The Association for Sustainability in Business will be hosting a webinar on the 31st July 2014 on Carbon Farming and Trading

How do you find the time to become well informed about ‘carbon farming’ and the ‘Carbon Farming Initiative’, so you can make decisions around engaging? Learn how to navigate the new ‘Direct Action’ Policy.

When: Thursday 31st July 2014
1.00 pm to 1.45 pm
45 minutes, 30 minutes presentation
15 minutes Q&A

There are no fees or charges to attend

Limited to 50 participants

Register by clicking on this link 

Can’t make it to the webinar, you can access a recording of the webinar in the member section of the Association for Sustainability in Business website. Apply now to join the Association click on the membership application link to apply online.

About your presenter 

Ms Louisa Kiely, Carbon Farmers of Australia

Carbon Farmers of Australia has been helping farmers and others gain access to carbon markets since 2006, and are now expanding to cover industrial and commercial operations as we move forward with pioneering the burgeoning Australian carbon trade industry

Louisa obtained her Bachelor of Agricultural Economics from the University of New England. She worked in the market research industry as a field supervisor while bringing up her 3 children. In 1991- 2003  Michael and Louisa established and grew a city based  Marketing agency from zero to 55 employees.  In this business, she was  Director and  General Manager of Boomerang! Integrated Marketing & Advertising.

Intent on following her first choice of career, she studied for the Advance Diploma of Farm Management at Sydney University (Orange), trained in Holistic Management, and since 1998 she has been a woolgrower in the Wellington NSW district.

She was selected by the Central Western Catchment Management Authority as one of 10 highly innovative landholders in the Catchment, to be trained in farm planning and soil restoration. Through this training she and husband Michael became convinced that soil carbon could solve many agricultural, environmental, and climate change problems.

She co-founded the Carbon Coalition Against Global Warming in February 2006 to lobby for the right of Australian landholders to trade on the emissions offset market the credits they can earn by sequestering carbon in their soils. They have since travelled throughout Australia and the United States meeting scientists and farmers and spreading the word about “Carbon Farming”.

Seeking to build bridges with the scientific community, she organised two Soil C Summits between Scientists and Farmers, in Dubbo  and Orange  NSW.  She organised and ran the world’s first Carbon Farming Expo & Conference in Mudgee in November 2007 and the second and third  in Orange in 2008, 2009 with delegates from every State in Australia and NZ. 2011 marks the 5th annual Carbon farming conference and Expo, which is now incorporated into Carbon Farming Week, and includes the Festival of Fertiliser Day.

In 2008 she was invited to be a delegate at a Climate Change and Conservation Farming Conference in LaFayette, Indiana, organised by the UN Food & Agriculture Organisation. She was also a delegate at the National Carbon Offset Coalition Conference in Boezman, Montana. She is co-founder of Carbon Farmers of Australia – a not-for –profit trading arm of the Carbon Coalition. It has developed a trading model for soil carbon which gives farmers access to markets before the formal Emissions Trading Scheme begins. It has also published the world’s first Carbon Farming Handbook.

She has developed the “CarbonCredited™” brand for wool and is currently recruiting woolgrowers into this emissions reduction program. Louisa has been recognized for her work by being chosen as runner up in the 2008 NSW Rural Woman of the Year. She has also been appointed to the Regional Development Australia Committee – Orana Region.   This intergovernmental committee has been set up to ensure the future strength and development in Rural and Regional Australia. In 2011, she has established the Carbon Farming and Trading Association, in order to be able to represent farmers in the new carbon trading environments.

As  director of Carbon farmers of Australia, she is part of a consortium of 3 companies which are developing methodologies to submit to the Carbon farming Initiative process. Carbon farmers of Australia also offers farm ready training in Carbon Farming and Trading.

Australian Regional Development Conference

You can also meet Louisa in person at the Australian Regional Development Conference where she will be presenting a paper on Carbon Farming. To see the complete conference program please visit the website www.regionaldevelopment.org.au