Meet the Founders - Husk
Transforming husk into biochar to regenerate soils and capture carbon.
At The Conduit Connect, we are determined to support the best-in-class impact opportunities and showcase such opportunities to our valued community. After the success of the first issue of the ‘Meet the Founders’ series, we are back for round 2! This time around we have caught up with Heloise Buckland and Carol Rius, the co-founders of Husk, an impact-driven business with a mission to tackle the vicious cycle of soil degradation, climate change and poverty. Read on to learn about their motivations for the birth of Husk, life principles and last but but not least, the songs that keep them going.
Describe your startup in two sentences
We are an impact-driven business with a mission to tackle the vicious cycle of soil degradation, climate change and poverty. We transform a low-value agricultural by-product, rice husk into biochar, carbon-based fertilizers and biopesticides to regenerate soils, sequester carbon and improve smallholders' livelihoods. We have started in Cambodia where we are building a blueprint that can be replicated elsewhere to achieve our long term goal of putting a million tonnes of carbon back into the soil.
What gave you the inspiration?
The short answer is the Cambodian farmers, who have been ´cooking´ rice husk to make biochar and putting back onto the land to ´make their soil soft´, as have most farming communities across the globe, for thousands of years.
The long answer is that the inspiration grew from within us, and over time. Two women deeply passionate about making a difference, and building a company that could leave a genuinely positive impact not only on individuals lives, but also on the planet. The more we delved into finding a solution to a very complex problem: the vicious cycle of poverty, soil degradation and climate change, the more our drive grew. We spent over a year on desk research, skyping the experts, stomping through rice fields, prototyping products, trying and failing, trying again, in and out of accelerators, prizes, pivots and the usual cocktail of experiences of a startup - all of which only served to lock us in to our mission.
How did you meet?
We met in a coffee break at ESADE business school conference in Barcelona. I had given a presentation on social innovation in Latin America, Carol was attending as a social impact investor and founder of a marketing agency in Asia. I was inspired by her international business experience, she was excited by my track record in social impact. There was clearly a spark and we decided to meet again. Our second meet-up was to plan our talks on ‘inclusive business strategies’ at another conference and we decided we needed to be setting up our own gig - not talking about others!
What has been your greatest success to date? And your greatest challenge?
Our greatest success has been getting our business off the ground in Cambodia, where we have proved the concept. We have built the world´s first industrial biochar production plant in a rice mill and created a distribution model that enables smallholder farmers who earn less than 5 dollars a day to get access to affordable and highly effective carbon based solutions for their soil. We are very proud to know that our products boost farmers yields by an average of 29% and along the way have sequestered 250 tonnes of carbon. Our greatest challenge has been setting up something that has never been done before, in a country like Cambodia.
What kind of impact is your business having and how do you measure it?
Our mission is to build soil, sink carbon and improve lives.
We measure our impact in hectares of land regenerated (17 so far), tonnes of carbon removed from the atmosphere (250 to date) and number of individuals who have benefitted from using our products, thanks to enhanced yields (500 on the last count.) We are constantly fine-tuning our theory of change and working towards a better understanding of how we can genuinely make a difference - and most of all how we can scale up our impact. With 150 million tonnes of rice husk produced globally and 1,5 billion people who depend on growing rice for a living, we are not short of inspiration to go big!
How has Covid affected your business?
As co-founders we have had to maintain a distance relationship for nine months and with no lead-in time reset our Cambodian operations into remote control. We had to rapidly hire more staff, set up remote management systems and build an organisational culture online with a team across 4 continents. Digital literacy levels are still low for many of our Cambodian staff which has made remote working a challenge.
However, despite the challenges our sales have been constant and we continue to build our distribution network and extend our reach to different provinces across the country. We have also managed to become the first non EU non US biochar company to get certified to remove carbon from the atmosphere, and sell carbon credits on the voluntary market.
Covid has also pushed businesses like ours into the lime-light whereby there is an increasing appetite amongst funders, investors and individuals to support solutions that address the critical global issues such as food security and climate change.
When you were little what did you want to be when you grew up?
HB: An explorer
CR: A Wall Street broker
If you weren’t doing this, what would be your plan B?
There is no plan B! or in other words, if we weren´t running HUSK we´d be doing something pretty similar. Now that we´re hooked on finding a solution for soil degradation, climate change and poverty it would take something very big to push us in a different direction.
What would you save in a fire?
Our families and loved ones.
Who is your role model/ greatest influence? And why?
We are both hugely inspired by our growing network of female entrepreneurs who are building teams, generating impact and making a difference in so many ways. There is no she-guru but we are proud to know a lot of people doing amazing things.
What is your happy track? (name of song and artist)
This year Jerusalema by Master KG has been a classic for us.
What’s your motto? OR What are your company values?
Transparency, trust, and total commitment to making a difference and having fun.
What are you most looking forward to in 2021?
Getting back out to Cambodia, buying a bigger machine and growing our team to get more carbon back into the soil, where it belongs!
If you are interested to learn more about how you can support Husk, please contact us at info@theconduitconnect.com