and designed with open-source software. In this session, Nori will demonstrate the current state of the marketplace, showing how it can be used to account for, purchase, and retire carbon removal certificates.

4:00 - 4:30 Wrap-Up

5:30 - 7:00 Happy Hour

Friday

7:30 - 8:30 Breakfast

8:30 - 9:15 Blockchain & Nori 101

Nori uses blockchain technology to eliminate double counting of CO2 credits that occur routinely with other carbon offset markets. In session, we will break down how blockchain works with a hands-on activity, and demonstrate how it will change the game for this new carbon dioxide removal marketplace.

Conversation Leaders:

• Jay Carpenter, Founder of Desert Blockchain
• Jaycen Horton, Principal Blockchain Architect, Nori
• Paul Gambill, CEO, Nori
• Ross Kenyon, Lead Strategist, Nori

9:15 - 10:15 Open-Source Tech Presentations

Nori’s open-source methodologies, models and data go a long way in fostering innovation and engagement in the environmental sphere. In this session, fellow collaborators will showcase their open-source projects that are advancing the collective action needed to reverse climate change. Each project will have 5 minutes to present, and an open Q&A session to follow.

Conversation Leaders:

• Carbon Storage Potential & Markets: Kyle Birchard, Environmental and Ecological Economist presenting for Nori
• Lowering Embedded Carbon in Buildings: Andrew Himes of Carbon Innovations
• Measuring Carbon Content in Soils: Greg Austic of Our-Sci.net
• Carbon Productivity Tool: Lorraine Smith of Volans

10:15 - 10:45 Collaborative Networking Break

10:45 - 11:30 Returning the Carbon to the Ground

In this session, we take a look at soils for carbon sequestration. Nori is launching its voluntary marketplace with a supply from agricultural lands in North America who can adopt practices to store carbon dioxide in soils. In this session we will focus on the how, what, and why.

Conversation Leaders:

• Rattan Lal, Director Carbon Management and Sequestration, Ohio State University
• Dorn Cox, founding member of the Farm Hack community, executive director for GreenStart and Research Director at Wolfe's Neck Center
• Chris Kersten, Director of Events and Public Outreach, Savory Institute
• Keith Berns, CEO, Green Cover Seed
• Moderator - Alexsandra Guerra, Nori

11:30 - 1:00 Lunch (provided)

1:00 - 1:45 Proving the Carbon is Removed

Nori’s software and marketplace is transparent, credible, and easy to use. It is critical that the Nori marketplace can prove to buyers that the carbon has been removed. As we launch with a supply from soil carbon removal, we will highlight how verification could work with our open-sourced methodologies and draw from experts who can envision with us how the system could work.

Conversation Leaders:

• Keith Paustian, Professor in Soil and Crop Sciences and Senior Research Scientist at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University
• Gregory Landua, CEO of Terra Genesis and Regen.Network
• Karen Haugen-Kozyra, President of Viresco Solutions Inc.
• Moderator - Christophe Jospe, Nori

1:45 - 2:00 Wrap up